It’s looking pretty likely that Gang of Dragon, the debut game from Yakuza/Like a Dragon creator Toshihiro Nagoshi’s studio, won’t be coming out at all. According to a report from Bloomberg, Nagoshi Studio employees were told by NetEase Inc. Friday, March 6th, that it would be pulling funding for the game from this coming May.
This is just the latest of cuts the tech giant has made in recent years, such as pulling funding from the Mass Effect talent-led Worlds Untold in 2024, broader job cuts in 2025, and the complete shuttering of a studio founded by Fallout and Star Wars alumni. According to Bloomberg’s report, NetEase decided to cease funding Gang of Dragon as it discovered that the game would apparently need at least ¥7 billion (£33 million) in additional funding in order for the game to be finished.
Now, founder Nagoshi is attempting to find funding from other sources, but is so far unsuccessful. The studio is currently in discussions with NetEase over the future of the already developed materials. Nagoshi Studio has apparently been told by NetEase that it can continue development, but sources that spoke with Bloomberg said that it must essentially take on the relevant costs if the developer wants to keep any assets or branding.
Nagoshi Studio was only set up in 2021, after Nagoshi left Sega to work on something new. That something ended up being Gang of Dragon, a game that was only properly revealed at last year’s Game Awards, albeit in a seemingly pre-rendered trailer. At this point in time, no actual gameplay has been shown off, though there are a handful of in-game screenshots on its Steam page. If the reported figure is accurate, and Nagoshi doesn’t manage to find another source of funding in the meantime, it essentially sounds like his studio will be forced to shut down. Fingers crossed so that we don’t have to see yet another closure.
