{"id":73208,"date":"2026-10-01T12:47:28","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T03:47:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=73208"},"modified":"2026-10-01T12:47:29","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T03:47:29","slug":"suda51s-grasshopper-manufacture-splits-from-netease-games-to-go-independent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/suda51s-grasshopper-manufacture-splits-from-netease-games-to-go-independent\/","title":{"rendered":"Suda51&#8217;s Grasshopper Manufacture splits from NetEase Games to go independent"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Grasshopper Manufacture CEO Goichi \u201cSuda51\u201d Suda has announced that the Japanese game studio will no longer be owned by NetEase Games as of October 1, once again becoming independent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The split comes after NetEase Games\u2019 five-year ownership of Grasshopper Manufacture, which was the result of an <a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20211022-4618\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">equity transfer agreement<\/a> that involved the latter\u2019s former parent company, GungHo Online Entertainment. The studio produced two titles under NetEase Games: 2024\u2019s Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered (a remaster of the 2011 action-adventure game) and 2026\u2019s Romeo is a Dead Man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to Suda, the decision to go independent was reached after thorough discussions with NetEase Games, which gave its generous support to the studio. While Grasshopper Manufacture has experience with self-publishing games, it is still open to collaborating with other studios and publishers (including NetEase Games) in the future. In the CEO&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/suda_51\/status\/2105292997760057778?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">own words<\/a>, Grasshopper Manufacture is now ready for the &#8220;next fucking adventure.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1689\" height=\"946\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1689px) 100vw, 1689px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/20261001-73208-header.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-73210\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/20261001-73208-header.jpg 1689w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/20261001-73208-header-380x213.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/20261001-73208-header-768x430.jpg 768w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/20261001-73208-header-1536x860.jpg 1536w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With so many options for developing and publishing, Suda says that Grasshopper Manufacture\u2019s next course of action is to continue planning and developing unique games, all of which feature the \u201cNO GAME NO LIFE\u201d philosophy and distinct style that players have come to associate with the studio. As the studio nears its 30th anniversary, the developers sincerely ask fans for their continued support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Related: <a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/interviews\/interview-suda51-on-the-resurrection-of-shadows-of-the-damned-his-undying-love-for-zelda-and-getting-more-directly-involved-in-game-development\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Interview: Suda51 on the resurrection of Shadows of the Damned, his undying love for Zelda, and getting more directly involved in game development<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/one-of-suda51s-wild-unused-romeo-is-a-dead-man-ideas-included-tiring-out-players-fingers-with-button-mashing-right-before-boss-fights\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>One of Suda51\u2019s wild unused Romeo Is a Dead Man ideas included tiring out players\u2019 fingers with button-mashing right before boss fights<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Grasshopper Manufacture CEO Goichi \u201cSuda51\u201d Suda has announced that the Japanese game studio will no longer be owned by NetEase Games as of October 1, once again becoming independent. The split comes after NetEase Games\u2019 five-year ownership of Grasshopper Manufacture, which was the result of an equity transfer agreement that involved the latter\u2019s former parent company, GungHo Online Entertainment. The studio produced two titles under NetEase Games: 2024\u2019s Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered (a remaster of the 2011 action-adventure game) and 2026\u2019s Romeo is a Dead Man. According to Suda, the decision to go independent was reached after thorough discussions with NetEase Games, which gave its generous support to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":73211,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","autoblue_enabled":false,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[],"autoblue_post_url":"","autoblue_publish_document":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-73208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Suda51&#039;s Grasshopper Manufacture splits from NetEase Games to go independent - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/suda51s-grasshopper-manufacture-splits-from-netease-games-to-go-independent\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Suda51&#039;s Grasshopper Manufacture splits from NetEase Games to go independent - AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Grasshopper Manufacture CEO Goichi \u201cSuda51\u201d Suda has announced that the Japanese game studio will no longer be owned by NetEase Games as of October 1, once again becoming independent. The split comes after NetEase Games\u2019 five-year ownership of Grasshopper Manufacture, which was the result of an equity transfer agreement that involved the latter\u2019s former parent company, GungHo Online Entertainment. The studio produced two titles under NetEase Games: 2024\u2019s Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered (a remaster of the 2011 action-adventure game) and 2026\u2019s Romeo is a Dead Man. According to Suda, the decision to go independent was reached after thorough discussions with NetEase Games, which gave its generous support to [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/suda51s-grasshopper-manufacture-splits-from-netease-games-to-go-independent\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-10-01T03:47:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-10-01T03:47:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/20260930-73208-header.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1672\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"941\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Carlos &quot;Zoto&quot; Zotomayor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Carlos &quot;Zoto&quot; Zotomayor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Suda51's Grasshopper Manufacture splits from NetEase Games to go independent - AUTOMATON WEST","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/suda51s-grasshopper-manufacture-splits-from-netease-games-to-go-independent\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Suda51's Grasshopper Manufacture splits from NetEase Games to go independent - AUTOMATON WEST","og_description":"Grasshopper Manufacture CEO Goichi \u201cSuda51\u201d Suda has announced that the Japanese game studio will no longer be owned by NetEase Games as of October 1, once again becoming independent. The split comes after NetEase Games\u2019 five-year ownership of Grasshopper Manufacture, which was the result of an equity transfer agreement that involved the latter\u2019s former parent company, GungHo Online Entertainment. The studio produced two titles under NetEase Games: 2024\u2019s Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered (a remaster of the 2011 action-adventure game) and 2026\u2019s Romeo is a Dead Man. According to Suda, the decision to go independent was reached after thorough discussions with NetEase Games, which gave its generous support to [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/suda51s-grasshopper-manufacture-splits-from-netease-games-to-go-independent\/","og_site_name":"AUTOMATON WEST","article_published_time":"2026-10-01T03:47:28+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-10-01T03:47:29+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1672,"height":941,"url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/20260930-73208-header.webp","type":"image\/webp"}],"author":"Carlos \"Zoto\" Zotomayor","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_site":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Carlos \"Zoto\" Zotomayor","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/suda51s-grasshopper-manufacture-splits-from-netease-games-to-go-independent\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/suda51s-grasshopper-manufacture-splits-from-netease-games-to-go-independent\/"},"author":{"name":"Carlos \"Zoto\" Zotomayor","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/2812ca8facd5f161edfbc531cf81eb31"},"headline":"Suda51&#8217;s Grasshopper Manufacture splits from NetEase Games to go independent","datePublished":"2026-10-01T03:47:28+00:00","dateModified":"2026-10-01T03:47:29+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/suda51s-grasshopper-manufacture-splits-from-netease-games-to-go-independent\/"},"wordCount":274,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/suda51s-grasshopper-manufacture-splits-from-netease-games-to-go-independent\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/20260930-73208-header.webp","keywords":["News (Japan-related)"],"articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/suda51s-grasshopper-manufacture-splits-from-netease-games-to-go-independent\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/suda51s-grasshopper-manufacture-splits-from-netease-games-to-go-independent\/","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/suda51s-grasshopper-manufacture-splits-from-netease-games-to-go-independent\/","name":"Suda51's Grasshopper Manufacture splits from NetEase Games to go independent - AUTOMATON WEST","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/suda51s-grasshopper-manufacture-splits-from-netease-games-to-go-independent\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/suda51s-grasshopper-manufacture-splits-from-netease-games-to-go-independent\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/20260930-73208-header.webp","datePublished":"2026-10-01T03:47:28+00:00","dateModified":"2026-10-01T03:47:29+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/suda51s-grasshopper-manufacture-splits-from-netease-games-to-go-independent\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/suda51s-grasshopper-manufacture-splits-from-netease-games-to-go-independent\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/suda51s-grasshopper-manufacture-splits-from-netease-games-to-go-independent\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/20260930-73208-header.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/20260930-73208-header.webp","width":1672,"height":941},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/suda51s-grasshopper-manufacture-splits-from-netease-games-to-go-independent\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"\u30db\u30fc\u30e0","item":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Suda51&#8217;s Grasshopper Manufacture splits from NetEase Games to go independent"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/","name":"AUTOMATON WEST","description":"AUTOMATON is a website that covers the Japanese gaming world. 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