China-based NetEase Games acquired Grasshopper Manufacture, the studio behind the No More Heroes series, Lollipop Chainsaw, and more, back in 2021. Now, months after the launch of Romeo is a Dead Man, the studio’s latest release, Grasshopper Manufacture has split from NetEase to become an independent studio once more.
Grasshopper Manufacture CEO Goichi Suda, better known as Suda51, published a press release today announcing the split, saying the decision came after thorough discussions with NetEase and “their generous cooperation.” Romeo is a Dead Man is the only game Grasshopper released under NetEase.
“Having finally completed this all-hands project [Romeo is a Dead Man], 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,” Suda51 writes in the press release. “As such, Grasshopper Manufacture has chosen to move forward as an independent developer once again.
“This decision was reached after thorough discussions with NetEase Games, and with their generous cooperation. We continue to cherish the amazing relationship our companies have built, and look forward to further collaboration when the opportunity arrives. 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.”
This split comes roughly a year and a half after word arrived that NetEase was looking to divest itself of most of its overseas teams, as reported by Game File. In the past couple of years, that’s been evident, too, with NetEase closing Canada-based developer Worlds Untold in 2024, just a year after the company unveiled the studio. In January, NetEase put Jar of Sparks, a studio it helped open in 2022, on ice; in 2025, it laid off workers at Liquid Swords, its Sweden-based studio it had invested in in 2022. Months after the launch of Marvel Rivals, a successful Overwatch-like shooter that uses Marvel heroes and villains as playable characters, NetEase laid off the entire U.S. team developing the game.
Suda51 makes clear Grasshopper Manufacture is leaving of its own volition, with “generous cooperation” from NetEase, but it’s possible the studio read the tea leaves and left voluntarily before being forced to lay off staff or shut down.
There’s no word on what Grasshopper Manufacture is up to now that it’s newly independent, but Suda51 said back in February, around the launch of Romeo is a Dead Man, that the studio plans to release another game this year (thanks, GameSpot). That remains to be seen.
In the meantime, read Game Informer’s Romeo is a Dead Man review.