A while back, Toshihiro Nagoshi, creator of the Super Monkey Ball series and long-time producer of the Yakuza series, announced his departure from Sega to Chinese publishers NetEase Games.
Today, NetEase has finally announced Nagoshi’s new gig. He is now Representative Director and CEO of a new studio bearing his name: Nagoshi Studio Inc.
Several veterans formerly from Sega, including producer Daisuke Sato, artist Kazuki Hosokawa, programmer Koji Tokieda, game designer Masao Shirosaki, engineer Mitsunori Fujimoto, Naoki Someya, director Taichi Ushioda, and Toshihiro Ando have also joined up at Nagoshi Studio.
NetEase may be known currently for its output of mobile games, but Nagoshi Studio will “focus on developing high-quality console titles that will be released globally.”
Similar to the acquisition of Grasshopper Manufacture, NetEase intends to give Nagoshi Studio full authority when it comes to what games the new studio is allowed to do.
The new studio will also share NetEase Games’ commitment to “shares the same commitment with NetEase Games to “‘Unleash the Potential of Creators’ in an open and inclusive environment.”
Nagoshi Studio, headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, currently has job openings, which can be found on their official website here.
NetEase Games is slowly gearing up to be a games publisher worth paying attention to for the mainstream gamers on PC and consoles. They only have one non-mobile games release so far, 24 Entertainment’s Naraka: Bladepoint, but expect to see that changing in the next few years.