Yakuza creator’s new game Gang of Dragon is in trouble

The new game from former Yakuza producer Toshihiro Nagoshi sounds like it’s in serious trouble. Bloomberg reports that Chinese publisher NetEase plans to cut off funding to Nagoshi Studio, which is developing the recently revealed action-adventure title Gang of Dragon, as it pulls back from game development.

According to Bloomberg, NetEase plans to stop funding Nagoshi Studio in May after learning that the cost to complete Gang of Dragon — after years of development — would require another 7 billion yen (about $44 million). Nagoshi Studio has reportedly been unable to find a new backer for the game. Polygon has reached out to Nagoshi Studio for comment.

Nagoshi Studio was founded in 2022, after Nagoshi and key members of his team left Sega and Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio to join a new NetEase-backed game company. Nagoshi was a veteran of Sega for more than 30 years, having worked on games like Daytona USA, Shenmue, and Super Monkey Ball. But it was his work on the Yakuza (aka Like A Dragon, Ryu Ga Gotoku) series that helped make Nagoshi more of a household name. After stints as chief creative officer and creative director at Sega, Nagoshi left the company in 2021 to found Nagoshi Studio.

It wasn’t until 2025, at December’s The Game Awards, that Nagoshi Studio revealed Gang of Dragon, which bears strong similarities to Sega’s Like A Dragon franchise. Gang of Dragon stars Ma Dong-seok, also known as Don Lee, as Shin Ji-seong, “a high-ranking member of a Korean crime syndicate based in Kabukicho.” Shin becomes entangled in underworld conflicts and “forges intense, human connections that push him to confront his own sense of purpose,” not unlike the Yakuza series’ stars. Nagoshi Studio hopes to differentiate the games with Gang of Dragon focusing on “Shin’s overwhelming physical power” and amped-up violence with “blade attacks, gunplay, and high-impact vehicle action.”

Gang of Dragon does not have a release date. On Steam, the game is listed as “coming soon.”

In recent years, NetEase has paused game development and divested from multiple studios outside of China, including Worlds Untold, the Vancouver-based developer led by ex-BioWare creative Mac Walters; Jar of Sparks, the Seattle-based studio founded in 2022 by Xbox veteran Jerry Hook; Ouka Studio, the Tokyo-based developer of Visions of Mana for Square Enix; Fantastic Pixel Castle, led by ex-Riot Games and ex-Blizzard designer Greg “Ghostcrawler” Street; and Bad Brain Game Studios, which was working on a Stranger Things-like adventure game. NetEase also owns Grasshopper Manufacture and Quantic Dream.