NetEase has already let Nagoshi Studio staff know that it will stop funding the team in May. What will happen from then on is a mystery for now. NetEase made the decision to abandon the Japanese studio before the release of Gang of Dragon after discovering that an additional 7 billion yen (€38 million) was needed to complete the project, Bloomberg has learned. Nagoshi Studio is looking for new partners to provide the necessary financing, but so far it has not been successful.
Since NetEase has moved to Nagoshi Studio they are free to continue working on Gang of Dragon on their own, but must bear the corresponding costs if they want to retain the intellectual property and assets. NetEase is willing to part with the development team, as long as they can afford to leave. Bloomberg has contacted both parties to find out the conditions, but neither of them wanted to comment. What seems clear is that to rescue Gang of Dragon you must first pay NetEase and then face the investment necessary to complete the game.
Nagoshi Studio is not the first team that NetEase leaves after having supported its foundation. In recent months, the Chinese company has divested itself of: Anchor Point Studios (developing an action-adventure game), Jackalyptic Games (working on a Warhammer MMO), Bad Brain Game Studios (even showing its project to find a partner), T-Minus Zero Entertainment (led by a BioWare veteran), Fantastic Pixel Castle (led by former boss of World of Warcraft and League of Legends) and Jar of Sparks (led by a veteran of 343 Industries).
NetEase has investments in studies that are currently moving forward, but seeing the mess that is taking place, its future does not seem very favorable. We are talking about Studio Sasanqua (from the director of Visions of Mana), BulletFarm (founded by Black Ops veterans), GPTRACK50 (led by the producer of sagas such as Resident Evil, Dino Crisis, Devil May Cry) and Liquid Swords (the studio of the creator of Just Cause who works at Samson). NetEase also has a stake in Rebel Wolves, which at least has the support of a publisher like Bandai Namco to bring The Blood of Dawnwalker forward.
And there is still more. NetEase owns Grasshopper Manufacture, the Suda51 studio that recently released Romeo is a Dead Man, and Quantic Dream, responsible for Detroit: Become Human, Beyond: Two Souls and Heavy Rain. Quantic Dream's latest project is Spellcasters Chronicles, a game free-to-play which two weeks after its launch in Steam early access has registered a peak of 888 concurrent players. Since February 2025, rumors say that NetEase could divest Nagoshi Studio, Quantic Dream and Grasshopper. The first one has already fallen.