Gang of Dragon: Has the Creator of Yakuza Run Out of Money for His New Game?

Hot news News 03/08/2026

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When there is no money, there is no funding – and when there is no funding, there is no development either…

The new studio founded by Yakuza series creator Toshihiro Nagoshi is reportedly facing closure after Chinese tech giant NetEase signaled it was pulling funding for the team’s first game. According to Bloomberg, Nagoshi Studio employees were told on Friday that NetEase will withdraw funding for Gang of Dragon in May, just three months after the game was announced at The Game Awards. NetEase reportedly made the call after realizing the project would require an additional 7 billion yen ($44.4 million) to reach completion. Nagoshi is said to be looking for new financing to keep development going, but has so far come up empty. Neither NetEase nor Nagoshi Studio has responded to the rumor.

Development of Gang of Dragon is reportedly well underway. The action game stars prolific South Korean-American actor Ma Dong-seok, best known for Train to Busan, The Outlaws, and Marvel’s Eternals. In Nagoshi Studio’s first Western interview back in 2023, Nagoshi told VGC he wouldn’t let fans of his earlier games down, and that he would make sure they’d be satisfied with his new studio’s debut title.

The reported trouble at Nagoshi Studio is the latest entry in a longer chain of fallout tied to NetEase scaling back its international game development push, after years of investing in new studios around the world. The move has caused turmoil across its overseas operations. Several studios have shut down, while others have been forced to seek alternative funding. Alongside the closures of T-Minus, FPC, and Bad Brain, NetEase also parted ways with Vancouver-based Worlds Untold, founded in 2023 with Mass Effect writer Mac Walters, as well as Seattle-based Jar of Sparks, founded in 2022 by Xbox veteran Jerry Hook.

Ouka Studio, a Tokyo team that developed Visions of Mana for Square Enix, also closed in 2024. Other Japanese studios – including Suda Goichi’s Grasshopper Manufacture and Resident Evil producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi’s GPTrack50 – continued their publishing plans without further support from NetEase.

Source: VGC

Angyal Anikó

Anikó, our news editor and communication manager, is more interested in the business side of the gaming industry. She worked at banks, and she has a vast knowledge of business life. Still, she likes puzzle and story-oriented games, like Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishments, which is her favourite title. She also played The Sims 3, but after accidentally killing a whole sim family, swore not to play it again. (For our office address, email and phone number check out our IMPRESSUM)