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Hotta Studio
April 19, 2026 at 03:36 PM
Link cleanup after slug rename (2026-04-19)
Hotta Studio is the Chinese game development studio behind Neverness to Everness. It is a subsidiary of Perfect World, based in Suzhou, and is led by game producer Kee Zhang. The studio's first title was Tower of Fantasy; Neverness to Everness is its second project and is scheduled for global launch on April 29, 2026.
Hotta Studio is a Chinese game development studio based in Suzhou. It was established in November 2018 as a subsidiary of Perfect World focused on open-world experiences. The studio is led by game producer Kee Zhang, who joined Perfect World Games in 2018 specifically to form Hotta Studio. The team is often described as young for the scale of its projects: the average developer age is reported to be around 27 by Unreal Engine's developer interviews, and many staffers were unfamiliar with open-world production challenges before Tower of Fantasy's development began.
Attribute | Detail |
|---|---|
Founded | November 2018 |
Parent Company | |
Headquarters | Suzhou, China |
Studio Head | Kee Zhang (producer) |
Engine | |
Debut Title | Tower of Fantasy |
Current Title |
Hotta Studio's debut title was Tower of Fantasy, an open-world free-to-play action RPG. Development began in 2018, the first closed test opened on October 28, 2020, the China launch shipped on December 16, 2021, and the global version launched on August 10, 2022. Tower of Fantasy established the studio's reputation for ambitious cross-platform open worlds and shaped the technical and design direction that led into Neverness to Everness.
Neverness to Everness is Hotta Studio's second title. The project moved through multiple public testing phases before its April 29, 2026 global launch:
Closed Beta (China): the first regional technical test, documented in Beta Test History.
Containment Test (July 2025): a global closed beta, preceded by the release of the Hypervortex Before the Storm opening animation on June 25, 2025.
Co-Ex Test (February 2026): the final closed beta, centered on cross-platform multiplayer. See Co-Ex Test for details.
Global Launch (April 29, 2026): simultaneous release across PC, PlayStation 5, iOS, Android, and Mac. See Release Date and Launch and the Launch Roadmap.
Hotta Studio's public-facing messaging, including the Launch Roadmap summary and the dev letter from the Co-Ex Test wrap-up, emphasizes a few consistent priorities: cross-platform play without feature gaps, avoidance of predatory gacha mechanics (hence the No 50/50 System for character banners), heavy investment in daily life-simulation gameplay alongside combat, and a willingness to delay launch windows to address balance and translation feedback.
Neverness to Everness uses Unreal Engine 5 and supports ray tracing, advanced hair rendering, and expressive facial animations. The studio's work on scalable cross-platform rendering is directly inherited from Tower of Fantasy's iOS, Android, PC, and PlayStation 4 launches. See the Graphics Settings and System Requirements articles for platform-specific details.
Hotta Studio presents itself publicly through dev letters, community streams, and the official NTE Global X account. The team's willingness to post wrap-up notes after the Co-Ex Test acknowledging specific problems (fishing balance, mahjong pacing, translation quality) is cited by outlets like MassivelyOP and MMOHuts as an unusually open development style for a Chinese gacha studio.
