Grasshopper Manufacture Goes Indie Again After Split With NetEase As The Chinese Internet Giant Retreats From Japanese Game Development

NetEase acquired No More Heroes series developer Grasshopper Manufacture back in 2021. Five years later, the Chinese conglomerate is cutting the studio loose after what CEO Goichi “SUDA51” Suda called an “amazing relationship.” The veteran developer said going indie again will help the studio with its “strong desire to deliver titles in an even wider variety of styles to video game lovers everywhere.”

The split comes after Grasshopper Manufacture released the excellent Romeo Is a Dead Man earlier this year, an arcade action-adventure about an FBI investigator who hops through space and time to catch bad guys. Suda said the game received “high acclaim and great reviews,” but didn’t signal whether it was a sales success or not.

“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,” he announced on September 30. “As such, Grasshopper Manufacture has chosen to move forward as an independent developer once again.”

He continued, “This decision was reached after thorough discussions with NetEase Games, and with their generous cooperation. We continue to cherish the amazing relationship our companies have built, and look forward to further collaboration when the opportunity arises. Having improved our own self-publishing know-how, we now have a broad range of options available to us, and 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 with our own signature flavor and further enhanced quality.”

Following an investment spree in which NetEase poured millions into different gaming companies both big and small and helped a number of Japanese developers leave established publishers to start up new studios, the internet giant has been systematically pulling back from the industry. Despite initially backing Nagoshi Studios’ debut game Gang of Dragon from the creator of Yakuza, funding was stopped earlier this year. It also appears unlikely to continue moving forward with GPTRACK50, another startup it funded whose upcoming action roguelike Stupid Never Dies is being self-published later this month.