China Hero Project Studio Alleges Sony Tried to Seize Control of Convallaria

China Hero Project controversy grows as Loongforce goes public with allegations against Sony China.

Loongforce, the Chengdu-based studio behind the co-op shooter Convallaria, has accused Sony Interactive Entertainment’s China division of mismanagement, financial harm, and attempting to take control of its game.

The China Hero Project is a Sony-backed program created to identify and support Chinese developers, offering select studios access to resources, publishing opportunities, and international visibility. Loongforce joined the second batch of the China Hero Project in 2018. In 2021, the studio signed a global, multi-platform publishing agreement with SIE, placing Convallaria among a very small group of projects directly published by Sony.

However, things changed after a leadership shakeup in 2022. A new production lead, Bao Bo, took over responsibility for Convallaria inside SIE China’s software division. From that point, Loongforce claims communication slowed, publishing support became inconsistent, and critical decisions were repeatedly delayed without explanation.

By mid-2023, the studio says requests for clarity around marketing, server deployment, and launch planning went unanswered. Even after Convallaria passed Sony’s internal beta approval in January 2025, Loongforce alleges the project stalled completely. No player tests were conducted, no storefront pages were created, and no marketing activity followed. The studio also claims Convallaria was excluded from PlayStation China’s 10th anniversary video, despite a producer participating in filming. “Every other project was there. Ours was simply gone,” one developer told Noisy Pixel.

Financial strain reportedly intensified in early 2025. Loongforce says delayed payments caused monthly losses exceeding $230,000, pushing the studio close to collapse by April. Despite this, the team continued delivering weekly builds and even completed a U.S. server test. Later, Sony allegedly terminated a payment agreement and proposed new cooperation terms that Loongforce considered "unreasonable." The studio estimates total losses now exceed $1 million.

Loongforce also raises concerns about conflicts of interest within SIE China’s production structure. The studio alleges outsourcing work was consistently directed to Virtuos without competitive bidding or developer approval. It further claims it was required to fund an IT security restructuring carried out by a company with ties to former Virtuos employees, work Loongforce says fell outside its contractual obligations.

The dispute reached a breaking point in June 2025 when Loongforce says it was told development leadership of Convallaria would be transferred to an “SIE Global Team.” According to the studio, refusal would prevent the game from launching. “At that point, it stopped feeling like mismanagement and started feeling like a threat,” a developer said.

Loongforce insists it pursued internal resolution for more than a year before going public. “We didn’t go public because we wanted attention,” one developer explained. “We did it because every internal path was exhausted, and nothing was changing.”

This isn’t an isolated case. According to Noisy Pixel, several former developers from past China Hero Project titles said the issues Loongforce described matched problems they’d experienced too, especially following leadership changes in recent years. Some mentioned shifting priorities, poor communication, and long stretches without updates.

At the time of writing, Sony Interactive Entertainment and the China Hero Project have not responded to the controversy.