27-year Capcom veteran who worked on everything from Resident Evil to Devil May Cry is finally revealing his studio's new action RPG this year, but warns it's unlike anything they've made before

Former Capcom producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi is planning to reveal a new 3D action RPG this year, but wants to stress that it's not going to be like Devil May Cry, despite his history.

Truthfully, the last few years haven't made me the most hopeful as a Devil May Cry fan. Devil May Cry 5 released in 2019 and became one of Capcom's best-selling games ever, but in the years since, both combat designer Ryota Suzuki and longtime series director Hideaki Itsuno have left Capcom. While he didn't work on DMC5, longtime series producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi also left Capcom soon after, becoming the founder of GPTRACK50 Studio under Marvel Rivals publisher NetEase.

Kobayashi – who has produced a ton of Capcom classics like Devil May Cry, Resident Evil 4, Killer 7, and Dragon's Dogma – has been with NetEase since 2022, and in an interview with Famitsu magazine (via Automaton) confirmed that GPTRACK50 Studio is gearing up to reveal its first game this year. "I said I wanted to announce it by the end of the year, and as a man of my word, I want to keep that promise." Kobayashi says, then hinting, "As for how far development has progressed, we’re about to enter the voice recording phase."

Details have been sparse, but Kobayashi has been referring to the game as a "3D action RPG." While he said the game will focus heavily on the action aspects, Kobayashi notes that the action RPG distinction is important, so as not to disappoint fans who hope the game will be like Devil May Cry. "I used to refer to the project as an action game, but there were many people expecting it to be something like Devil May Cry because I’m involved in it. It’s not a good thing to give people the wrong idea of what to expect, so I ended up calling it an action RPG."

In a previous interview with Automaton, Kobayashi said that despite the action RPG branding "It’s not like Dragon’s Dogma either" and that he's been told it's "not Kobayashi-like" adding, "When I asked a designer who I’ve known for just over 20 years to work on the game, he said the game was different to what he had expected. I was happy to hear that, as it meant I had succeeded in conveying something new."

Devil May Cry creator Hideki Kamiya says if Dragon's Dogma's director didn't take over his hack-and-slash series, "there would have been no Bayonetta."