{"id":462705,"date":"2026-03-07T14:32:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T14:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/462705\/"},"modified":"2026-03-07T14:32:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T14:32:10","slug":"yakuza-creators-promising-new-ps5-game-may-soon-be-sleeping-with-the-fishes-as-funding-is-cut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/462705\/","title":{"rendered":"Yakuza Creator’s Promising New PS5 Game May Soon Be Sleeping with the Fishes as Funding Is Cut"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Yakuza<\/a><\/p>\n

Industry legend Toshihiro Nagoshi\u2019s promising Yakuza<\/a> spiritual successor Gang of Dragon<\/a> may not see the light of day, as publisher NetEase plans to pull funding on the project.<\/p>\n

The Chinese juggernaut had headhunted the SEGA veteran to start his own studio in 2021<\/a>, but a slew of strategic changes mean it\u2019s ceased bankrolling a bunch of AAA productions of late. Unfortunately, it looks like Nagoshi Studio is next.<\/p>\n

Bloomberg<\/a> reports that employees were notified of the decision on Friday, with the cheques scheduled to stop clearing in May. That may potentially give the team a little time to find a new publisher, although we suspect the writing is on the wall here.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

According to one source, the game will require a further \u00a57 billion (~$44 million) to be completed, which contributed to NetEase\u2019s decision to walk away.<\/p>\n

Apparently the organisation is not opposed to the studio continuing to work on the project independently, although it will need to recompense the publisher for work already completed under its umbrella.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a real shame to see such a promising PS5 project<\/a> put in this position, because we really liked what we saw of Gang of Dragon when it was announced<\/a> late last year at The Game Awards<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With noteworthy actor Don Lee in the lead role, this looked like a natural evolution of Yakuza, and a glimpse into the direction the series\u2019 original creator envisioned for the franchise.<\/p>\n

With a heavier emphasis on guns and even vehicles, this threatened to be a totally unique take on SEGA\u2019s long-running crime caper. Now it may end up sleeping with the fishes.<\/p>\n

[source bloomberg.com<\/a>]<\/p>\n

\tRelated Games<\/p>\n

\tSee Also<\/p>\n

\"Sammy<\/p>\n

As the Editor of Push Square, Sammy has over 15 years of experience analysing the world of PlayStation, from PS3 through PS5 and everything in between. He\u2019s an expert on PS Studios and industry matters, as well as sports games and simulators. He also enjoys RPGs when he has the time to dedicate to them, and is a bit of a gacha whale.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Industry legend Toshihiro Nagoshi\u2019s promising Yakuza spiritual successor Gang of Dragon may not see the light of day,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":462706,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[166099,59,555,12421,112,86,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-462705","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-gang-of-dragon","9":"tag-gb","10":"tag-industry","11":"tag-netease","12":"tag-ps5","13":"tag-technology","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=462705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/462706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=462705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=462705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=462705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}