Perfect World changes leadership after big layoffs, report suggests

Perfect World, the Chinese media company owning game developer Hotta Studio, changed its leadership team according to PocketGamer. Co-CEOs Xiao Hong and Lu Xiaoyin resigned after laying off up to 1,000 employees in June 2024 and presiding over disappointing revenues. They will remain part of the company as directors.

Gu Liming, senior vice president of the company up to this point, has apparently been promoted to take the reins.

Perfect World has been bleeding money in the first quarter of 2024, posting disastrous numbers compared to the previous year.

However, there’s good news to be had for the Chinese corporation as well: Hotta Studio’s freshly announced game, Neverness to Everness, garnered a lot of interest worldwide, reaching almost three million pre-registrations worldwide in just a single week. Of course, it will be a while before the game coming to PC, PS5, iOS, and Android will generate any revenue, as it’ll be out in 2025 at the earliest.

Hotta Studio’s current open-world gacha RPG, Tower of Fantasy, has been seeing significant income swings over the past months, adding to the overall woes.

Tower of Fantasy’s first anniversary on the PS5 is supposed to bring a much-needed boost: Version 4.2 of the game will add a dorm system and a new area to the game on August 6, 2024.