Game News The father of Daytona USA, Yakuza and Judgment founds a new studio and surrounds himself with big names
Last October, after a few days of rumours, Toshihiro Nagoshi and Daisuke Sato announced their departure from SEGA. The two men, at the origin of several successful franchises at the Japanese publisher, then joined the Chinese giant NetEase Games, but remained silent on their future projects. Today, we know a little more about Yakuza’s dad and his associates. And the least we can say is that there are beautiful people!
Historical figure of SEGA, Toshihiro Nagoshi has a CV as long as the arm. Chief designer on Virtua Racing (yes, that of 1992 in arcade), he was then director on the famous Daytona USA. At the time, the hedgehog firm was looking to reach the hearts of American gamers and it was with this in mind that it thought of creating a racing game reminiscent of Nascar. But the Japanese did not know the discipline at all and it was finally Toshihiro Nagoshi, the only one to have seen these famous races live, who found himself at the head of the project. With this success in the arcades, the boy took the lead and became one of the headliners of the group. In addition to Yakuza and Judgment, he notably went through Shenmue, Super Monkey Ball, F-Zero GX, Sonic Unleashed or even Binary Domain.
A 5-STAR CAST FOR NAGOSHI’S NEW STUDIO
In recent days, his career has taken a new turn since we have just learned that the person concerned has become President and CEO of Nagoshi Studio. This antenna, belonging to NetEase Games, has just launched its website and we can discover the name of the developers who accompany Toshihiro Nagoshi in this new adventure. And as much to say that there are beautiful people! In addition to Daisuke Sato, Nagoshi’s sidekick and distinguished graphic designer/modeler (Virtua Fighter 3, Scud Race, Magic Knight Rayearth, Daytona USA 2, F-Zero AX/GX, Yakuza, etc.), the former SEGA employee can count on the support of Kazuki Hosokawa (designate), Koji Tokieda (programmer), Masao Shirosaki (game designer), Mitsunori Fujimoto (engineer), Naoki Someya (background designer), Toshihiro Ando (character designer) and Taichi Ushioda (director).
These names probably mean nothing to you, but we find in this five-star cast the director of Virtua Striker 4 and coder of the netcode of Phantasy Star Online 2, the designer of Panzer Dragoon and Jet Set Radio or the designer of the ships of F -Zero AX/GX. Suffice to say that Toshihiro Nagoshi surrounded himself with the cream while waiting to say more about his projects. The Japanese has managed to motivate several of his former collaborators to join him and it will be interesting to see how they nag… uh, negotiate this turn.
One thing is certain, given the names, it makes you want! Especially when you know that the studio’s goal is to create “high quality” console games around the world.
Source : Nagoshi Studio
Through Ayden_, Journalist jeuxvideo.com
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