Yakuza director Toshihiro Nagoshi has established a new studio at NetEase called Nagoshi Studio.
The news comes a few months after Nagoshi chose to step down as the head of Yakuza developer Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio (RGG) and depart Sega.
It had previously been rumored that NetEase was attempting to lure the veteran developer away from Sega to expand its influence outside of China.
Speaking to Famitsu (via Nibellion), Nagoshi explained he chose to leave Sega because there are fewer constraints at NetEase, and also expressed a desire to step back into the development trenches.
The debut title from Nagoshi Studio will reportedly be a large scale project aimed at core fans and wider audiences, which is admittedly a rather nebulous pitch.
Nagoshi will serve as CEO of Nagoshi Studio, and has already been joined at the nascent company by eight former Sega and RGG developers.
"I believe that the first step to creating high-quality titles and delivering the essence of entertainment with strong motivation starts with creating an open atmosphere in the studio," said Nagoshi in a message posted on the Nagoshi Studio website.
"This means having open-ended discussions that ignore seniority and hierarchy. This means not fearing mistakes while also not being afraid to correct them, and treating failures as assets. This means not giving up on reaching the ideal, and fighting to get closer to it. This may seem so simple, but the simplest things can unexpectedly be the hardest to do, and at the same time the most important."