NetEase Announces New Studio PinCool, Headed By Former Dragon Quest Producer

NetEase has announced a new Tokyo-Based Japanese development studio named PinCool. The President of the studio will be Ryutaro Ichimura, a former producer for the Dragon Quest series who left Square Enix in March of 2023.

Ichimura acted as The Producer for Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of The Cursed King, Dragon Quest IX: Sentinel of The Starry Skies as well as several spin-off titles like Dragon Quest: Monster Battle Road and The Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai Game Project.

He says that the company’s primary goal is to develop games for consoles but aims to branch out into different media in the long term.

“As an entertainment production company, our core business is the design and production of games for consoles, but we’re not stopping there,” says Ichimura on the PinCool Official Website. “We will take advantage of our breadth of experience to do design and production work across the entertainment industry, including mobile games, arcade games, manga, anime, film, toys, theater, and events”.

“We offer something you won’t find anywhere else. We aim to deliver fun experiences to people across the globe through projects that take advantage of the kind of new ideas that come from untethered creative freedom”.

“We also aim to release smaller titles while we continue our work on large-scale titles. Look forward to what lies in store in the adventure of PinCool”!

This is the latest in the number of acquisitions and studios founded by Netease over the past two years. They have previously formed a new studio with the Yakuza series director Toshihiro Nagoshi as well as acquired Suda51’s Studio Grasshopper Manufacture and French developer Quantic Dream.

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