Studio announced Gang of Dragon game during Game Awards in December
Image via Nagoshi Studio’s X/Twitter
© Nagoshi Studio
Nagoshi Studio producer Daisuke Satō is listing himself as an “ex-Nagoshi Studio” employee across his social media accounts.
The July 2/9 issue of the Weekly Famitsu magazine, which shipped on Thursday, also listed Satō as a game developer rather than a Nagoshi Studio producer in a special feature.
The game studio’s official website is unavailable as of press time on June 22.
Bloomberg reported in March that parent company NetEase Games cut funding for the studio in May as it is shrinking its game development activities. The report alleged that the decision came as NetEase discovered the game would require an additional 7 billion yen (US$44.4 million) to complete.
The studio announced the Gang of Dragon game during the Game Awards in December. The game is still listed on Steam.
NetEase Games formed Nagoshi Studio Inc. in January 2022. The creator of Sega’s Yakuza (Ryū ga Gotoku) game series Toshihiro Nagoshi serves as the Representative Director and CEO of the company while former Yakuza series producer Daisuke Satō serves as a producer. While NetEase Games is located in Guangzhou, China, Nagoshi Studio Inc. is located in Tokyo.
The other founding members of the studio include artist Kazuki Hosokawa, programmer Koji Tokieda, game designer Masao Shirosaki, engineer Mitsunori Fujimoto, artist Naoki Someya, director Taichi Ushioda, and artist Toshihiro Ando.
Nagoshi and Satō left Sega in October 2021. Nagoshi stepped down from his role as chief creative officer of Sega in April 2021, but continued at the company as creative director. He had been working for Sega since 1989.
Sources: Daisuke Satō’s Instagram page and X/Twitter account, Game*Spark via Hachima Kikō, Bloomberg via Gematsu
