Yakuza Creator’s Promising New PS5 Game May Soon Be Sleeping with the Fishes as Funding Is Cut

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The highly anticipated new game from Yakuza creator Toshihiro Nagoshi, tentatively titled Gang of Dragon, might be canceled. Publisher NetEase is reportedly planning to stop providing financial support for the project.

In 2021, a major Chinese company recruited the experienced SEGA developer to launch a new studio. However, recent shifts in their business strategy have led them to stop funding several large-scale game projects, and it appears Nagoshi Studio is now facing the same fate.

Bloomberg News reported that staff were informed on Friday their paychecks will stop being processed in May. This gives them a short window to potentially find a new company to publish their work, but it seems likely the publication is closing down.

The game reportedly needs an additional $44 million (about ¥7 billion) to finish development, and this was a key factor in NetEase’s decision to stop working on it.

The organization seems willing to let the studio continue working on the project on its own, but the studio will need to pay the publisher for any work already done while under their guidance.

It’s disappointing that this promising PlayStation 5 game is facing difficulties. We were really impressed with what we saw of Gang of Dragon when it was first revealed last year at The Game Awards.

I was really excited to see Don Lee take the lead in this one! It felt like a natural next step for the Yakuza series, and honestly, it seemed like exactly the kind of direction the original creator had in mind for the future of the games.

This new version of the classic crime game was shaping up to be different, with more focus on weapons and vehicles. Unfortunately, it now seems the game may be cancelled.

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2026-03-07 16:06