Toshihiro Nagoshi, creator of the Yakuza series, is close to leaving SEGA after 32 years at the company. According to media reports, the Japanese game designer’s next job will be NetEase. Thus, the Chinese giant wants to impose competition on Tencent in the Japanese console market.Toshihiro Nagoshi, photo: Jin Wang
Nagosi’s departure from SEGA was announced by Bloomberg.
According to sources familiar with the situation, negotiations on signing a contract with NetEase are at the final stage.
A Japanese game designer will lead a separate team within a Chinese company that will create new games. NetEase declined to comment on Nagoshi’s transition, and a SEGA representative said that the company does not comment on the employment of individual employees.
Bloomberg attributes the departure of the game designer from SEGA to the growing competition between NetEase and Tencent in the international console market. Analyst Daniel Ahmad agrees with this: “Japan is a key personnel market, because this country has a rich history of developing games for consoles.”
Tencent considers Japan as one of the main directions for the company’s development as an international media giant. According to Bloomberg, the Chinese company is currently negotiating the purchase of a certain Japanese studio.
NetEase is also actively looking for options to invest in this market. Last summer, the company opened a new studio in Japan, which will produce AAA games for nextgen consoles. Tetsuya Akatsuka, who previously worked at Bandai Namco, became its director.
Analyst Serkan Toto notes that Tencent and NetEase have recently held talks with almost all public studios in Japan. The activity of both companies in the foreign market is also explained by the tightened regulation of the gaming industry in China.
At the moment, NetEase and Tencent have already concluded over 20 deals in Japan. At the same time, we are not talking about buying large studios, but about point investments in small teams and individual developers. Recently, Tencent has invested in Platinum Games and Bokeh Game Studio, consisting of former PlayStation employees.
That is why signing a contract with Toshihiro Nagoshi is of great importance for NetEase. Working with an experienced game designer will give the company the opportunity to create its own franchise, which can be successful both in Asia and around the world.
Toshihiro Nagoshi has worked at SEGA since 1989. Under the guidance of Yu Suzuki, he had a hand in games such as Virtua Racing, Virtua Fighter and Shenmue. Later, he created the Super Monkey Ball and Yakuza series, which already has almost 20 titles and spin-offs. In April of this year, Nagoshi became SEGA’s creative director as part of the company’s restructuring.