Veteran developer Toshihiro Nagoshi, de Sega Rally, Monkey Ball i Yakuza fame, is in the final stages of negotiating a contract to leave Sega and join the Chinese company NetEase, according to a report on Bloomberg.
Nagoshi joined Sega in 1989 and has worked on everything Daytona a Virtua Fighter a F-Zero GX. But it ‘s his latest box office series, the Yakuza games that now cover eight main entries and several derivations, which have perhaps made it more famous in the West, especially given his public prominence as head of his development studio, Ryu Ga Gotoku.
Bloomberg he says that, although “it has not signed any final contract and its functions have not yet been completed,” it will be “he is expected to form his own team and create new games ”. It is speculated that this is a move by NetEase to attack rivals Tencent, which have spent a lot on various developers around the world in recent years, since League of Legends creators Riot to, most recently, PlatinumGames and Sumo Group.
While the release of Nagoshi probably won’t have a direct impact on any of the series he’s worked on recently, as they all belong to Sega and are made by huge teams of developers, it would still be a blow to fans — and Sega themselves – see how a man responsible for so many of the company’s most important successes in the last 30 years marches on for a rival organization.
His departure is not a total surprise, however; earlier this year he left Sega’s board of directors and his role as the company’s creative director, with speculation at the time suggesting it was due to comments he made in 2020 about sports players:
There is speculation online in Japan that Nagoshi was expelled as a result of a controversial comment he did last year, seemingly mocking Puyo Puyo sports players. The producer said they looked like they were eating beef bowls with cheese. The term chiizu gyuudon gao (チ ー ズ 牛 丼 顔) or “cheese bowl face” has been circulating online. Shortened a chiigyu (チ ー 牛) or “cheese cow”, this slang term is used to refer to people who live in rural areas, look very young, wear glasses and do not have much ambition. It’s a negative and mocking term to make fun of people who may not consider themselves “great.”
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