Earlier in the year, industry legend Hideaki Itsuno announced his departure from Capcom. After directing the Devil May Cry series since Devil May Cry 2 in 2003 (don’t worry Devil May Cry 3, 4, and 5 were much better) as well as the cult hit Dragon’s Dogma alongside its sequel Dragon’s Dogma 2 this move was quite the shock to fans everywhere. Itsuno’s directing contributed to Devil May Cry being a household name in the video game world, and for such a decorated talent to leave one of the biggest companies in the industry people wondered what was next for Itsuno if Capcom couldn’t hold on to him. Well, it looks like the answer is becoming the head of LightSpeed Japan Studio.
LightSpeed Studios is the company behind PUBG Mobile as well as Undawn, a game starring Will Smith, as well as the upcoming Last Sentinel game set in a cyberpunk dystopia. It’s clear that LightSpeed Studios casts a wide net in terms of genre and direction, so a man who values freedom in these areas like Itsuno will definitely thrive there.
While it’s good to hear that Itsuno will continue to work within the industry, there are already talks of concern about LightSpeed Studios itself, or more accurately the conglomerate behind them. LightSpeed Studios is owned by Tencent, a Chinese based company that has taken a slight interest in Japanese gaming in recent times. But said interest has waned, with Tencent even declaring that they were moving away from the Japanese market , as reported by Bloomberg no doubt due to some of their projects (such as the aforementioned Undawn) going so far under the radar that many people have never even heard of them.
So while Itsuno has found work again, the future of his position is a bit tenuous. But for now, it’s enough to congratulate an industry legend on his new position, and hope that the future is bright for him as he continues to bring us legendary action journeys in the future.