Former NetEase Exec’s New Company is Funding Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic, BulletFarm

Former NetEase executive Simon Zhu has revealed that he is launching a new holding company, named GreaterThan Group, through which he wants to invest more money into video game development around the world. Among the games being made with support from the new company is Arcanaut Studios’ Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic. According to a report by Bloomberg, the company has managed to raise $40 million and has gotten funding commitments for almost $60 million.

“They’re all very successful individuals — gaming and tech entrepreneurs,” said Zhu without naming any of the investors, citing privacy concerns. His reasons for opening up his own holding company came down to the fact that quite a bit of money from the gaming industry has been disappearing, thanks to major tech companies and venture capitalist firms walking away from the medium in favor of investing in AI.

“Big tech walked away; the capital walked away,” Zhu said. “Now, they love AI investment.” Overall, however, he has expressed quite a bit of optimism, believing that art and commercial success can be achieved without sacrificing each other.

“You can have player satisfaction,” Zhu said. “You can have commercial success. You can have the achievement of art. You don’t need to compromise or sacrifice one thing for the other. Let’s give the best creator the opportunity to work on a dream project. Everyone wins.”

Another studio being funded by GreaterThan Group is BulletFarm, which is working on a new shooter project. The studio is led by industry veteran David Vonderhaar, who has previously worked as a design director at Treyarch on games in the Call of Duty: Black Ops series. GreaterThan Group is also funding the Tokyo-based MAGship, led by Konami veteran Masato Sakai, who was also credited as playing a key role in making Yu-Gi-Oh! a global IP.

While the latter is focused more on other forms of media like anime, with BulletFarm, Vonderhaar has noted that he isn’t working on a new military shooter, and that his ambitions revolve around the idea of “if David Lynch made shooters.” He went on to say that “It’s not a Call of Duty killer.”

Considering Zhu’s previous role as president of global investments and partnerships at NetEase, his firm’s decision to fund BulletFarm is particularly noteworthy, since the studio was previously being funded by NetEase, which dropped its support for the project over the last few years.

Zhu has said that his interest in funding gaming projects largely comes down to the fact that revenue in the industry has started to go back up, and the consumer base has continued to be quite stable. “It’s not about commercial success alone,” he said. “It’s about making a good case that we can make good money and provide good entertainment to people in a decent and honest way.”

Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic was officially unveiled back in December 2025 with a CG trailer. There has been no word on when the title will come out, but in a social media post, director Casey Hudson has promised that it will be out before the end of 2030.