In early October, noted game developer Toshihiro Nagoshi announced that he was leaving Sega. Due to a recent public gaffe, this move wasn’t a complete shock, and rumors had already been swirling for months that Nagoshi was headed out the door for Chinese company NetEase. Even when news of his departure became official, Nagoshi kept quiet on his future plans.

It’s certainly a blow for Sega to lose Nagoshi, who has been one of the company’s most productive and versatile game creators. After joining the company in 1989, he cut his teeth on arcade games Virtua Racing and Daytona USA. He not only made the cute platformer Super Monkey Ball, the first game Sega published on a Nintendo console, but was also the force behind the tough-as-nails, cult favorite Ryu Ga Gotoku (aka Yakuza) franchise.

In an industry where developers struggle to get games out on time, Nagoshi has released a Yakuza game almost annually since 2005. He not only came up with intricate stories, but also helmed the popular games, which were wonderfully overwrought looks at organized crime. The Yakuza series eventually grew to the point that Sega established a dedicated arm, Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio, to make them. After working his way up through the company ranks, Nagoshi became Sega's chief creative officer in 2012 and sat on the company's board of directors.

Still, Nagoshi was hardly your typical Japanese corporate executive. Known for his fashion sense and candidness as much as his work, he would show up to meet-and-greets in white tracksuits and leopard-print jackets. In interviews and livestreams, he would speak his mind about the games he made and the state of the Japanese gaming industry.

But then, in July 2020, Nagoshi said too much. During an official Sega YouTube livestream, Nagoshi seemed to mock puzzle game Puyo Puyo professional players. To the casual observer, the remark was innocuous enough: He said the gaming pros looked like they ate gyūdon (beef bowls) with cheese. What’s wrong with that?

In Japanese internet lingo, this means that they aren't cool — dorks, even. To make it even more awkward, Nagoshi blurted this out in front of a Sega colleague who worked on Puyo Puyo. Sega issued a formal apology, and even went back and edited the remark out of the video.

A month later, Nagoshi also apologized, saying it was "truly inexcusable" and that he was "very sorry" because the remark was aimed at players who were giving it their all for a Sega title, and that his comment sullied all of esports. His Sega livestream show was canceled, and in April 2021 he stepped down from the board of directors and his position as chief creative officer. Inevitably, people online wondered if this was a consequence of his beef-bowl jab.

Then, this month, a message appeared on Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio’s official site: Nagoshi was leaving, as was longtime Yakuza series director and producer Daisuke Sato.

"As I depart from Sega, I’m also leaving my position as the head of Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio,” Nagoshi said. “Thank you to the fans who have supported us and the Yakuza series for many years. You have my sincerest and deepest gratitude."

It’s not the first time a high-profile creator has left their company for greener pastures. Typically, though, they make their announcement via Twitter, so it was an atypical move for Sega to post Nagoshi's departing message on its official site. If anything, this shows just how important the creator has been to Sega.

Even though he's leaving, Nagoshi has always seemed especially fond of his employer. Back in 2011, he told video game website Game Developer (then under the name Gamasutra), "It's not that I'm satisfied at Sega so much as I really owe one to Sega — (it) taught me how much fun making games can be. I doubt I would leave this company in 10 or even 20 years. Unless something really drastic happens, I'm not going to leave on my own volition."

Beef-bowl blunders aside, wherever Nagoshi ends up, he will continue to dazzle with his games (and outfits).