Yakuza creator’s Gang of Dragon faces funding cut

Bloomberg says NetEase plans to cut off funding to Nagoshi Studio in May as the company pulls back from game development. The publisher concluded it would take another 7 billion yen (about $44 million) to complete Gang of Dragon after years of work, and Nagoshi Studio has been unable to find a new backer.

Nagoshi Studio was founded in 2022 after Toshihiro Nagoshi and key team members left Sega and Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio. Nagoshi spent more than 30 years at Sega working on titles such as Daytona USA, Shenmue, and Super Monkey Ball, and became best known for the Yakuza (Like A Dragon) series before leaving Sega in 2021.

The studio unveiled Gang of Dragon at December’s 2025 Game Awards. The action-adventure game stars Ma Dong-seok as Shin Ji-seong, a high-ranking member of a Korean crime syndicate based in Kabukicho, and follows his entanglement in underworld conflicts and the human connections that force him to confront his sense of purpose.

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