NetEase Games and Grasshopper Manufacture‘s founder Goichi “Suda51” Suda have announced an equity transfer agreement under which the No More Heroes studio has been acquired by the Chinese publishing giant. The agreement was signed back in May.
In a joint statement, Grasshopper Manufacture said that it shares NetEase’s vision of developing “unique” console games, and after “a lot of thoughts,” both companies decided to join hands.
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.
NetEase added that its company is made up of “passionate gamers” who are all fans of Suda’s work and his games’ “unique characteristics.”
“They manifest his design philosophy and artistic pursuit in every aspect – from concept to content,” NetEase continued. “Grasshopper Manufacture Inc. has also integrated styles and elements from various media formats, such as film noir, detective fiction, punk rock, psychedelic electronica, cyberpunk, and so on. Additionally, Grasshopper Manufacture Inc. is one of a kind in terms of mood setting, movement design, and narrative rhythm design.”
Grasshopper recently announced that it has concluded the No More Heroes series following the release of No More Heroes III on the Nintendo Switch.
[Source: NetEase Games]
