Nagoshi Studio, the company Yakuza creator Toshihiro Nagoshi founded with NetEase money, no longer exists in any meaningful sense. A dissolution notice in Japan's Official Gazette on November 2 says shareholders voted to dissolve the company on October 31, Game*Spark reports.
Its only announced game, Gang of Dragon, still has a Steam page. The release date reads "Coming soon." That is now the most optimistic sentence associated with the project.
What exactly happened?
The notice ran in the gazette's extra edition No. 240, on page 176, per Inven Global. It names Minoru Morinaga as representative liquidator and gives anyone the company owes money two months to come forward, according to Game*Spark.
Dissolution in Japan means the company enters liquidation: debts get settled, then the corporate entity is wound up. Inven Global notes this is distinct from bankruptcy. Either way, the result for the game is a company that is closing its books, with no announced team left to finish anything.
Nagoshi himself was already gone on paper. Game*Spark checked the corporate registry in October and found that every director, Nagoshi included, stepped down effective March 31, 2026. Morinaga became sole director on May 31. He is now the one closing the company.
Is Gang of Dragon canceled?
Nobody has said so officially. There's been no cancellation notice, no transfer to another publisher and no announcement of a new backer, as Inven Global points out.
The circumstantial case is not subtle. The game's developer and publisher on Steam are both listed as Nagoshi Studio Inc., the company now in liquidation. Game*Spark's own read is that the game will very likely be canceled without ever coming out.
The project also has an ownership problem. According to Inven Global, NetEase was reportedly open to letting the studio go independent, but wanted it to pay to keep the existing development assets and IP. So even a rescue would have had to start by buying the game back.
How did it get here?
Gang of Dragon was revealed at The Game Awards in December 2025: a Shinjuku crime drama set partly in Kabukicho, starring Ma Dong-seok (Don Lee) as Shin Ji-seong. It looked expensive. It was.
In March 2026, Bloomberg reported that NetEase would stop funding the studio after learning the game needed roughly another 7 billion yen, about $44 million, to finish, as Polygon summarizes. The studio reportedly couldn't find another backer.
The rest went quietly, in the usual order. Per Automaton and Game*Spark, the studio's social accounts went silent, the official website went offline in May, and several staff listed late May as their exit date. The gazette notice is the paperwork catching up.
Polygon notes NetEase has been trimming overseas studios since 2024. Nagoshi Studio is one more name on that list.
Can I wishlist it, buy it, or get a refund?
You can still wishlist it. Nothing was ever sold, so there's nothing to refund. No pre-orders were offered on the Steam page as of November 2.
If the page comes down, your wishlist entry quietly goes with it. That's the closest thing to a shutdown notice an unreleased game gets.
Is Gang of Dragon dead?
Functionally, yes, unless someone buys the assets out of liquidation and funds the remaining $44 million. The studio is dissolved, its founder left the board in March, and the only party that has said anything recently is the Japanese government, in a creditors' notice.
The Steam page says "Coming soon." We'll update this if anyone with the authority to change that says something.
Sources
- Game*Spark (Nov 2, 2026, Japanese)
- Inven Global (Nov 2026)
- gamebiz (Nov 2, 2026, Japanese)
- Automaton West (Nov 2, 2026)
- Polygon (Nov 2, 2026)
- Gang of Dragon on Steam (official store page)
Published Nov 2, 2026. Based on the Nov 2 Official Gazette dissolution notice as reported by Game*Spark, Inven Global, gamebiz, Automaton and Polygon, and the Gang of Dragon Steam page. Artwork © Nagoshi Studio; official Steam asset used editorially only.