As had been suspected following his departure from Sega last year, Super Monkey Ball and Yakuza creator Toshihiro Nagoshi has teamed up with Chinese gaming giant NetEase to form a brand new development studio.
NetEase has today announced the establishment of Nagoshi Studio Inc., where Nagoshi himself will take on the role of Representative Director and CEO. He's joined by eight other ex-members of Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio: Daisuke Sato (producer), Kazuki Hosokawa (artist), Koji Tokieda (programmer), Masao Shirosaki (game designer), Mitsunori Fujimoto (engineer), Naoki Someya (artist), Taichi Ushioda (director), and Toshihiro Ando (artist).
The studio will have a focus on "developing high-quality console titles that will be released globally," and a press release detailing the new announcements notes that "Nagoshi Studio Inc. enjoys full authority to manage and create the kinds of games that they are passionate about, with NetEase Games’ support."
It's said that both companies share the same commitment to "unleash the potential of creators in an open and inclusive environment, hoping to reach and touch passionate gamers around the globe with high-quality and engaging content."
Naturally, finer details such as potential upcoming projects and the platforms Nagoshi Studio will develop titles for are still unknown.
Comments 20
good for him! looking forward to seeing some new ideas that aren't tied to existing IPs.
Middle-aged male videogame creators: the company.
"We're still cool"
They are still cool.
Chinese investment, always a popular topic. I'm just hoping some fun games come as a result.
Bring on the Super Chimp Ball!
Kinda wish he hadn't named it after himself...Never a fan of companies that do that as they grow far beyond that one person/family and their original vision due to the employees that build it.
Anyway I'll save hype until I see what games are made and what platforms are supported. I have nothing against mobile but I don't like to use it so if a company focuses on mobile (and it is not a bad though...lots of money to be made there) I move on.
@Jumping_Dead Apparently it's wrong to be middle-aged and male. I bet they're really sorry they were born male and grew old like everyone.
Surprised they haven't got a dog mascot yet, seems the popular thing to do with new studios these days
@Jumping_Dead They look pretty snazzy to me (I say as a fastly-approaching-middle-age male, my opinion apparently matters more than others)
The only alternative to getting older is dying.
Honestly, not too excited. Especially when you read the rumors about why he left Sega/how he acted there. He basically made a huge mess, got demoted, then left. What is he even going to make now with his studio of people he poached from his old one, a Yakuza clone for phones? Maybe a cheese gyudon cooking sim...
@Tupin , Yep exactly what I thought, They demoted him because he as Head of the game development refused to greenlight many ideas. Sega always diversified, I think after Yu Suzuki and Yuji Naka left, Nagoshi seemed to let it go to his head. The sega of old would never have just let him do Yakuza title after Yakuza title.
Under his leadership Sega game development was stagnent, Now they have set up a new Saporro studio for new IPs' and revisiting old ones, and the forthcoming Sonic game, which may be something special , Sega might well be delivering the goods.
I wish Nagoshi well, I like the Yakuza games, but he could have done so much more. But if you look at previous big wigs at Sega they have not fared well in making new games outside of Sega. Yu Suzuki , he finally did Shenmue 3 but it took ages. But I understand he is still a advisor to Sega. Yuji Naka, well we all know his games after Sega, Though I enjoyed Rodea, Ivy the Kiwi . I think Sega has a certain work enviroment not many other Studios have, these guys just dont do as well when they leave. Gamers also follow developers within big companies, and surport their works, but when they leave and set up their own small studios or work with others, gamers loose track of them and often their games are not cross platform or on the console of choice.
Aaand Nintendo should buy it
And of course a Chinese company has to be involved...
Hopefully they bring something new to the table.
@Pat_trick Not wrong... but creating a new company with only people like that, is.
@Bunkerneath
Too close. Maybe... Fantastic Simian Sphere.
He remains the most stylish man in the industry.
That's quite the talent pool!
Veterans banding together like this sometimes produces the likes of Metroid Prime or Black & White. Then other times we see output like Mighty No. 9 or Curiosity: What's in the Box?
Lots of great examples in between as well, so I'm just hoping to see these tough guys give us their best shot! :V
I want to see the positives in this.
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