Following his departure from Sega, Yakuza creator, Toshihiro Nagoshi has announced his own development studio with NetEase. The company will be named after him, and will focus on “developing high-quality console titles that will be released globally.” Toshihiro Nagoshi was a longtime employee at Sega, serving nearly 32 years, during which, he worked on remarkable titles such as Daytona USA, the Monkey Ball series, and directed all the Yakuza games. In October 2021, he announced his departure from the company with right-hand man Daisuke Sato, who now serves as one of the founding members at Nagoshi Studio. The other 7 members were all part of Sega and will serve distinct roles under the new company. The lineup includes Kazuki Hosokawa (artist), Koji Tokieda (programmer), Masao Shirosaki (game designer), Mitsunori Fujimoto (engineer), Naoki Someya (artist), Toshihiro Ando (artist), and Taichi Ushioda (director). In an interview with Famitsu, Nagoshi stated that he left Sega because he wanted to be independent and did not want to do the same thing over and over again. “I decided to leave Sega, where I had been working for a long time because I wanted to do something different than before. If you do the same thing, you can stay in Sega,” he said. According to him, NetEase Games was the only company that took his approach seriously and offered to fund his projects with complete creative freedom. The China-based company had previously funded mobile game projects such as Marvel Super War and Identity V. As for the first game from Nagoshi Studios, he promised that it will be focused on quality and make it appealing for both core fans and the broader audience. “Like the previous ‘Yakuza’ series, it's difficult to say that it will be released in about a year. But I'm not going to take it easy, so I'd like to announce it as soon as possible,” he said. “I can't say anything at the moment, but I would like to prepare a mechanism that will surprise everyone at the timing of the announcement of the first work. I hope you can expect it.”
