The short version
- Nagoshi Studio, the Tokyo developer founded by Yakuza creator Toshihiro Nagoshi under China's NetEase, was dissolved by a shareholders' resolution on October 31, 2026. A notice in Japan's official government gazette, Kanpo, made it public on November 2.
- Its first and only announced game, GANG OF DRAGON, was revealed in December 2025 as a PC action-adventure set in Tokyo's Kabukicho, starring Korean actor Ma Dong-seok (Don Lee).
- Bloomberg reported in March 2026 that NetEase would stop funding the studio after learning the game needed about ¥7 billion more to finish. That's roughly $44.4 million, or about ₹420 crore.
- Nobody has formally said Gang of Dragon is cancelled. Its Steam page still lists it as "Coming soon", but with the studio gone, the game has no developer.
Who is Toshihiro Nagoshi?
If you've played a Yakuza or Like a Dragon game, you've played Nagoshi's work. He created the series at Sega and led its Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio for years. Before that, he directed Super Monkey Ball. He left Sega in 2021 and set up his own studio in November 2021, in Shinjuku, with backing from NetEase Games.
It was one of the highest-profile moves in Japanese game development at the time. NetEase, best known for mobile games in China, was spending heavily to open studios in Japan and the West, and Nagoshi was its biggest name.
What Gang of Dragon was
Nagoshi Studio took four years to show its first game. GANG OF DRAGON was announced in December 2025 for PC on Steam, with other platforms "yet to be announced". It's an action-adventure set on the streets of Shinjuku, including Kabukicho, one of Japan's biggest nightlife districts, which is also the inspiration for the Yakuza series' Kamurocho.
The lead is Shin Ji-seong, played by Ma Dong-seok, the actor known for Train to Busan and Marvel's Eternals. Nagoshi wrote the story and directed. At the reveal, he said he was "both relieved and deeply focused" to finally show it.
Image: Nagoshi Studio, Steam store page
How the studio ran out of money
Here's how it unravelled, based on reports from Bloomberg, VGC and Gematsu:
| When | What happened |
|---|---|
| November 2021 | Nagoshi Studio founded in Tokyo, funded by NetEase Games |
| December 2025 | GANG OF DRAGON announced for PC |
| March 7, 2026 | Bloomberg reports staff were told NetEase would cut funding |
| May 2026 | Funding cut reportedly planned; studio could go independent if it paid its way out |
| October 31, 2026 | Studio dissolved by shareholders' resolution |
| November 2, 2026 | Kanpo gazette publishes the dissolution notice |
The reason, according to Bloomberg, is money. NetEase reportedly decided to stop funding after learning the game needed an extra ¥7 billion to reach launch. VGC described the game as "deep into development" at that point, so this wasn't a project that had barely started.
The independence option clearly didn't work out. A dissolution by shareholders' resolution is a formal wind-down of the company, and it's now on the public record.
Image: Nagoshi Studio, Steam store page
Part of a bigger NetEase pullback
Nagoshi Studio isn't alone. NetEase has been shrinking its overseas studios for two years:
- Closed: Ouka Studio (the Visions of Mana team) in 2024, plus T-Minus, FPC and Bad Brain.
- Cut loose: Worlds Untold, founded in 2023 with Mass Effect writer Mac Walters, and Jar of Sparks, founded in 2022 by Jerry Hook.
- Carrying on without NetEase money: Suda51's Grasshopper Manufacture and GPTRACK50.
The pattern is the same each time. NetEase spent big to sign famous developers, then pulled back when the games took longer and cost more than planned. Expensive console and PC games are a harder business than the mobile hits NetEase is known for. Our AAA budgets explainer shows why: big-budget games now routinely cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
What happens to Gang of Dragon now?
That's the open question. Neither NetEase nor Nagoshi has made a statement, and none of the reports say the game is formally cancelled. Its Steam page is still up, Windows-only, with no price or date. There was never an India price.
In theory another publisher could buy the rights and finish it. But the people who built it no longer have a company, and that's a tough starting point for any rescue. Nagoshi himself hasn't said what he'll do next.
On paper, this is a loss for anyone who wanted another Kabukicho crime drama from the man who made Kamurocho. If you have it wishlisted on Steam, leave it there: if anything changes, that page is where you'll hear first.
