Grasshopper Manufacture announces separation from NetEase as gamers breathe a sigh of relief!

We’ve certainly had a lot of bad news regarding dev studios as of late, Ninja Theory shutting down after 2 attempts for it to go independent falls through, Sony parting ways with Kojima productions for reasons we’ll never truly know, Nagoshi Studio shutting down just as buzz was building for its first title, Gang of Dragon. The last example actually ties into what this article is about, as NetEase was the primary funding source of Nagoshi Studio and the owner of the subject of this news post, Grasshopper Manufacture.

NetEase acquired Grasshopper Manufacture from GungHo Online Entertainment in 2021 (GungHo owned Grasshopper Manufacture since 2013) and this stewardship yielded Romeo is A Dead Man as part of the planned three major releases in a decade. However it seems it’s one and done as Grasshopper Manufacture announced it has separated from Netease returning to being an independent entity.

In a press release sent to the press, the studio expressed a desire to develop and release titles in a wider variety of genres and their experience in self publishing they are confident that they can go it alone moving forward.

With the rise of local talent within China, it seems companies such as Tencent and NetEase have scaled back on their international investments and these cuts have led to tragedies such as Nagoshi Studio, so Grasshopper Manufacture escaping relatively unscathed is probably the best news we could’ve received from the much beloved studio headed by the eclectic Suda51. I for one will look forward to hearing what’s next and hopefully they will defy expectations.