Chinese NetEase to open another gaming venture in Japan

NetEase has opened another gaming studio in Japan as the company continues to expand overseas. The new studio will work on online games and mobile games, much like the company’s existing operations in Asia, Europe, and North America.

The Japanese studio will focus on working with Japanese developers and is the second such office for NetEase in Japan. The company also has a studio in San Francisco, which works on games for the Western market.

The Hangzhou-headquartered company hired Toshihiro Nagoshi to run the new Nagoshi Studio in Tokyo, Japan.

The studio will focus on developing high-quality console titles for a global release.

NetEase seemed less assertive in its international expansion than its rival company Tencent. The company attempted to go global via investments and acquisitions in smaller gaming companies. In the meantime, NetEase set up studios and took minor stakes in other firms.

NetEase and Tencent have focused on PC and mobile gaming, which are trendy platforms to play on in China. Nagoshi Studio’s focus on console titles highlights NetEase’s plan to appeal to an audience beyond China, where console gaming is favored.

Overview of NetEase

According to market research firm Newzoo, console gaming accounted for about 29% of the revenue of the $180.4 billion global gaming market in 2021. But in China, the consoles market is significantly smaller as the country decided to ban it. That’s why Chinese gaming companies like Tencent and NetEase focus on console games as part of their international stimulus.

In 2020, NetEase opened Sakura Studio, another gaming experience in Japan focusing on console gaming. At the time of its launch, the studio’s games were only available in China. But the company has since announced plans to bring them to other markets. The company hopes that its established user base in China will be sufficient to move it into the Japanese gaming industry.