New studio from ex-Yakuza developers will make "high-quality console" games

Nagoshi Studio is the new game-making venture from the former head of the Yakuza series, and it has some big ideas about how to make games.

The new Tokyo-based studio, which is fully backed by China's NetEase Games, opened its official website with a message from its new boss (and namesake) Toshihiro Nagoshi. In the message, Nagoshi writes that the studio is meant to have an "open atmosphere" between employees and is "committed to creating content for the world to enjoy from this atmosphere."

Nagoshi previously oversaw the development of every game from the Yakuza-centric Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio before leaving Sega last year. Looking at Nagoshi Studio's staff page, it's apparent he took a lot of top talent with him: all but one of the eight staff members listed on the page previously worked on RGG Studio's games, with previous roles ranging from directors to programming supervisors to artists and beyond.

Despite all that concentrated expertise pulled straight from the Yakuza and Judgment games, we still don't know if Nagoshi Studio's first project will follow in their footsteps as a story-driven, fisticuffs-infused crime drama, or if it will be something altogether different. All we know is that, according to its announcement press release, Nagoshi Studio will "focus on developing high-quality console titles that will be released globally."

Sega has confirmed that the Yakuza series will continue with a direct sequel to Yakuza: Like a Dragon, so we'll just have to wait and see if the franchise will get some direct competition from a team of its former creators.

It looks like Lost Judgment could get its own live-action TV series.