Gang of Dragon, the new game from Yakuza series creator Toshihiro Nagoshi seems to be dead, or nearly dead, as he and other developers have left Nagoshi Studios. The fate of both the game and studio are heavily in question, as key developers have already left, including seemingly Nagoshi himself and co-founder Daisuke Sato.
There have been rumbling of trouble at Nagoshi studio for months, especially as NetEase has actively been pulling paring back or entirely pulling funding of its studios. In March, reports stated that Nagoshi was likely one of those studios.
Now, Daisuke Sato has updated his X bio to read “ex-Nagoshi Studio, Inc.” Meanwhile, Nagoshi himself appeared in a Famitsu feature as an “unaffiliated developer”
In addition, Japanese new site Game*Spark invested the LinkedIn profiles of known Nagoshi Studios employees, and found that at least seven more developers have seemingly left as of May 31, 2026. This includes Kazuki Hosokawa, how headed the studio’s design department, as well as lead environment designer Naoki Someya (now at Lightspeed Japan), and technical artist Tomoharu Hosaku (now at Capcom).
NetEase has yet to officially comment on anything surrounding Gang of Dragon, but it’s hard not to think the entire thing has been cancelled when nearly every key developer behind the game and studio has left.
Nagoshi Studios was founded shortly after Nagoshi and Sato left Sega and Ryu Ga Gotoku in 2021. Gang of Dragon was supposed to be its first game, and bore some uncanny resemblances to Yakuza, with its first trailer revealed at The Game Awards 2025. Acclaimed Korean actor Ma Donk-seok, also known as Dong Lee, was supposed to star in the game’s leading role.
Meanwhile, Ryu Ga Gotoku and the Yakuza series has had its own sort of struggles recently, gaining intense scrutiny over the decision to digitally recreate rap artist Tupac Shakeur for the upcoming Stranger Than Heaven.
