![Toshihiro Nagoshi.original](https://images.nintendolife.com/33de99631fb49/toshihiro-nagoshi-original.900x.jpg)
It seems as though veteran Sega developer Toshihori Nagoshi is about to be snatched up by Chinese video game giant NetEase in the company's latest effort to stay competitive with their biggest rival, Tencent.
Nagoshi, who's been at Sega since 1989 and has worked on everything from Sega Rally to Monkey Ball, Virtua Fighter, F-Zero GX and, of course, the behemoth Yakuza series, is expected set up his own team to create new games at the Chinese company.
The news, while surely a blow for fans of Ryu Ga Gotuku Studios, may not come as a total surprise, as Nagoshi has recently stepped down from his position on Sega's board of directors as well his role as Chief Creative Officer earlier this year.
According to Bloomberg, the high-profile acquisition is just the latest round in an ongoing rivalry that's seen Japanese assets and talent furiously snapped up by both NetEase and Tencent as they fight for dominance in an industry that's subject to stricter controls in China, forcing the companies to look elsewhere in order to fill their libraries with potential future hits.
Tokyo-based industry analyst Serkan Toto of Kantan Games told Bloomberg:
“Tencent and NetEase have been speaking to just about all publicly traded studios here and are actively courting some privately held developers, too...They both feel pressure to make headway in Japan, especially since game regulations in their home market are becoming increasingly restrictive.”
Toshihori Nagoshi is certainly a huge get for NetEase, if the deal is successfully finalised, but it's an acquisition they'll need in order to keep pace with Tencent, creators of the recent free-to-play Switch and mobile MOBA Pokémon Unite, as they continue to drop huge amounts of money making deals with the likes of PlatinumGames, Sumo Group and Riot.
Let us know your thoughts on Nagoshi moving on from Sega in the comments below.
[source bloomberg.com]
Comments 59
These Chinese devs/publishers must be stopped… seriously
inb4 blatant china blaming and sinophobia, he is willingly going to leave sega to join netease, they're paying him, nobody is getting snapped
@Strictlystyles exactly why? That sounds a bit Xenophobic... Especially when NetEase has been working on a new Japanese studio to develop Single player games (which i guess why they are doing this)
If anything this is pretty good, maybe now we can have a Yakuza female protagonist and being available on a Nintendo system.
@wanghosom what? Sinophobia? Is this the same as homophobia and islamophobia? Why is everything a phobia nowadays.
@Faruko It's not good. Not in the slightest. It's already hard enough to not support shady practices/companies, but NetEase and Tencent are like peak shady in terms of companies in games.
This is basically like someone passing away in terms of game development, because they'll be working for a company that is absolutely abhorrent.
NetEase is notorious for blatantly plagiarizing popular games and calling them something else, then price-gouging to steal as much business from the licensed title as they can, then canning the product and doing it all over again.
It's not xenophobia mate, it's just facts. The Yakuza creator joining NetEase is a major blow and a huge loss of a great game developer.
If Monkey Ball is his parting gift to us, then I am extremely grateful. Amusement Vision (despite it's short life span) was probably my favourite division of SEGA. Monkey Ball and F-Zero GX are perfect games to me. I haven't played a single Yakuza game. That's not what I know this man for. He had a hand in Virtua Racing, Fighter gah...loads of stuff just as 3D was taking off. Sad times
He should go to Nintendo, make another F-Zero and then do whatever the hell he wants next
Seems in line with the nightmarish heat death of this industry.
@Clarice Turn off the switch and go read a book
@Strictlystyles guess you'll just have to change political power dynamics set in motion for hundreds of years, the West's dependence on cheap foreign markets and 'free trade', and capitalism in general.
@Blizzia I agree with you but I sincerely hope you don't support or purchase any Activision Blizzard, Ubisoft, Microsoft, EA, Square Enix, Sony, Konami, Sega/Atlus, Nintendo prior to Iwata (and some after), and the many other video game companies that have literally done terrible things to employees and consumers. The video games industry is the most deregulated media out there and get away with a lot of truly abhorrent things.
@Blizzia Yes because Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft never did anything shady...
Nothing wrong here, someone pays more and gets the talent. That's how the world rolls. If you can pay more you can convince him to make an exclusive game only for you too.
@Specters If I am being honest, there isn't that much difference between the videogame industry and selling drugs to addicts.
@Faruko You do know that Japanese companies are famous for overworking their own employees to death...you can look it up on the internet.
@wanghosom ok...because reading books makes you want to diagnose anything as some sort of phobia?
@Clarice got that bibliophobia, don’t cha know?
@Specters It's a fine line between ridiculous and sensible really. I buy Nintendo games, and I buy indie games. That's pretty much it nowadays.
Are all these companies varying degrees of bad? Yes. Are some much, MUCH worse than others? Yes. NetEase and Tencent are the worst.
Also, "have done" is a pretty bad way to look at things imo. If a company turns around for the better, there's no reason not to support them.
@Faruko Dismissive statement seeking to negate my argument.
Unsuccessfully.
Tencent + NetEase are much MUCH worse than Sony/Nintendo/Microsoft.
Those 3 do shady things too, but it's not comparable because the level of shady is not even close to being in the same league.
That doesn't mean other companies aren't shady. They're just not as shady, and it doesn't change the fact that NetEase and Tencent are peak shady.
@wanghosom It's not really xenophobia. These large Chinese gaming companies are owned by the Chinese government. The same government that locks up millions of Uyghurs, the same government that is erasing Tibetan culture, and is erasing free speech in Hong Kong. The government that is slowly buying itself into Africa and Asia by saddling countries up with huge debts. The government that is artificially creating island in the South China Sea to control seafaring in that area. The government that censors all kinds of critique, already influences the film industry and the gaming industry. No, I'd rather see them stay away from video gaming as far as possible.
If anyone should be accused of xenophobia, it's the dictator of West Taiwan, Chi Jing Pooh, himself.
maaaaaaaan, we need a new Sega Rally
The Yakuza series (and related spin-offs) are in a really good place right now.
I've heard the Judgement games are great (sadly I'm Playstation-less so I haven't tried them yet) and in the mainline series, Like A Dragon was amazing and felt like a great new start.
It also seems like a lot of people are just getting into the series now - probably thanks to all of the remakes/remasters of the Kiryu games and the whole series coming to Game Pass and Steam (and probably thanks to people being locked down at home too). Even though these games have been around since PS2, it really seems like now is the golden age of Yakuza.
So, I really wish him well - I hope the new job works out well for him, that conditions are good and he gets to keep doing work he enjoys.
But in a very selfish way, I worry about the future of the series. This might be the end of Judgement completely. And I think Nagoshi personally talked about remastering (and releasing worldwide) the samurai games Ishin and Kenzan. That may not happen now. But I'm sure the main series will continue just fine - the rest of the team is very talented so I doubt the quality would change.
@GrailUK Yep. I'm happy to have a finally decent Monkey Ball.
That'll do!
@Blizzia I get 2 free games with Tencent Epic every 2 weeks...I just got Saints Row, my library of free games now surpassed my steam account while I still didn't spend a dollar on Epic store. So far I don't share your shady view of Tencent. I am a simple gamer and Tencent isn't treating me badly at all.
@hakjie11 Tencent doesn't treat the customers who pay them badly. They treat their employees and partners badly. I feel like that was the obvious point?
@Blizzia I am not trying to convince you Blizzia, like I said I am simple gamer and I like free games. In that aspect I have yet to see Sony, Microsoft, Steam or even my favorite Nintendo offer me free weekly stuff and I already spend so much money on their stores throughout the years.
Everyone acting like this is a bad thing, please look up what an absolute mess Nagoshi made of Sega before he got demoted. He refused to put any effort into anything that wasn't Yakuza, publicly mocked fans of Sega games, and had conflicts of interest with Sony. He was an awful CCO at Sega, and Yakuza was being run into the ground. Sega was smart enough to get rid of him before he made the company even worse.
Welp, that's disappointing; I had just gotten into the Yakuza series and now I'm already worried about its future.
@hakjie11 Tencent isn't the one behind the free games. When it comes to free games on the EGS, that is all Epic.
I know he was already fading at Sega, but it still seems like a tragedy. He was arguably the top true creative at Sega still remaining, and Yakuza is, at this point, the best "modern" franchise Sega has. Just as it's hitting it's peak, it would be a shame for it to lose its form. I'm not sure what they're thinking letting him go.
OTOH, yet more tendrils from China trying to take over as much of the industry as possible. Absolutely zero good can come from a totalitarian state taking over the last wing of media they don't already control worldwide, when their stated goal of controlling worldwide media is, paraphrased only slightly, to shape opinions.
Of course, anyone under a certain age was raised in a world where the Chinese censors have been "shaping their opinion" their entire life already, and are unable to even recognize what's wrong already.
I honestly did not know who he was but good luck to him in his future endeavor.
@locky-mavo I apologise in advance for my yet unknown phobias potentially offending a westerner on behalf of some group in the future.
I mean if it's on his own accord and he's willingly signing the papers, is it really necessary to blame China in this situation? Dude's making his own choices here.
@Blizzia Yeah, Microsoft single handedly having a lock on governments around the world through lobby to use Microsoft products making countries paying millions and millions of dollars that could be used on public policies is better than a gaming company buying some other gaming company.
@Faruko Sod off with the veiled whataboutism. Regardless of whether or not the Big 3 have done anything shady, that doesn't mean letting equally or even more shady businesses or studio have a pass is okay.
To put it in other words: just because a lot of us have gotten used to the stink of the big three doesn't mean you should allow it to get worse by adding more crap to the pile.
Nagoshi recently got demoted within Sega so it wouldn't surprise me if NetEase poached him with a better job offer.
Would be hilarious if some of the Yakuza ended up getting ported to Switch with him gone as he is a firm believer of the "Nintendo only appeals to little children" stereotype.
On the other hand, if he no longer has any say on whether Yakuza can or cannot be ported to the Switch…
There is little i can say here that stays within the TOS...
@Octane this!
@Faruko Megavel91 basically said what needed to be said.
@Einherjar -and like that you have me curious.
@Blizzia all the companies I named have current nefarious consumer practices, defrauding governments and taxes, and/or mistreatment of employees.
@Clarice “the future”? Ah! Now you got my
Chronophobia playing up!
@GrailUK Oh great, now who's going to pitch an F-zero game to Nintendo when he leaves Sega?
@Clarice This generation will be mostly known for throwing it's buzzwords so frequently that people will ignore them entirely in later years.
@Faruko it’s all about politics and market
But will he be a sale out or stay with Sega?
Again when looking what Has been released who knows who is the winner here. 😎
@MegaVel91 Let's say it would contain something about one of the greatest videogame franchises, smartphone junk and some rather flowery language concerning West-Taiwan.
@Specters As do the ones I mentioned.
So supporting the ones I mentioned is bad, aye?
We in agreement?
Good.
@russell-marlow Well, I like to look on the optimistic side. Nagoshi already expressed an interest in making a new one. And it's not a SEGA ip. And Nintendo are rather chummy with Tencent. And they have lots of money. So...who knows. It doesn't have to have the SEGA brand to be good. And it's not like he's going to stop making games, is it? SO...never say never. Stranger things have happened.
@Blizzia I said I agree with you originally. Was actually the first thing I said.
You've dismissed the other companies wrong doings, also you seemed to not even know about them, yet you insisted Chinese companies must be worse. So what is the difference was my point. They're all baddies and if that's why you don't support them you would be hard pressed to support any video game developer.
Why is your criticism only at the Chinese? Almost like there is some other motive...
@Specters Nothing was dismissed, we're just talking about different leagues of wrong, as I wrote.
Also it's not that deep bro, the article is about NetEase (and Tencent is mentioned in it as well). I'm simply on topic.
@Blizzia Yeah you are being dismissive but what are the leagues of difference between NetEase and EA? Ubisoft? Activision Blizzard?
Even still if you're so worried about IP rights, Epic has done more to profit off of others ideas than anyone else in the game ever.
What "abhorrent" act has NetEase done other than making bad to decent mobile/ licensed games? Why are these Chinese companies "basically like someone passing away in terms of game development"?
@Faruko It's more about data spying concerns than it is xenophobia, as the CCP is notorious for forcing Chinese tech companies to give them user data.
@Faruko Tencent is part of the reason why the COVID-19 pandemic has gotten as bad as it is. Please do your research before dismissing other people's concerns.
Aaaand there goes Taiwan from anything he makes.
This is the best news of the week because with this man gone Sega should have no problems putting Yakuza on the switch now
@Clarice Cuz then it sounds serious and allows them to shame you.
Or it is just a generic not well thought out monnicker to disscribe a specific form of discrimination same as how every scandal is called a (somethingsomething)-gate.
@Clarice I will explain to you how it works nowadays:
If you say something bad about ice creams = Creamophobia
If you say something bad about bad drivers = Conductorphobia
If you say something bad about Coke without gas = nogasphobia
Anything that you speak against, will be considered a "phobia" if someone else disagrees with your view.
@Strictlystyles Genshin Impact mobile style crap in our games? Absolutely. The Chinese game market is bringing some predatory practices into the world's game industry. However, what I do hope China brings is their unique sense of art direction and story telling. A lot of producers from China are wasting their talent on Gatcha crap, when they could be world renowned for making games without any kind of catch.
@Octane And not to mention the coral reefs they destroy with these bases. China needs to be held accountable in the political arena, and in the video game industry as well. It all connects.
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