Hiroyuki Kobayashi, who has worked at Capcom for 27 years and has contributed to the Resident Evil series, announced that he has left the company and joined NetEase. Kobayashi, who started to work as a programmer in the first Resident Evil game, had also taken important roles in many games of the series and other Capcom games. Finally, he would continue to serve as producer and planner in the Dino Crisis series.
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Hiroyuki Kobayashi moves from Capcom to NetEase
“After 27 years of grateful service, I left Capcom on March 31, 2022, and will officially join NetEase Games as a producer,” Kobayashi said in a statement. “In this new era and at my new company, I will constantly strive to create more enjoyable experiences for everyone.”
After working as a programmer on Resident Evil and Resident Evil 2, he worked as a planner on Dino Crisis and director on Dino Crisis 2. Of course, he is someone who has done important work in both Devil May Cry and other series in large and small roles. The veteran developer, who turns 50 today, will now work for NetEase.
Kobayashi hasn’t shared details of his next project yet, but he wants fans to stay tuned for news about the next game. NetEase, the largest gaming company in China after Tencent, has also acquired No More Heroes developer Grasshopper Manifacture.
NetEase’s moves include acquiring Toshihiro Nagoshi, the man behind the Yakuza series. They founded the new studio, which is wholly a subsidiary of NetEase as Nagoshi Studio. They say they will focus on developing “high-end games” that will be released worldwide, mainly on consoles. Of course, they stated at the beginning that their target was the Japanese market.
