Veteran developer Toshihiro Nagoshi, famous for the likes of Sega Rally, Monkey Ball and Yakuza, is in the final stages of negotiating a contract to leave Sega and join Chinese company NetEase, Bloomberg reported.
Nagoshi joined Sega in 1989 and has worked on everything from Daytona to Virtua Fighter to the F-Zero GX. But the latest blockbuster franchise, the Yakuza games, which currently spans eight main entries and a slew of spin-offs, is what makes it perhaps most famous in the West, especially given his public prominence as head of development studio Ryu Ga Gotoku. . .
Bloomberg says he is "expected to form his own team and create new games," although "he hasn't signed a final contract and his duties are yet to be finalized." This is speculated to be a move made by NetEase in response to rival Tencent, which has spent big bucks on developers around the world in recent years, from League of Legends creators Riot, and more recently PlatinumGames and the Sumo Group.
While Nagoshi's departure won't have a direct impact on any of the series he's been working on recently, it will still be a blow to fans and Sega themselves, as they're all Sega owned and made by major developer teams. A man responsible for many of the company's biggest hits of the past 30 years is leaving for a rival organization. But his departure is not a complete surprise; He stepped down from Sega's board of directors and the company's Chief Creative Officer earlier this year.