Gang of Dragon and developer Nagoshi Studios have been in a state of crisis ever since the game was announced at The Game Awards last year. That's because publisher NetEase suddenly pulled the game's funding, leaving Yakuza creator Toshihiro Nagoshi in limbo and looking for a reported $45 million to actually finish the game.
Ever since, things have looked bleak. First, the studio's YouTube channel and the game's reveal trailer were wiped from the internet, before the official Nagoshi Studios website became inaccessible. Throughout all of this, we've heard nothing from the studio itself to calm down fans who think the studio is toast. And now, it sounds like the final nail has been well and truly pounded into the coffin.
In the latest episode of the VGC Podcast, reporter Andy Robinson touches on how much NetEase has been pulling out of the international games industry recently, which includes leaving Nagoshi Studios in limbo. According to Robinson, despite there being no official confirmation from the developer itself, Nagoshi Studios is effectively "gone."
"Nagoshi Studio, it's not been announced, but that's gone," says Robinson. "I heard stories of [Toshihiro Nagoshi] even applying at other studios recently, so I think it's fair to say that that's gone, which is super disappointing."
If that's true, and Nagoshi is looking for a job at other studios, then it's pretty safe to say that both his own studio and Gang of Dragon have effectively been closed down and canceled. Perhaps it decided that we hadn't even seen enough of Gang of Dragon and Nagoshi Studios to even warrant an announcement in the first place.
Still, it's sad to see the creator of Yakuza, one of my all-time favorite video game series, go out with such a quiet whimper. Hopefully, he and the many developers that were working at Nagoshi Studios can actually find jobs at different studios now that the ordeal is over.
سەرچاوەی فەرمی بە زمانی ئینگلیزی: https://www.thegamer.com/gang-of-dragon-nagoshi-studios-reportedly-gone/
