Grasshopper Manufacture is independent again. The Tokyo-based studio behind No More Heroes and Killer7 announced on September 30, 2026 that it has separated from NetEase Games, the Chinese gaming giant that bought it in 2021, a move independently confirmed by Shacknews and Insider Gaming. The change takes effect October 1, 2026, closing a five-year chapter and reopening a question the industry has asked about NetEase’s overseas studios for over a year: how much of its Western and Japanese game-development footprint is NetEase actually willing to keep?
The announcement lands just seven months after Grasshopper shipped Romeo Is a Dead Man, its only release during the NetEase era. That timing matters. A studio splitting from its owner right after delivering the one game it was funded to make is a different story than a studio splitting mid-development, and it shapes how seriously the industry should read Grasshopper’s insistence that the exit was mutual.
What Grasshopper Manufacture and NetEase Actually Announced
According to the studio’s own statement, Grasshopper Manufacture has chosen to move forward as an independent developer once again, effective October 1, 2026. Goichi Suda, known worldwide as Suda51, is identified in coverage of the announcement as the company’s representative director and CEO. The studio framed the move as the product of ongoing discussions about its future following the completion of Romeo Is a Dead Man, rather than a sudden break.
Grasshopper said it had a broad range of options available to it going forward, and that regardless of how future titles get published, it remains committed to what it calls the NO GAME NO LIFE gaming experience the studio is known for. That phrase is a long-running internal slogan for Grasshopper, tied to its identity as a studio that makes deliberately strange, auteur-driven action games rather than conventional franchise output.
What the announcement does not include is a new publishing partner, a funding structure, or financial terms of the separation. Those details have not been made public, and any speculation about who picks up Grasshopper’s next project is exactly that: speculation, until the studio or a partner confirms it.
Goichi Suda on the Split
Suda’s public remarks lean conciliatory rather than adversarial, which is notable given how often studio-publisher breakups get framed as acrimonious. As reported by Game Informer, Suda said: “As such, Grasshopper Manufacture has chosen to move forward as an independent developer once again.”
He was specific about how the decision was reached, stating: “This decision was reached after thorough discussions with NetEase Games, and with their generous cooperation,” according to Game Informer’s report on the announcement.
Suda also left the door open to a future relationship with NetEase, saying: “We continue to cherish the amazing relationship our companies have built, and look forward to further collaboration when the opportunity arrives,” per the same Game Informer coverage.
Separately, Grasshopper’s own statement, as carried by Push Square, framed the split in terms of creative control: “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.”
Read together, the two statements tell a fairly consistent story: Grasshopper wants to control its own publishing destiny again, and it’s betting that its post-NetEase know-how makes that viable in a way it wasn’t when GungHo Online Entertainment and later NetEase were footing the bill.
A Studio That Keeps Changing Owners
Grasshopper Manufacture was founded on March 30, 1998 by Goichi Suda in Suginami, Tokyo, according to the studio’s documented history on Wikipedia. It built its reputation on cult titles rather than blockbusters: The Silver Case in 1999, Flower, Sun, and Rain in 2001, and then Killer7 in 2005, the game that first put Grasshopper on the radar of Western players and critics.
No More Heroes followed in 2007 and became the studio’s signature franchise, spawning No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle in 2010 and No More Heroes III in 2021. In between, Grasshopper released Shadows of the Damned in 2011 and the free-to-play survival title Let It Die in 2016, along with the franchise spinoff Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes in 2019.
The ownership history is where things get complicated. GungHo Online Entertainment acquired Grasshopper Manufacture in January 2013. In 2018, an absorption-type corporate split let Grasshopper operate with more day-to-day independence while still sitting under GungHo’s umbrella, a structure that reportedly coincided with the studio shrinking to roughly 20 staff members, down from a reported 53 employees in later years. NetEase Games then acquired Grasshopper Manufacture in 2021, with the deal’s financial terms never disclosed. Now, five years later, Grasshopper is independent again.
Grasshopper Manufacture Ownership Timeline
| Year | Event | Ownership Status |
|---|---|---|
| 1998 | Founded by Goichi Suda in Suginami, Tokyo | Independent |
| 2013 | Acquired by GungHo Online Entertainment | GungHo subsidiary |
| 2018 | Absorption-type corporate split under GungHo | Semi-independent under GungHo |
| 2021 | Acquired by NetEase Games (terms undisclosed) | NetEase subsidiary |
| 2026 | Ships Romeo Is a Dead Man, then splits from NetEase | Independent (effective Oct. 1, 2026) |
Why the Timing Points to Romeo Is a Dead Man
The fact sheet behind this story is explicit that the decision followed completion of Romeo Is a Dead Man and subsequent discussions about the studio’s future. That’s a meaningful detail because it’s the only game Grasshopper released during its entire NetEase ownership window. A five-year acquisition that produced a single shipped title, followed immediately by a split, invites obvious questions about whether the partnership delivered what either side expected.
Neither Grasshopper nor NetEase has published sales figures, budget details, or a post-mortem explaining why only one game came out of the arrangement. What is on the record is that the split is being presented as amicable on both sides, and that Suda has publicly credited NetEase’s cooperation in reaching the decision. Until one side says otherwise, the professional, low-drama framing is what the public record actually supports.
NetEase’s Broader Pullback From Overseas Studios
Grasshopper’s exit doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It lands roughly a year and a half after reports first surfaced that NetEase was looking to divest a significant share of its overseas game-development teams, a strategy shift that has played out unevenly across NetEase’s portfolio of Western and Japanese studios since. NetEase spent aggressively on international acquisitions and new studio launches through the early 2020s, then pulled back as its own games business faced tighter margins and a more competitive domestic market in China.
That broader pattern, also noted in CGMagazine’s coverage of the split, is what turns a single studio story into an industry-wide one. Grasshopper is a well-known, well-liked developer with a 28-year history, but it is also a relatively small operation by modern AAA standards. If NetEase is willing to let go of a studio with Suda51’s name and cultural cachet attached, it raises the question of which other overseas teams under the NetEase umbrella are being quietly re-evaluated.
How This Compares to Other 2026 Studio Shakeups
2026 has been a turbulent year for game studio ownership, and Grasshopper’s split sits alongside several other restructuring stories shattered.io has tracked this year. Microsoft cut 268 Xbox jobs while folding Halo development into Activision and merging Playground Games with Turn 10. Bethesda brought Obsidian Entertainment on as a second Fallout studio. Independent studios fared worse: Build A Rocket Boy shut down after cutting 300 jobs following MindsEye, Polyarc closed after 12 years with 29 layoffs, and Heart Machine cut staff as part of a 2026 layoff wave that has topped 14,000 industry jobs.
Grasshopper’s situation is different from all of those in one important respect: nobody has reported layoffs at the studio itself. This is an ownership change, not a downsizing. That distinction matters for the roughly several dozen people who work at Grasshopper, and it’s why the studio’s public messaging leans on opportunity rather than survival.
2026 Studio Restructuring at a Glance
| Studio | Parent/Publisher Involved | Type of Change | Reported Job Impact |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grasshopper Manufacture | NetEase Games | Ownership split, studio stays intact | None reported |
| Xbox Game Studios | Microsoft | Studio mergers, Halo moved to Activision | 268 jobs cut |
| Bethesda Game Studios | Microsoft / ZeniMax | Obsidian added as second Fallout studio | Internal reassignment |
| Build A Rocket Boy | Independent | Studio shutdown after MindsEye | 300 jobs cut |
| Polyarc | Independent | Studio closure after 12 years | 29 jobs cut |
| Heart Machine | Independent | Staff reductions | Contributed to 2026’s 14,000+ industry layoffs |
What Independence Actually Buys Grasshopper
Independence is a trade-off, not a pure upgrade. Under NetEase, Grasshopper had a funding backstop and a large publisher’s distribution muscle behind Romeo Is a Dead Man. As an independent studio again, Grasshopper regains full creative control over what it makes and who it works with, but it also has to line up funding and publishing for every future project on its own, or through new external partners it hasn’t named yet.
The studio’s own statement leans into that trade-off rather than downplaying it, pointing to improved self-publishing know-how as the reason it feels ready to go it alone. That’s consistent with a broader trend among mid-sized Japanese developers in 2026, several of which have been testing hybrid models that mix self-publishing on digital storefronts with selective licensing deals for console and physical releases.
The NetEase Relationship Isn’t Necessarily Over
Suda’s comment about cherishing the relationship and looking forward to future collaboration is worth taking at face value rather than reading as boilerplate. NetEase remains one of the largest game companies in the world by revenue, and a clean, cooperative exit keeps the door open for licensing deals, co-publishing arrangements on future Grasshopper titles, or even follow-up work on the Romeo Is a Dead Man property if the studio wants to continue it. None of that is confirmed. It’s simply the most plausible reading of language both sides chose to use publicly.
Suda Has Talked About Independence Before
This isn’t the first time Suda has framed Grasshopper as fundamentally independent in spirit, even under corporate ownership. In a 2022 interview discussing the studio’s relationship with NetEase, Suda said, as documented by Gematsu: “At Grasshopper, our studio has been quite independent for a long time.” That comment predates the current split by four years and was made in a different context, but it does suggest creative autonomy has been a consistent priority for Suda across multiple ownership structures, not a position he adopted only once the NetEase deal ended.
What’s Still Unconfirmed
A few things genuinely aren’t known yet, and readers should treat any claim otherwise with skepticism. The identity of the publisher, if any, for Grasshopper’s next game has not been announced. The precise legal terms of the separation, including whether NetEase retains any equity stake, licensing rights to past Grasshopper titles, or a right of first refusal on future projects, have not been made public by either company. Financial details of both the 2021 acquisition and the 2026 split remain undisclosed.
That list of unknowns is worth keeping in mind against the volume of fan speculation likely to circulate in the coming days, ranging from guesses about a new No More Heroes entry to theories about which publisher might step in next. None of that is confirmed by Grasshopper, Suda, or NetEase as of this writing.
Market and Industry Impact
For NetEase, losing Grasshopper is a small line item financially but a visible one reputationally. NetEase has spent years trying to position itself as a credible home for creator-driven Japanese and Western studios, competing with the likes of Sony, Microsoft, and Tencent for acquisition targets. Every high-profile studio that exits NetEase’s umbrella, however amicably, makes that pitch a little harder to sell to the next founder deciding whether to sell a majority stake.
For the wider Japanese indie and mid-tier development scene, Grasshopper’s move is a useful data point. Studios watching how Suda handles going independent again, after two prior acquisitions, will be looking at whether Grasshopper can actually fund and ship a new title without a major publisher fronting the budget. If it can, that’s a small but real signal that self-publishing has matured enough for known-name Japanese studios to bet on it. If Grasshopper struggles to announce a next project within the following year, that will be read as evidence the opposite is true.
Predictions: Where Grasshopper Manufacture Goes From Here
- Expect Grasshopper to stay quiet on next-game details through the rest of 2026, given that no publisher or project has been named as of the September 30 announcement.
- A hybrid publishing model is likely, combining self-publishing on PC storefronts with a separate deal for console distribution, mirroring moves other mid-sized Japanese studios have made in 2026.
- Some form of future collaboration with NetEase, even informal, is plausible given Suda’s public comments, though it will likely take the form of licensing or co-publishing rather than renewed ownership.
- Expect renewed interest in Grasshopper’s back catalog, particularly the No More Heroes series, as fans speculate about the studio’s next creative direction now that it isn’t tied to a single owner’s release strategy.
- Watch for other NetEase-owned overseas studios to face similar questions about their long-term status, given the pattern reporting has already identified in NetEase’s international strategy.
Historical Context: Why Studio Independence Cycles Keep Happening
Grasshopper’s back-and-forth between independence and acquisition isn’t unusual in Japanese game development. Mid-sized studios with strong creative identities are frequently attractive acquisition targets precisely because of a founder’s reputation, then struggle to scale that same identity inside a larger corporate structure built around quarterly performance expectations. GungHo’s 2013 acquisition of Grasshopper, the 2018 restructuring that loosened that arrangement, and NetEase’s 2021 purchase all fit that broader pattern of studios cycling between ownership and autonomy roughly once every five to eight years.
What makes 2026 different is the sheer volume of restructuring happening across the industry at once, from Xbox’s studio mergers to a wave of independent-studio shutdowns. Grasshopper’s split is a comparatively soft landing next to stories like Konami’s continued investment in new studio partnerships for Silent Hill, where publishers are still actively betting on external developers even as others retreat. The contrast says less about any one studio’s health and more about how unevenly publishers are managing risk across their portfolios this year.
What Comes Next for Fans and Industry Watchers
For players, the practical impact of the split is minimal in the short term. There’s no indication current Grasshopper titles, including Romeo Is a Dead Man, are affected by the ownership change, and no reason to expect access, updates, or storefront listings for existing games to change. The bigger question is what a self-publishing Grasshopper Manufacture chooses to make next, and whether it can get a new project funded and announced before fan attention moves on to the next industry story.
Industry watchers should keep an eye on two things over the next few months: whether NetEase makes any further announcements about its overseas studio portfolio, and whether Grasshopper names a new publishing or funding partner. Either development would confirm or complicate the amicable framing both companies have used so far.
Frequently Asked Questions
What happened between Grasshopper Manufacture and NetEase Games?
Grasshopper Manufacture announced on September 30, 2026 that it had separated from NetEase Games and would operate as an independent developer again, effective October 1, 2026.
When does Grasshopper Manufacture’s independence take effect?
The separation is scheduled to take effect on October 1, 2026, one day after the announcement.
Why did Grasshopper Manufacture leave NetEase Games?
The studio says the decision followed the completion of Romeo Is a Dead Man and subsequent discussions about its future. Goichi Suda described it as a mutual decision reached with NetEase’s cooperation, though full financial and strategic details have not been made public.
Who owns Grasshopper Manufacture now?
As of October 1, 2026, Grasshopper Manufacture operates as an independent developer, no longer owned by NetEase Games. No new majority owner has been announced.
Will Grasshopper Manufacture and NetEase Games work together again?
Both sides have said they value the relationship and are open to future collaboration, but no specific project or agreement has been confirmed.
What is Grasshopper Manufacture’s next game?
No next project or publisher has been announced. Any claims about a specific upcoming Grasshopper Manufacture game should be treated as unconfirmed until the studio makes an official statement.
How much did NetEase pay for Grasshopper Manufacture in 2021?
The acquisition price was not disclosed in 2021 and remains undisclosed.
Is Goichi Suda (Suda51) still leading Grasshopper Manufacture?
Yes. Goichi Suda, who founded the studio in 1998, is identified in reporting on the announcement as Grasshopper Manufacture’s representative director and CEO.
