Just a day after we heard how the famous video game creator Goichi "Suda51" Suda would love to reboot or remake Nintendo's older IP, he's now announced his development studio will be working under the Chinese video game giant NetEase.
Yes, that's right - Grasshopper Manufacturer is ending its partnership with the Japanese publisher and developer GungHo Online Entertainment to join the NetEase Group - one of the biggest internet and video game companies in the world that also partners with western companies like Blizzard.
Here's the announcement from Suda himself - who promises the developer will continue to create new and exciting games, just as it always has:
Grasshopper Manufacture most recently wrapped up work on the Switch title, No More Heroes 3. The plan now is to work on three new original IP projects over the next decade.
Here is Suda51's full statement announcing this new partnership with NetEase:
Grasshopper Manufacture Inc. has just celebrated its 23rd anniversary in March this year. For the past 23 years, our team of creators with various backgrounds and personalities have presented a variety of games to gamers. We are now given a unique opportunity to rethink the game development and organization structure of Grasshopper Manufacture Inc. moving forward. While understanding our own advantages and unique position, we were presented with new possibilities in game creation.
As we all know, NetEase Games has developed many excellent games in the past, and I have long been aware of NetEase's creative capabilities. When talking with NetEase about "developing more unique console games together", we resonated. After a lot of thoughts, we’ve unanimously decided to "get together" in the long term through deeper cooperation to create more good content for gamers.
NetEase Games understands the strengths of Grasshopper Manufacture Inc. and is willing to support us, and is an extremely reliable partner. NetEase Games will be mainly responsible for advising on our business planning activities and providing sufficient funding for game development. We will be responsible for the creativity and production of games to ensure that we are able to continue to maintain the consistent "Grasshopper Manufacture flavor" and game quality for which we are known. In addition, we will also receive strong support from the NetEase team composed of thousands of artists and technical experts in terms of game art and quality assurance. We will make the most of this support and strive to offer three even higher-quality "Grasshopper Manufacture Games" to all gamers in the next ten years.
Grasshopper Manufacture Inc., moving towards the brand-new future of game development, is now reborn and will continue to create history. Stay tuned.
It follows on from the news that the Monkey Ball and Yakuza creator Toshihori Nagoshi was leaving Sega to join NetEase.
What are your thoughts about this announcement? Leave a comment down below.
[source grasshopper.co.jp, via twitter.com]
Comments 67
uh, I don't know how I feel about this
Just like that Suda51 has now join the dark side. Good luck! Hopefully a No More Heroes Immortal is not in the work cause who doesn't had phones right.
@Specter_of-the_OLED you mean with spyware and security risks?
Find it very interesting that Suda wanted to sell after the frustration he had with EA. We’ll see where this goes I guess. Grasshopper is a talented and creatively driven studio and I hope this means they can stay that way, but with better budgets.
Suda51's new IPs will benefit significantly from the cash flow of NetEase. It will be interesting if the transition will affect the games themselves content-wise, as NetEase seems to prefer microtransactions.
At least it's not Tencent, but any game development studio becoming owned by a Chinese gaming company is not good in my book
Not what I wanted, but you know what, good for the guy, not all Chinese companies are as bad as Tencent, so maybe NetEase isn't so bad. (maybe, I don't know much about them to be honest) Besides, you can't complain about more funding for actually good games.
@PikaPhantom true it isn't Tencent but we should still be wary
@Pokester99 would you rather people pretend China is awesome?
Congrats to Suda! Hopefully he can create the games he actually want to create.
A little positivity in the comments couldn't hurt I guess.
Thanos_collecting_infinity_stone.gif
Great news but I feel like any releases or reboots are now off the cards. Was really
Hoping for a Killer Is Dead and Lollipop Chainsaw revival
First Nagoshi now Suda. Great.
Bye bye privacy. Though to be honest every company nowadays steals your privacy, no matter the country. As for Tencent: If you don't want to support them you shouldn't watch "Mission impossible" movies either, since I noticed them in the credits. Welcome to the modern age!
If y'all don't want to support companies that partner with Tencent, you'd best stop buying Nintendo products too.
Will they use slave labor from the concentration camps?
Dark mode please
@westman98 im pretty sure nintendo is not going to let tencent walk all over them or have any say so on their games.
Now I'm more interested in the fate of this company more than the games Suda will release In the future. Will his team be reduced to nothingness? Only time will tell.
As long as Suda keeps making great games, there honestly too much crazy bad about this
RIP. Not like I was a fan nway
@Longondo because totalitarian governments are so ideal for expanding creative horizons 😂
@Longondo With how censorious the CCP is, China will not become a creative power house. Can't even state simple, noncontroversial facts like how Taiwan is an independent country.
@BearyBad No country is
@Tourtus the people in Puerto Rico can’t vote for US President
Indie studio sells out to corporate behemoth. Yeah, this will end well..
It's odd so many people are caring so much about Suda joining a Chinese company and acting like they're going to steal your debit card number from switch games now.
Must be the Fox news crowd..🤔
Sounds good. Their next project should be a strategy game where you build massive shipping ports in 3rd world countries using Chinese loans, only to take them over and turn them into military naval bases.
No More... Nintendo exclusivity, I guess.
I don't know anything about NetEase or their games, but they seem quite successful with their two MMOs based on The Journey West.
Here's hoping Suda gets to do more of what he wants to do this way!
If China steals your privacy, there's better ways to do it than backdooring games. They'll just buyout your bank or smartphone manufacturer. I assume the main goal of this is to invest in media for both the money and censorship power. I don't recall Suda's games being political, so I guess he'll be alright, but it is unfortunate to see China spread its influence like this. I can't blame Suda for wanting a stable source of money though, game dev is not easy and they struggled to fund No More Heroes 3.
People act like Google and Amazon dont invade peoples privacy.....shrug
@Pokester99
That argument is the false equivalence fallacy. It fails because there’s a huge gap between the genocide in Xinjiang and incompetence in Germany.
Can't help but feel disappointed that Suda51 couldn't have found a Japanese studio to partner with as it could affect some of the unique flavour of his games to partner abroad. I understand why he did this though.
@Pokester99 How’s your Social Credit this month?
@Burntbreadman
As much as I hate Google and Amazon, I'd rather have my information given to advertiser's than be rounded up in the middle of the night by the Chinese government for saying something "bad" online and getting a bullet in the head
@faint I think no country is perfect but some are definitely awesome when compared to others
@Pokester99 You're right that no government is purely good. I think most people just have a problem with the Chinese government because it's more common to be aware of the bad things they do.
@Pokester99 The fact that you don’t think a county that has ethnic internment camps where they commit acts of torture and genocide isn’t that bad, is rather disturbing.
@Pokester99 Not as much others love your reductionism and particularism fallacies.
@Pokester99 Now you're just using the whataboutism fallacy--also a state propaganda tool to discredit any criticisms levied, especially used by the CCP, taking a page from the Soviet Union. Governments aren't the only one pointing out the issues with China--it's numerous independent organizations and bodies. But it's apparent that you're not actually interested or informed--like some of us who actually lived in China or speak the language and even have direct work with the socio-political issues that everyone here is rightly cautious about.
@Pokester99 What’s anti about that? Was a general polite question. I think our leader is wonderful and will bring social harmony
@Pokester99 the ***** are you talking about
RIP Grasshopper
@Pokester99 I don't think someone can be a "justice warrior" with everything or every country. A criticism of one country doesn't automatically act as endorsement of another country's actions. I understand that you may wish the focus to shift to other groups but in an article involving one country or group it makes sense the feedback would be on that country or group. All the best.
@Pokester99 Grass mud horse to you too, dude. Anyone who speaks Chinese will know what that means.
For everyone else still following this ridiculous 50 cent army propaganda, I recommend informing yourselves by watching these channels on YouTube: Serpentza, Laowhy86, and China Uncensored, while also following Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and also read https://bitterwinter.org/
@Pokester99 enslaved half the world? What kind of history you taking? The entire world practiced slavery.
@Pokester99 Never said you were Chinese. You love misquoting people, which tells us that you are just wu mao (50 cent army) or gullible and proudly maliciously ignorant.
QED
Cool, I can't wait to see Micro-transactions to raise your in-game social credits.
@Pokester99 ouch such a burn. Don’t know how I’ll ever forget that one.
China will own everything by 2030
@Pokester99
Maybe you will understand the problem with your argument if I use myself as an example.
I happen to be from germany. I fully realise that, what my country did in WW2, was beyond horrible. I will also agree that, what my country did back then, was worse then what China is doing right now.
All of this, however, does NOT mean, that I can't criticise present day China for what they are doing right now.
Most people know about bad things their ancestores might have done, but as long as they do not deny that (and no one here did, unless I missed someone), you can not call hypocrisy.
Present day China is a horrible place. I don't need to deny the past to be able to argue that.
So stop with your whataboutism, it is never a good argument and you are only making yourself look like a fool.
Also about your propanganda argument: It is just a very weak argument.
Not only is this kind of propaganda, regarding thing anyone could fact check, hard to pull of in general with todays internet giving anyone the possibility to share their experiences (there would at least be a much bigger movement against that "propaganda"), you will also need to believe that, at least, the USA, the EU, the UK, Japan, Australia, India, Taiwan and more countries are all working coordinated together to pull of that kind of propaganda, as they all have worded their concerns with China in one way or another (not as much the EU, but they are big enough that they wouldn't need keep quite about false acusations.). You need some serious tinfoil to think that is happening.
And to top it all of, you can't possibly argue pro China with that, since, even if you deny anything I just wrote, there is an equal chance that you are the one who fell for propaganda instead of everyone else.
The most you can argue by saying that is that we don't truly know what is going on. Nothing more.
I know Nintendo doesn't buy a lot of studios, but it seems like a missed opportunity as Grasshopper provided some good exclusives for the brand. Doubt we'll see any further partnerships and though I wouldn't have expected it anyway, think we can write off seeing a No More Heroes 4. At least the way I'd like to see it. I think, even more than MS, Tencent and NetEase have spooked Sony lately and you've seen it make some big moves to lock up key partners. Given what Mercury Steam has done with Metroid, I'd try to lock it up if I'm running Nintendo. Also would provide an opportunity for Nintendo to go in, see what's going on at the studio and clear out any leadership causing some problems there.
@faint What does Puerto Rico have to do with my post...? Also, Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory, not a state. Only states can vote in presidential elections. Whether or not it should be turned into a state is a whole other debate, and I don't know the arguments for and against it.
This really sucks
@Pokester99 You believe only certain propaganda? You must be trolling. No one can be that naive.
And onto the blacklist Grasshopper goes. ¯(ツ)/¯
A shame, really.
@Tourtus Yep, we treat them just like China treats Taiwan. Their ours when we want them to be, but they don’t get equal rights.
Uh oh. It’s China. We know how people in the West feel about that when China is mentioned in any context.
Anyway wish Suda all the best in the new direction .
@Judgedean There are indeed extremely naive and proudly ignorant people who are aggressive about it even when facts are shown. Flat Earthers come to mind—particularly the ones who think Australia doesn’t exist.
https://www.msn.com/en-in/news/photos/why-australia-doesnt-exist-according-to-flat-earthers/ss-AAyc13L#image=6
@faint TL;DR Puerto Rico would lose some of its freedoms if it became a state, and for the people of Puerto Rico that might not be a worthwhile trade off just to vote for the President. Also, cooperation is needed to make Puerto Rico a state, meaning Puerto Rico would need to vote weather or not they want statehood, the U.S. can't just make them a state if they don't want to be one.
The U.S. doesn't treat Puerto Rico like a foreign country that is to be conquered, the U.S. already owns Puerto Rico and they're allowed to govern themselves, China doesn't own Taiwan. Taiwan broke off from China in a war and are independent now, China is salty about that and wants to regain control of them. Taiwan wants to remain independent and it doesn't want to rejoin with China so they're enemies.
The U.S. fought Spain in the Caribbean and took Puerto Rico in the process, the U.S. wanted to make Puerto Rico a state but the Popular Democratic party of Puerto Rico opposed U.S. assimilation around the 1930s and voted to refuse statehood and instead become an autonomous territory. They're owned by the U.S. but they have more freedoms of self governance, if they became a proper state they'd lose some of that self governance and would be subjected to federal U.S. law. If Puerto Rico wants to become a proper state, they need to vote on that themselves, then the U.S. would need to do the same. There are talks in the U.S. about making Puerto Rico a state but again, Puerto Rico needs to participate on that project so it's not like the U.S. is oppressing them.
@Severian Didn't know about the Australia one - coming from NZ, that is worth a laugh.
@Abes3
He just talked about a possible Killer Is Dead revival in an interview a few days ago. I hope he makes it happen. I'm actually under the impression He might have used the first chinese money he got to buy the IP.
Lollipop Chainsaw is still Impossible because it's owned by Warner Bros, but honestly in my opinion it's Grasshopper's worst game, so i don't want it to return anyway.
@nessisonett
Suda and Nagoshi working together on a new F-Zero would be great.
@Judgedean Yup. Pokester99 is just being annoying and calling people hypocrites for not publicly stating that they share his values or pet causes...but we don't always have to mention every cause that is important to us, as this topic is about China, not his cause, Palestine (which I do actually follow since I do have work related to human rights and development).
"You don't support my cause vocally or 24/7! So your cause is hypocritical! UR stoopid!" This kind of attitude he's espousing won't win him any supporters or sympathy for him and his causes.... and it's made worse because he refuses to educate himself about the cause people are talking about here, which is China, while assuming they're ignorant about his cause with Palestine.
Cognitive dissonance.
@madmaxjp He could also learn to actually educate himself about China instead of assuming and complaining about people not being informed about Palestine just because they don't vocalize it (especially since it's not on topic, but China is)...
I've never heard of NetEase, so I don't know what they're like. But I wish Grasshopper well anyway.
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