Capcom producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi has announced his departure from Capcom after 27 years. To mark his 50th birthday he'll be filling the same roll over at the Chinese video game giant NetEase.
Kobayashi started out as a programmer on the Resident Evil series in the '90s and took up producer roles for series like Dino Crisis, Sengoku Basara and Devil May Cry. He's also credited as a producer on the Dragon's Dogma series and in more recent times was executive producer on Mega Man 11. He shared his latest career move via social media:
Today, Aug. 12th is my 50th birthday. As such, I would like to share something very special with everyone: After serving 27 years with gratitude, I have departed from Capcom on March 31st, 2022, and will be officially joining NetEase Games as a producer. Detail plans will be shared later so please stay tuned. I will strive to continuously create more enjoyable entertainment experiences for everyone at this new company, this new era. Thank you for the continued support. Hiroyuki Kobayashi
Kobayashi's move follows a string of similar stories in recent times. NetEase last year acquired Suda51's studio, Grasshopper Manufacture. The Monkey Ball and Yakuza creator Toshihori Nagoshi has also founded a new studio under NetEase.
Have you played any of the games Hiroyuki Kobayashi was involved with over the years? Leave a comment down below.
Comments 11
P.N. 03 is my favourite game, style-wise!
I wish him good luck on his new Job and whatever he'll work on there.
Gacha games is a waste for such talent, i hope now that Neteasy aquired Grasshopper they can move to bigger RPG projects
Another nail in the coffin for old school Resident Evil😭
Has NetEse actually put out any games of note? Feels like they're just threatening to make big releases but never did anything. Didn't the Yakuza guyu nope out of his original plans to join them?
@LordPieFace In cooperation with Blizzard, NetEase released the amaziiing Diablo Immortals. The most predatory F2P ever, even by mobile games standards.
I have 0 trust in netEase but the ball is in their court, time will tell how they will manage all those AAA home console talents.
What is it with all these Japanese producers jumping ship to NetEase, a company that has put out nothing of note and specializes in predatory mobile games? I get the that payout must be good, but, do these guys have no pride?
@WhiteUmbrella I don't care if it's an unpopular opinion, and I'm very happy for all the people who love RE7+. But for me, the head-canon ends at RE6. ^_^
Maybe they'll keep making Revelations games for the old school fans? But yea, I can't deal with the modern horror approach of 7 and 8 with the truly grotesque stuff and torture etc.
Ugh, NetEase. A pox upon the industry tis'
Well, it looks like china is starting its plan to dominate the world.
Seems like a lot of these talented Japanese devs are just cashing out with that China money. NetEase is just bad news IMHO. There is a reason why NetEase is known as the "EA of China"... They put prioritize profit more than anything else and you can see it clearly with their GameLoft strategy of copying every game and launching it on mobile with some deep monetization hooks. Now they are trying to change that image with high profile old school Japanese dev hires... Only time will tell but I'm not too hopeful. Expect a lot of censorship and pro China propaganda in upcoming games.
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