Exclusive: Former Capcom Producer Behind Resident Evil and Killer 7 Opens Up About His New Studio
Following in the footsteps of Ryu ga Gotoku series creator Toshihiro Nagoshi and No More Heroes creator Goichi Suda (a.k.a. “Suda51”), Capcom veteran Hiroyuki Kobayashi joined NetEase Games in August of this year. announced that it had Today, NetEase revealed that Mr. Kobayashi’s new studio is his GPTRACK50 in Osaka. At Capcom, Kobayashi worked as a producer on the Resident Evil series and Devil May His Cry.
“I have been at Capcom for 27 years. During my time the company has grown and many new staff members have come in,” Kobayashi told IGN in an exclusive interview.
“I have worked on a wide range of titles at Capcom, but I wanted to try something new. It’s different than when I joined as a freshman in 1995. I need approval now and it takes longer for things to get the green light.I want to deliver new experiences fresh. I’m a creator with a lot of talent, so I thought I’d create my own studio to make that possible.”
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Kobayashi had heard that NetEase Games, a leading Chinese publisher and developer, gave studios a lot of creative freedom. Since joining the company, he has found comfort in being free to pursue his ideas without spending time explaining them.
He said it’s too early to give details, but he’s confident that GPTRACK50’s first game will be in line with the action games he’s worked on in the past.
“It would be weird if we were making action games for years at Capcom and now we’re making adventure games and dating sims,” he joked. “Having said that, I don’t want to do exactly what I’ve been doing at Capcom. Combining my expertise with what I can do in my new position at NetEase should make for some interesting action games. NetEase is a mobile game. and online games, but I have to say that I want to continue developing for the console and PC markets.”
Hiroyuki Kobayashi’s new Osaka-based studio is called GPTRACK50. | | Photo courtesy of Netease
a more global audience
Kobayashi confirmed that the game will be a new IP. He is also known in Japan as the creator of the Sengoku BASARA series, but hopes GPTRACK50’s first game will have more global appeal.
When referring to the worldwide success of Ghost of Tsushima and the popularity of games set in feudal Japan, Kobayashi acknowledged that there is potential in the future.
“As a game about Japan made by a non-Japanese developer, Ghost of Tsushima is about how we, as Japanese developers (at Capcom), made a horror game set in America in Resident Evil at the time. It reminded me of Taka, ”he thought. “At the time, they might have been surprised that it was made by a Japanese developer.
“I think this shows that regardless of the country or culture that makes a game, as long as you study the topic seriously and put your heart into it, there is always a chance. It’s not that we’re tired of games like that, and Sengoku Jidai is definitely a good setting, but for our first game, we’re aiming for something that can more easily appeal to a global audience,” said Kobayashi. explained.
But while taking a more global approach, Kobayashi intends to target specific audiences rather than reaching out to everyone who plays video games.
“I don’t think you need to reach out to someone who only plays one game a year,” he said. “Of course, there are many games that target more casual players, but for our first project, we want to create a new experience for a more core audience that is seriously invested in playing games. Rather than making something that everyone can enjoy, we want to appeal to a distinct type of gamer, and of course we’re not trying to exclude potential players, just want to give it a try. Anyone would be happy, but the more serious type of gamer is definitely our main target audience.”
In addition to games, he contributes as a producer for movies, anime, and stage productions based on Capcom’s IP. GPTRACK50’s first step is to deliver an exciting new action game, but Kobayashi hopes to adapt the studio’s new IP to other forms of entertainment in the future, as he has done with Capcom in the past. thinking about.
About co-starring with Mr. Nagoshi and Mr. Suda
Regarding the possibility of working with Nagoshi Studios and Goichi Suda’s Grasshopper Manufacturing, now that they are all under the umbrella of Netease, Kobayashi said that over the next few years his studio would be too focused on developing its first game. I said it would be, but it’s a possibility in the future.
“Things like that can be discussed in the future. At the very least, I think we can learn a lot from each other,” he said. “Quantic Dream has also recently become part of NetEase. Their games are cinematic and very different from how I started making games. Hope we can learn from each other. I’m interested in communicating with other of his NetEase studios.”
Kobayashi’s generosity in trying to learn from different developers may have something to do with his past. In 2005, he collaborated with Sugata on Killer7, a title published by Capcom.
“This may be the first time I’ve said this, but if I hadn’t worked on Killer7 with Mr. Suda, I might not have incorporated elements that were rare in games at the time, such as anime and CG cutscenes, into Sengoku BASARA.” Witnessing how they make games taught me to be more free and creative.It opened my mind as a creator,” recalls Kobayashi. “Mr. Suda is a truly charismatic creator, so ‘Suda 51! Suda 51! Like a magic spell when promoting a game in the West.'”
He laughs, “You could say we were promoting Suda himself more than the actual game.
Killer7 was released two years before Suda’s success with No More Heroes. It can be said that Mr. Kobayashi’s enthusiastic publicity influenced Mr. Suda’s popularity in Europe and the United States.
From Resident Evil to Dragon’s Dogma
Kobayashi himself has played key roles in some of Capcom’s most beloved franchises, including Resident Evil, Devil May Cry, and Dragon’s Dogma.
“When I joined Capcom in 1995, the PlayStation and Sega Saturn had been launched exactly one year earlier.” “The first title I worked on as a freshman was the original Resident Evil. The Bit console had just hit the market, Sony had just entered the industry, it was a time of experimentation, a lot of weird games were being made, some of which I developed myself. It was a fun time to start my journey as a developer.”
Mr. Kobayashi originally liked the Super Mario Bros. series, which he had been playing since he was in elementary school. However, he never wanted to work on a Mario game himself.
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“I was more interested in making 3D games,” he said. “Of course, Mario later became 3D, but at the time in college he was studying 3DCG and was fascinated by games like Virtua Fighter, Tekken, Ridge Racer, Daytona, USA, etc. ”
After joining Capcom, Kobayashi declared that he wanted to play 3D games as soon as possible, and was assigned to the Horror Team.
“That was the name of the Resident Evil team before we won the title. I was really lucky to be put there,” he said.
Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami was already working on titles like Disney’s Aladdin and Goof Troop, but Kobayashi hadn’t heard of the now-legendary developer before joining the company. .
“At the time, Capcom’s most famous creators were Yoshiki Okamoto and Noritaka Funamizu,” recalls Kobayashi. “When I was in college, I didn’t think much about game developers, but I had heard him by two names before. It was Yu Suzuki and Shigeru Miyamoto of Nintendo.
“The image of Capcom at the time was very different. Today, Resident Evil may be the flagship franchise, but back then it was still a Street Fighter and Mega Man company. Since then, I have worked on many titles in the series on various platforms, from Dreamcast to PlayStation, GameCube and Xbox 360. Devil May Cry and Dragon’s Dogma, etc. From the challenges of game development for new hardware to the challenges of creating new IP, my 27 years at Capcom are full of memories.”
Today marks a new chapter in Kobayashi’s career as a video game developer.While it will likely be several years before the first GPTRACK50 game reaches players’ hands, Kobayashi says he can announce the project soon. I hope
Thumbnail photo credit: NetEase
Esra Krabbe is the editor of IGN Japan. Follow him on Twitter.
