NetEase names Capcom veteran Hiroyuki Kobayashi president of new studio GPTRACK50

NetEase has tapped former Resident Evil and Devil May Cry producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi to lead its new development studio, GPTRACK50.

In August, Kobayashi announced he was departing Capcom after 27 years to join NetEase, but failed to provide any specifics about his new role.

Now we know the veteran producer will be serving as president of NetEase's nascent Osaka-based studio GPTRACK50, which has been tasked with creating original video game and entertainment franchises that will be capable of finding a global audience.

"The studio strives to build original game contents and to broaden the spectrum from just games to film and entertainment series. The president, Hiroyuki Kobayashi, has personally worked on the production of the Resident Evil's live-action and CG animation series," reads a press release.

"He has also been involved in the production of many more media portfolios of various original game IPs, including live-action, animation, stage play, manga adaptions, etc. By utilizing this unique experience, the studio will create new IPs and expand them to the global scale through movies, novels and manga adaptations."

Although it has multimedia ambitions, GPTRACK50 will primarily create games for console and PC platforms.

Kobayashi said the studio will create experiences that "captivate and delight" players, and claimed the development team has a wealth of experience – although it's unclear how many staff have already joined the nascent studio.

NetEase has scaled significantly in 2022. The Chinese company has opened multiple new studios, including Jar of Sparks and Nagoshi Studio, acquired Detroit: Become Human developer Quantic Dream, and invested heavily in studios such as Something Wicked and Something Random.