NetEase Founded a Studio Led by Yakuza Creator Toshihiro Nagoshi

Chinese internet and gaming company NetEase has announced the establishment of Nagoshi Studio, a Tokyo-based studio headed by Yakuza creator and a former chief creative officer at Sega Toshihiro Nagoshi. Last October, Nagoshi along with the producer of the Yakuza series Daisuke Sato announced their departure from Sega. Today’s news report on their next move. 

Nagoshi Studio was established on November 1, 2021, however, an official announcement has just been released. According to the announcement, Toshihiro Nagoshi will be the President and CEO of Nagoshi Studio and his team will include former Sega veterans who had also worked on the Yakuza series including producer Daisuke Sato, artist Kazuki Hosokawa, programmer Koji Tokieda, designer Masao Shirosaki, engineer Mitsunori Fujimoto, artist Naoki Someya, director Taichi Ushioda, and artist Toshihiro Ando.

The new studio will receive full autonomy and support from NetEase Games. The studio will focus on creating high-quality console games that will be released worldwide. It is reported that Nagoshi Studio shares with NetEase Games the desire to unleash the creators' potential in an open and inclusive environment.

In an interview with Japanese games magazine Famitsu, Toshihiro Nagoshi revealed that he decided to leave Sega because he wanted "to do something different". "If you keep doing the same thing, you can stay in Sega," said the new studio's CEO, "To be honest, I still don't know if independence was early or too late at this time. However, it feels the same way when I stepped into the game industry nearly 30 years ago, saying, 'I'm going to make a fresh start'."

Nagoshi noted that the studio’s focus will currently remain on Japan. However, he also expressed his ambition to create games that will be sold more worldwide. "This is a bit extreme, but for example, it is better to work with Asian companies to aim for the world than to work with Western companies. It seems realistic. If we can send out a game that is known worldwide, we will be able to make a new creative route," said Nagoshi.

You can learn more about the new Nagoshi Studio by reading Toshihiro Nagoshi's interview. Also, don't forget to join our new Reddit page, our new Telegram channel, follow us on Instagram and Twitter, where we are sharing breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.