Yakuza creator's studio, and the game it was working on, are now officially gone

Yakuza creator's studio, and the game it was working on, are now officially gone

Nagoshi Studio revealed Gang of Dragon less than a year ago, but it ran into trouble just a few months later.

Six months after the disappearance of Nagoshi Studio's website, a Google-translated notice in the Japan government's Kanpo website (via Gematsu) says the company has now officially closed its doors.

Founded by Yakuza creator Toshihiro Nagoshi in 2021 after a run of more than 30 years at Sega, Nagoshi Studio's first game was revealed at the 2025 Game Awards as Gang of Dragon—although the reveal was really just a brief CGI clip of Ma Dong-Seok that could have been lifted straight from Korean action film The Outlaws.

The wheels came off just a few months later, though, when NetEase pulled funding for the studio, amidst a broader pullback from external studio support over the previous year. Nagoshi Studio reportedly had no success finding another benefactor to fill the gap, and two months later, in May, the studio's website disappeared.

No official proclamations about the fate of the studio were forthcoming, though, and the Steam page remained online, so faint hope of a last-minute rescue persisted. Now, I'm afraid even that's gone, although the Steam listing is still up if you want to poke around at what might have been.

Better idea: Just watch The Outlaws.

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Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.

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