Grasshopper Manufacture split: Goichi Suda goes indie again

Goichi Suda is taking his studio back. Grasshopper Manufacture, the Osaka developer behind No More Heroes and Killer7, will separate from NetEase Games and return to independent development, founder and CEO Goichi Suda announced on September 30. The Grasshopper Manufacture split takes effect October 1, closing a chapter that began when the Chinese publisher acquired the studio from GungHo Online Entertainment.

"Having finally completed this all-hands project, as we reflected on the next stage of Grasshopper Manufacture's future, we found a strong desire to deliver titles in an even wider variety of styles to video game lovers everywhere," Suda said in a statement quoted by Kotaku. "As such, Grasshopper Manufacture has chosen to move forward as an independent developer once again."

The terms of the Grasshopper Manufacture split appear friendly. "This decision was reached after thorough discussions with NetEase Games, and with their generous cooperation," Suda said, adding that the studio cherishes the relationship and looks forward to collaborating again when the opportunity arises. He also noted that Grasshopper has improved its self-publishing know-how, which gives it more options for how future games are funded and released, according to reporting by GameDev.net. In Kotaku's account of the announcement, he went further, calling the five years of working with NetEase an "amazing relationship" and saying he hopes the two companies meet again on future projects. That language is deliberate: the Grasshopper Manufacture split is being presented as a studio-led choice, with the door to another collaboration left open, rather than as a publisher winding down a team.

A short chapter under NetEase

NetEase acquired Grasshopper Manufacture from GungHo Online Entertainment in 2021, presenting the deal as a way to give the studio extra resources while preserving the creative identity Suda had built since founding the company in the late nineties. The studio had spent the previous stretch under GungHo, a period that produced Let It Die and several other releases.

The NetEase years were not empty. Grasshopper shipped No More Heroes III shortly before the acquisition was finalized, and released Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered two years ago, according to The Otaku Authority. But tech-insider.org described Romeo Is A Dead Man as the studio's lone original release developed during the NetEase era, an arcade action-adventure about an FBI investigator who hops through space and time to catch criminals, which launched earlier this year.

Suda said the game earned strong reviews and high acclaim, and described finishing it as the moment the studio started seriously weighing what comes next. His statement ties the decision directly to that project: completing it gave the team the confidence to plan a future on its own terms, which is why the Grasshopper Manufacture split follows so closely on the game's release.

What the split says about NetEase

The announcement fits a wider pattern. Since 2024, NetEase has been pulling back from international studios, closing or selling several Western teams as part of a strategic retreat from non-core projects. The Grasshopper Manufacture split is a different shape of departure: a studio choosing to walk away, with its founder praising the parent company on the way out.

Grasshopper has not announced its next project, and Suda offered no release calendar. But his comments point to a studio that wants more styles and more experiments, with publishing deals struck case by case instead of a standing corporate arrangement. "Regardless of how our games may be published, we remain committed to creating unique titles featuring the 'NO GAME NO LIFE' gaming experience expected of Grasshopper Manufacture," he said. For a developer whose whole brand is doing the unexpected, independence is familiar ground: the studio spent its first fifteen years on its own, before any parent company arrived.

Fans of the studio's earlier independent work will recognize the posture. Between 1998 and 2013, Grasshopper built its name on offbeat originals like Killer7 and Lollipop Chainsaw, games that found their audience precisely because no corporate parent was smoothing the edges. In that light, the Grasshopper Manufacture split closes a loop: the studio leaves with more publishing experience and a hit game to its name, and returns to making the kinds of games only Grasshopper would make. Full coverage of the announcement is at TheGamer and GameDev.net.