3 months after revealing his debut project at The Game Awards, Yakuza creator Toshihiro Nagoshi loses NetEase funding for his studio

3 months after revealing his debut project at The Game Awards, Yakuza creator Toshihiro Nagoshi loses NetEase funding for his studio | PC Gamer Skip to main content Open menu Close main menu PC Gamer THE GLOBAL AUTHORITY ON PC GAMES US Edition UK US Canada Australia Subscribe Sign in View Profile Sign out Search Search PC Gamer Games Hardware News Reviews Guides Video Forum More PC Gaming Show PC Gamer Clips Software Codes Coupons Movies & TV Magazine Newsletter Affiliate links Meet the team Community guidelines About PC Gamer PC Gamer Magazine SubscriptionWhy subscribe?Subscribe to the world’s #1 PC gaming magTry a single issue or save on a subscriptionIssues delivered straight to your door or device From$1Subscribe now Don’t miss these FPS Highguard is closing next week: ‘Despite the passion and hard work of our team, we have not been able to build a sustainable player base to support the game long term’ Action MindsEye studio claims it now has ‘overwhelming evidence of organized espionage and corporate sabotage’ that somehow made its game bad, and also it’s laying off more people Gaming Industry Kiss goodbye to Ghost of Yotei on PC: Sony is U-turning on its ‘let’s put our games on PC’ strategy and bunkering back down with console exclusives, says Bloomberg FPS Highguard’s failure is emblematic of something that has tormented videogame investors for years now: past live service hits do not equal future live service hits Assassin’s Creed Former Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry director says Ubisoft ‘became very allergic’ to new games, which contributed to a ‘talent drain’ FPS Highguard director shares stats and thoughts on the game’s failure, denies conspiracy theories about where it all went wrong: ‘Nobody will know the true story of the studio or game’ Gaming Industry Fruit Ninja studio Halfbrick hit with layoffs: ‘we are navigating a challenging period for the games industry’ Gaming Industry XCOM designer Jake Solomon announces surprise closure of his studio alongside a first look at its canceled life sim, ‘the game we poured our hearts into’ Gaming Industry Bluepoint Games, Sony’s famed remaster studio, is being closed as the fallout from PlayStation’s disastrous pivot to live service continues Gaming Industry Killing Floor studio Tripwire Interactive lays off 23 people because of ‘business realities’ and all the other usual stuff FPS Highguard developers were surprised by layoff notices, new report says: They thought they’d have at least a few months to work on it but when Tencent ended funding, there was nothing left Gaming Industry 3 months after laying off a bunch of people, Splash Damage has become ‘Splash Damage Group’ and acquired another studio Action Just Cause dev co-founder says the studio got too big and ‘numbers focused,’ so he quit and made a $25 open world crime brawler RPG Kingdom Come: Deliverance’s fractious creative director Daniel Vávra won’t lead Warhorse’s next game—It’s not a ‘breakup,’ he’s just making the Kingdom Come film FPS Geoff Keighley shouldn’t be blamed for Highguard’s failure, Larian publishing boss says: ‘There are genuine villains in this industry but I just don’t see them here’ PopularNEW: PC Gamer Clips!MarathonArc RaidersBest PC gearQuizzes Gaming Industry 3 months after revealing his debut project at The Game Awards, Yakuza creator Toshihiro Nagoshi loses NetEase funding for his studio News By Andy Chalk published 9 March 2026 Nagoshi Studio is trying to find someone to step into the breach, but so far it’s had no luck. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. (Image credit: Nagoshi Studio) Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter PC Gamer Get the PC Gamer Newsletter Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. You are now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful Want to add more newsletters? Every Friday GamesRadar+ Your weekly update on everything you could ever want to know about the games you already love, games we know you’re going to love in the near future, and tales from the communities that surround them. 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From first-look trailers, interviews, reviews and explainers, we’ve got you covered. Signup + Once a month SFX Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month! Signup + An account already exists for this email address, please log in. Subscribe to our newsletter Just three months after the world premier trailer for Nagoshi Studio’s upcoming Gang of Dragon was revealed at the 2025 Game Awards, a Bloomberg report (via GamesIndustry) says NetEase has decided to end funding for the studio in May.Nagoshi Studio was founded by Yakuza creator Toshihiro Nagoshi in 2021, after a 32-year run at Sega. He said in 2022 that his new studio’s first game would be “bigger” than those of the Yakuza series, although he dialed that back a bit in 2024, saying at the time that the studio was reining in the scope. It took until The Game Awards in 2025 before we actually got a look at the game, though, and even that really wasn’t anything to go on: Basically just a brief CGI clip of Ma Dong-Seok beating the snot out of some guys. Gang of Dragon World Premiere Trailer from The Game Awards 2025 – YouTube Watch On For comparison purposes, here’s a clip of Ma talking on the phone and beating ass in the Korean film The Outlaws—he’s even wearing the same outfit:Article continues below You may like Anime action RPG studio Pahdo Labs shuts down despite accruing $17.5M in funding: ‘We believed making a demo of a familiar but new game would be our best shot’ Yakuza Kiwami 3 is where ‘The Kiwami line wil