NetEase And Toshihiro Nagoshi
It is important to start this story with the stated fact that this is an unconfirmed report. While there is a fair bit of coverage about this over the internet, this is effectively, for the time being at least, a rumour.
With that out of the way — there are reports that Mr. Toshihiro Nagoshi, the Producer of Sega’s long-running and popular Yakuza series, is in talks with NetEase, another of the Chinese tech-company giants that are looking to expand their operations to the West.
The report comes courtesy of Bloomberg, which writes that the move is still in negotiation, and would see Mr. Nagoshi heading up his own team at NetEase.
If Mr. Nagoshi did decide to move onto to greener pastures it would have no bearing on the games he has already produced at Sega.
Despite moves from the Chinese Communist Party to limit the seemingly monopolistic-growth of such companies like NetEase and Tencent (monopoly caused in some measure by CCP policies), the CCP is less concerned about the worrying trend of these companies moving into overseas markets, as this only goes to strengthen influence abroad. NetEase already has stakes in Bungie and Quantic Dream, moreover Tencent’s portfolio of foreign interest includes Riot Games, Epic Games, Marvelous, Activision Blizzard and Sumo Group.
