Chinese Internet giant NetEaseAs part of its expansion overseas, the company has also opened a second gaming studio in Japan.

The Hangzhou-headquartered company hired Toshihiro Nagoshi, who was formerly from Japanese game developer Sega, to run the new Nagoshi Studio in Tokyo, Japan.

This studio will “focus on the development of high-quality console games that will be distributed globally.”

NetEase is less aggressive in its international expansion efforts than its competitor Tencent. It has also looked at investments and acquisitions in smaller gaming companies to make it more global. NetEase has also been creating studios and investing in smaller companies.

Tencent and NetEase are focused traditionally on PC and mobile games, which have been extremely popular in China. NetEase is aiming to reach a wider audience than China with its focus on console games by Nagoshi Studio.

According to Newzoo, console gaming was responsible for almost 28% revenue in the $180.3 billion global game market. However, in China where consoles have been banned since 2014 and for around 14 years, this market is much smaller.

This is why Chinese gaming companies like Tencent and NetEase are now focusing their international efforts on console games.

Sakura Studio was a new gaming company in Japan that NetEase launched in 2020. It focuses on console gaming.

In an interview with CNBC last yearHu Zhipeng was vice president of NetEase, and one the biggest bosses at the company’s video game business. He called the console industry “pretty interesting.”

Additionally, he stated that the company aims to make 50% of its future gaming revenues from outside countries. This is an increase from 10% currently.