Hiroyuki Kobayashi joined NetEase in August 2022, after leaving Capcom on March 31, 2022. He left Capcom after having worked there for 27 years, since 1995. There, he worked on various franchises, including Dino Crisis, Devil May Cry, Dragon’s Dogma, Sengoku Basara, and Resident Evil.
Related: Hiroyuki Kobayashi leaves Capcom for NetEase on his 50th birthday
GPTRACK50 is located in Osaka, Japan, and the studio will focus on creating and distributing new Japanese gaming entertainment, but for a more global audience.
Kobayashi commented,
“With the support and respect from NetEase in understanding me and my team’s development achievements and values, I will build a stronger team with the goal of creating more original quality content that will satisfy users around the world.”
NetEase has been partnering with a number of prominent Japanese developers recently. In 2021 it acquired Grasshopper Manufacture, which had been operating for 23 years under the leadership of Goichi ‘Suda51’ Suda. In January, it also unveiled a new studio from veteran Yakuza producer and executive director Toshihiro Nagoshi, simply called Nagoshi Studio.
NetEase has been ramping up its business outside of Japan as well, with the opening of its first US studio in May, Jackalope Games, followed by another US studio opening in July, Jar of Sparks, led by former Halo Infinite head of design Jerry Hook.
