Suda51's Grasshopper Manufacture Goes Independent Again as NetEase Keeps Walking Away From Studios

By CriticalPixel · 2026-09-30

Suda51's Grasshopper Manufacture is independent again, and NetEase is the one holding the door. On September 30 the studio behind No More Heroes, Killer7 and Romeo Is a Dead Man announced it is leaving the Chinese publisher, five years after NetEase bought it in 2021. The wording from Suda is warm, the timing is not an accident, and the pattern around it is hard to miss. NetEase has spent the last two years backing out of studios across the world, and this one at least walked out with its name and its staff intact. Whether that counts as a win depends on what a free Grasshopper does next.

Official Steam screenshot from Romeo Is a Dead Man by Grasshopper Manufacture

What Grasshopper actually announced

According to GamesIndustry.biz, which quotes the studio's press release, CEO Goichi Suda said the release of Romeo Is a Dead Man earlier this year pushed the team to think about where Grasshopper goes from here. "We found a strong desire to deliver titles in an even wider variety of styles to video game lovers everywhere," he wrote, adding that the studio "has chosen to move forward as an independent developer once again." He stressed that the call came after thorough discussions with NetEase Games and with their generous cooperation, and that both companies look forward to working together again if the chance comes up. Suda also said the studio has improved its own self-publishing know-how and now has a broad range of options, no matter how its games end up being published. What the announcement does not contain is just as telling: no new game, no headcount, no publishing partner, and no word on whether Romeo turned a profit.

Five years, one game

NetEase acquired Grasshopper from GungHo Online Entertainment in 2021 for an undisclosed sum, ending a stretch that began when the studio joined the GungHo Group in 2013. Grasshopper itself dates back to 1998 and built its cult reputation on Killer7, Shadows of the Damned and the No More Heroes series. Game Informer points out that Romeo Is a Dead Man is the only game the studio released under NetEase, which means five years of Chinese ownership produced a single shipped title. That game launched in February and, as Kotaku puts it, was excellent, and Steam lists Grasshopper Manufacture as both developer and publisher with user reviews sitting at Very Positive. Suda called it a game with high acclaim and great reviews but did not say whether it sold well, and that silence is the interesting part.

NetEase keeps heading for the exit

Kotaku frames the split as part of a systematic retreat. After an investment spree that put millions into studios big and small, and helped several Japanese developers leave established publishers to start their own shops, NetEase has been pulling back. Funding for Nagoshi Studio's Gang of Dragon, from the creator of Yakuza, was stopped earlier this year, and GPTRACK50, another startup it funded, is self-publishing its action roguelike Stupid Never Dies later this month. Game Informer adds the wider list: Worlds Untold in Canada was closed in 2024 just a year after it was unveiled, Jar of Sparks was put on ice in January, Liquid Sword in Sweden saw layoffs in 2025, and the entire US team on Marvel Rivals was let go months after that hit launched. That is a lot of studios funded on a wave of optimism and dropped when the spreadsheet changed.

Second official Steam screenshot from Romeo Is a Dead Man showing in-game action

Voluntary exit or reading the tea leaves

Suda makes clear the studio is leaving of its own volition, and nothing published so far contradicts that. Still, Game Informer raises the obvious question: with NetEase shedding teams at this pace, Grasshopper may have read the tea leaves and left before it was forced into layoffs or a shutdown. That reading fits the timeline well. A studio that shipped one game in five years, whose parent is walking away from Japanese development, has every reason to take the amicable exit while the goodwill is still on the table. Being on good terms also keeps the door open for NetEase to publish a future Grasshopper game without owning the studio, which is arguably the best outcome for both sides.

What comes next for Suda51

There is no word yet on what Grasshopper is building now that it is on its own. Game Informer notes that Suda said back in February, around the launch of Romeo Is a Dead Man, that the studio planned to release another game this year, and that remains to be seen with only a quarter of 2026 left. Going self-published does mean the studio can move faster and take stranger swings, which suits a developer whose whole brand is stranger swings. It also means every budget decision is now Grasshopper's own, with no corporate parent to soak up a miss. A small independent Suda51 project is a more comfortable fit for this studio than a NetEase sized one ever was.

How people are reacting

Reaction is limited so far, because the announcement is only hours old and most coverage is straight news. The posts I saw on X were curious rather than angry, with fans mostly wondering what a freed Suda51 makes next, but that is a handful of voices and not a consensus. Nobody in the coverage I read described the split as hostile, and Suda's own statement leans hard on gratitude toward NetEase.

Third official Steam screenshot from Romeo Is a Dead Man, the last game Grasshopper Manufacture made under NetEase

The CriticalPixel take

Good for Grasshopper, and a bad look for NetEase. Buying a beloved studio, shipping one game with it and then cutting it loose is not a strategy, it is a shopping trip that got cancelled at the register. The studio did its part, since Romeo Is a Dead Man landed with strong reviews, and the reward was a parent company that had already decided Japan was not worth the trouble. Suda51 keeps his team, his catalogue and his freedom, and gamers get the chance at another wonderfully unhinged Grasshopper game published on the studio's own terms. If NetEase's remaining overseas bets are watching, the message is clear: get out while the relationship is still friendly, because the next round of cuts will not ask nicely.