Grasshopper Manufacture Returns to Independence After NetEase Split

Grasshopper Manufacture is independent once again. The Japanese developer, best known for the No More Heroes series and its deliberately unconventional approach to action games, has confirmed that it has separated from NetEase after five years under the Chinese internet and games company's ownership.

CEO Goichi "SUDA51" Suda announced the change on September 30, describing the decision as the result of detailed conversations between the two companies. The split ends a relationship that began with NetEase's acquisition of Grasshopper Manufacture in 2021, but Suda's message struck a notably appreciative tone rather than framing the move as a hostile break.

For Grasshopper, returning to independence represents more than a corporate status update. Suda said the studio wants to make games in a broader variety of styles for players around the world, while retaining the distinctive personality that has defined its work for decades. The developer also believes it is now in a stronger position to consider how its future releases are published, including the possibility of handling more of that work itself.

A new chapter after five years with NetEase

NetEase acquired Grasshopper Manufacture in 2021, bringing Suda's studio into a larger international games business at a time when the company was expanding its investment in creators and teams outside China. The arrangement gave Grasshopper a period of backing while it worked on its next major project, and the studio has now reached a point where it intends to operate on its own once more.

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In his statement, Suda said Grasshopper arrived at the decision after completing an intensive project involving the whole team and reflecting on what should come next. He characterized the separation as one made with NetEase's cooperation, and stressed that Grasshopper values the relationship the companies developed during the ownership period.

That language matters because it leaves the door open for future cooperation. Independence does not necessarily mean the two businesses can never work together again; Suda explicitly indicated that Grasshopper would welcome collaboration if an appropriate opportunity emerges. What has changed is that Grasshopper will no longer be operating as a NetEase-owned studio.

"Having finally completed this all-hands project, as we reflected on the next stage of Grasshopper Manufacture's future, we found a strong desire to deliver titles in an even wider variety of styles to video game lovers everywhere," Suda said.

The "all-hands project" is Romeo Is a Dead Man, which Grasshopper released earlier in 2026. The game is an arcade-style action-adventure centered on an FBI investigator traveling across space and time in pursuit of criminals. It was self-published by Grasshopper Manufacture, a significant detail given the studio's current comments about expanding its publishing options.

Romeo Is a Dead Man and the value of self-publishing experience

Romeo Is a Dead Man appears to have played an important role in Grasshopper's thinking. Suda said the game was received with strong critical praise and favorable reviews, though he did not provide sales figures or say whether it met any particular commercial target. There is therefore no confirmation that the game's performance directly prompted the decision to leave NetEase.

Still, releasing a game itself gives a studio practical experience that can be especially valuable after it becomes independent. Publishing is not simply a matter of putting a game on sale. It can encompass production planning, marketing, platform relationships, certification, regional distribution, community management, post-launch support, and the financial risks attached to all of those decisions. For a studio with Grasshopper's identity, greater familiarity with those responsibilities may offer more freedom in choosing partners, schedules, audiences, and the scale of individual projects.

Suda said Grasshopper has improved its self-publishing knowledge and now has a broad set of choices available for its future games. That does not commit the developer to self-publishing everything it makes. Instead, it suggests a flexible model: Grasshopper could publish a project itself when that is the best fit, work with a publisher where additional reach or resources are useful, or potentially revisit partnerships with companies including NetEase.

The studio's priority, Suda said, is continuing to create unusual games that carry Grasshopper's recognizable flavor. He referred to the company's "NO GAME NO LIFE" ethos, presenting it as a standard that future projects should maintain while seeking higher quality. That phrasing will be familiar to followers of a developer whose catalogue has rarely chased the safest or most conventional design trends.

What independence could mean creatively

Grasshopper Manufacture's best-known games tend to combine exaggerated action, genre storytelling, dark comedy, pop-culture references, and striking visual presentation. The studio's games can be divisive, but their individuality has made the Grasshopper name meaningful to players looking for experiences outside a standardized blockbuster formula.

Suda's reference to a "wider variety of styles" is broad, and the announcement does not reveal any new game, genre, release timing, or publishing deal. It would be premature to treat it as confirmation of a particular No More Heroes follow-up or any other specific project. What it does establish is an intention to avoid being defined too narrowly by one series or one format.

That could be important for an independent developer. A studio's ability to take creative chances is often tied to its financing and distribution structure, and different projects can call for very different levels of investment. With self-publishing experience in place and the ability to consider outside partners on a project-by-project basis, Grasshopper may have more room to match each game with a release strategy suited to its ambitions.

There are challenges as well. Operating independently means taking on more responsibility for securing resources and managing business risk. Even acclaimed games are not automatically commercial successes, and Grasshopper has not disclosed sales results for Romeo Is a Dead Man. The company's upbeat announcement should therefore be read as a statement of direction, not a full financial picture of the transition.

Part of a wider NetEase pullback in Japan

Grasshopper's departure arrives amid a wider shift in NetEase's approach to game development investments in Japan. In recent years, NetEase spent heavily on studios and veteran creators, including teams established by developers leaving major publishers. The company's strategy positioned it as a major source of funding for new Japanese development operations.

More recently, however, the company has appeared to be reducing that commitment. Nagoshi Studios, founded by Yakuza creator Toshihiro Nagoshi, initially received NetEase backing for its debut title, Gang of Dragon. Funding for that project was stopped earlier in 2026.

Another NetEase-backed startup, GPTRACK50, also appears to be moving forward without the same kind of continuing support. Its action roguelike Stupid Never Dies is set to be self-published later this month. Together with Grasshopper's return to independence, those developments point to a substantially more cautious role for NetEase in the Japanese development scene than the company pursued during its earlier investment push.

None of that means the affected developers are abandoning their games or their creative plans. Rather, it highlights the uncertainty that can follow a change in strategy at a large owner or investor. For studios, the ability to self-publish or locate alternative partners becomes especially important when the corporate environment shifts.

Grasshopper's next game remains unknown

For now, Grasshopper Manufacture has not announced what it will make next, whether it will publish its next release itself, or whether it has already lined up new business partners. The company has also not shared operational details about how the separation will affect its staffing, structure, or current development pipeline.

What is clear is that Suda sees the moment as an opportunity rather than a retreat. After five years with NetEase, the studio is again responsible for charting its own path, armed with more experience in publishing than it had before and a stated desire to explore more types of game.

For fans, the immediate takeaway is straightforward: Grasshopper Manufacture remains active, independent, and committed to making games that do not smooth away the peculiar qualities that made the studio stand out in the first place. Its next announcement will show how that renewed independence translates from a business decision into the next distinctly Grasshopper project.