Kenji Ozawa is one of the two game directors behind the Japanese action RPG Visions of Mana. He has announced the launch of his own studio, named Studio Sasanqua.
In an interview with Automaton Media, Ozawa shared his desire to create a safe environment for developers within the studio. He confessed that over the years in the industry, he had witnessed numerous instances where poor decisions by top management initially led to the failure of games, followed by mass layoffs of regular employees. According to Ozawa, this is unfair—ordinary developers did not have a say, yet they ended up bearing a significant share of the responsibility for failure, sometimes even more than the leaders.
At Studio Sasanqua, Ozawa hopes to avoid such situations. He stated that in his team, managers and developers will work together. If a Studio Sasanqua game were to fail, Ozawa would personally take responsibility for it.
Studio Sasanqua plans to develop games for PC and consoles using Unreal Engine. Initially, it will focus on smaller projects. Ozawa did not announce any specific projects.
In December 2024, the second game director of Visions of Mana, Ryosuke Yoshida, also left Ouka Studios. Unlike Ozawa, he did not start his own studio but joined Square Enix. Four months earlier, Bloomberg reported that Ouka Studios’ parent company, NetEase, was preparing to close the studio.