Image via Nagoshi Studio Inc.
Yakuza creator Toshihiro Nagoshi has been working on a spiritual successor to that franchise, Gang of Dragon, with Korean actor Don Lee. It was unveiled at the 2025 Game Awards ceremony, and its flashy cinematics and guttural gameplay seemed promising. However, there is a strong chance the game will never come out, as publisher NetEase has officially cut funding for the project.
This comes as Nagoshi Studio reportedly asked for budget expansions and an additional $44.4 million to complete the game, Bloomberg writes. NetEase notified Nagoshi Studio’s staff of the decision yesterday, March 6, and confirmed to Bloomberg that it would indeed cut its support for Gang of Dragon as of May.
Whether or not the game’s development can be completed within the current framework is anyone’s guess, but it has been reported that Nagoshi has been seeking out new sources of funding, but without any success.
Even if he does succeed in securing new backing, NetEase will only allow the studio to continue independently if it can “pay its way out,” i.e., if it can buy the IP and everything that was developed so far. “The studio has been informed by NetEase that while it’s free to continue on its own,” Bloomberg writes.
If the situation continues as it is, odds are that Nagoshi Studio will be shuttered and that Gang of Dragon will not be released. It could be that NetEase will find ways to complete the game and put it out there if secondary deals fall through, but I wouldn’t be betting my money on that.
NetEase has been closing studios and pulling funding from projects recently, and Nagoshi Studio isn’t the only one impacted. Visions of Mana developer Ouka Studio, also based in Japan, much like Nagoshi’s crew, was closed by NetEase in December 2024. Last February, NetEase fired Marvel Rivals game director Thaddeus Sasser alongside the rest of his US-based team.
Layoffs and downsizing happened across the board within studios owned and operated by NetEase itself, as the company pushes for better profit margins under chief executive William Ding. The extra $44.4 million for Gang of Dragon would likely not have looked great on earnings reports, and so we are in this unfortunate situation.
The gaming industry has been suffering from significant financial woes over the past couple of years. Since early 2024, tens of thousands of jobs have been lost in the gaming industry, primarily at large, AAA, big-budget studios that are no strangers to spending literal billions of US dollars on projects.
On the other side, independent studios and developers are making a name for themselves, with the likes of Slay the Spire 2 clocking in over 526,000 concurrent players, despite being made by a handful of people with little more than pure passion in their hearts.
