The Chinese tech giant NetEase has invested in Nekoday, a galgame studio located in Chengdu.
Created in 2018, Nekoday focused on AVG development and publishing and released its most famous game, Christmas Tina, in 2019. The game told a love story about a young Chinese man who failed to get into college and went to Tokyo to earn a living. There he met a Japanese high school girl who also came to Tokyo to find a job in the winter of 1988. The mobile version of the game was released by Travelers Plan in December 2019, while the steam and NS version was published by Coconut Island.
Christmas Tina was quite successful for a start-up. It won the Best Galgame in CNGAL Award 2020; a game award focused on Chinese galgame development. It was also nominated for Excellence in Narrative in indiePlay 2019, the most significant indie game award in China. The game also received overwhelmingly positive reviews on steam and a 9.4 score on TapTap.
Nekoday soon gained attention from larger game enterprises for its success in the galgame industry. In September 2020, the studio got investments from the influential video platform Bilibili who was attempting to expand its gaming empire, and YAMAYURI GAMES, another Chinese galgame studio. NetEase also noticed the success and recently purchased about 16% stakes of Nekoday.