Today it was announced that Grasshopper Manufacture, the company responsible for several fan favorites, including No More Heroes, Killer is Dead, and Let it Die, has been acquired by NetEase Games
This acquisition will allow Grasshopper Manufacture to continue to develop the quirky and enjoyable games that they’ve created prior to this. NetEase Games is fully prepared to provide Grasshopper Manufacture with funding, as well as technical expertise so that the developer can continue to do what they enjoy.
“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”, stated Grasshopper Manufacture Inc CEO, Goichi Suda.
As for NetEase Games, this company is a major player in China and the regions surrounding the country. While many are favorite with the name Tencent, NetEase is right up there and has been slowly amassing quite the game for its self. NetEase has also partnered with major publishers like Blizzard and is currently working with them on the upcoming Diablo Immortal, a mobile version of Diablo.
I do have some concern over this, as Grasshopper Manufacture has developed a number of games for the PlayStation, Xbox, and Switch, as well as the PC. While NetEase Games is known for developing and releasing games for the mobile and PC market. Does this mean that NetEase is finally jumping into the console market, or is Grasshopper Manufacture going to make a shift to align themselves differently?
It will be interesting to see how this acquisition turns out and what titles we’ll see from Grasshopper Manufacture and NetEase, in the future.