Lightspeed Japan opens Osaka office to recruit talent, including Capcom veterans

• Lightspeed Studios has opened its second Japanese office.
• The Chinese developer now has offices in Tokyo and Osaka, looking to hire local Japanese talent.

Lightspeed Studios has opened a new office in Osaka, expanding into its second city in Japan.

After establishing a Tokyo office in November 2024, the expansion has come less than a year later as Lightspeed Japan looks to progress to "full-scale development" of next-gen titles.

Lightspeed Japan will also look to leverage the local talent in both cities, actively recruiting to grow its team - currently at around 40 people.

From Capcom to Lightspeed

Capcom veteran Hideaki Itsuno has led Lightspeed Japan in Tokyo since its inception last year. Alongside the studio’s expansion to Osaka, more Capcom veterans have joined including Bingo Morihashi, Daigo Ikeno and Gouda Cheese.

Morihashi will serve as Lightspeed Japan’s narrative lead, bringing two decades of experience including work on the Devil May Cry series.

Ikeno is Lightspeed Japan’s art director, bringing more than 30 years’ experience. His illustrations and character designs have appeared in multiple Street Fighter and Devil May Cry titles, among other series.

Cheese has 2D character design experience at Capcom and has been involved in anime production.

"By establishing bases in both Tokyo and Osaka, we have established a system that allows us to make use of Japan's leading game development personnel," said Itsuno.

"The new senior members will demonstrate leadership in areas such as narrative development, art direction and character design, and will be the driving force for creating innovative Triple-A action titles. It is extremely rare to build an original Triple-A IP from scratch in Japan, and we are currently working on it."

The studio has confirmed its upcoming action title will be cross-platform, utilising "state-of-the-art technologies" which have been developed by the R&D team at Lightspeed Studios HQ in China.

Lightspeed Studios has also been working with Japanese IPs like Square Enix's Final Fantasy XIV Mobile.