Grasshopper Manufacture leaves NetEase and goes independent on October 1, 2026

Grasshopper Manufacture is independent again. The Japanese studio led by Goichi Suda — Suda51 — announced on September 30, 2026, that it is no longer part of NetEase Games as of October 1, 2026, ending an ownership that began with a buyout in 2021. The statement went out as a press announcement on Games Press, which sits behind a login; we read it as quoted by Game Informer and Game Developer.

Suda ties the decision to the end of Romeo is a Dead Man. “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,” he says, as quoted by Game Informer. He credits NetEase Games with “generous cooperation” in reaching the agreement.

What the NetEase years actually produced

The studio’s own product page is the clearest record of the period, and it is short: two entries dated after the 2021 buyout. It lists Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered, released October 31, 2024, with NetEase as publisher. And it lists Romeo is a Dead Man, released February 11, 2026, on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and Steam at $49.99 — with the publisher given as Grasshopper Manufacture itself.

That second line is the one to read twice. The only all-new game on that page from the NetEase years shipped under Grasshopper’s own name, not its parent’s. Further down, the same page reads like a tour of other people’s logos — Marvelous, Bandai Namco, Capcom, Sega, Nintendo, Level-5 and Kadokawa Games all appear in the publisher column. So when the statement says, per Game Developer, that the studio has improved its self-publishing capabilities and still intends to deliver “unique titles featuring the ‘NO GAME NO LIFE’ gaming experience,” it is describing something the studio has already done once. Independence changes who owns Grasshopper. It does not introduce a publishing model the studio has never tried.

How the 2021 deal was framed

When the acquisition was announced in October 2021, Suda described a division of labor: NetEase Games would advise on business planning and fund development, and the studio would keep the creative side. “We will be responsible for the creativity and production of games to ensure that we are able to continue to maintain the consistent ‘Grasshopper Manufacture flavor,’” he said then, in the statement Game Informer reported at the time. Before NetEase, Grasshopper had been part of GungHo Online Entertainment since 2013. The studio was founded in 1998.

Five years on, the funding half of that arrangement ends. Game Informer places the split alongside NetEase’s wider retreat from studios outside China. The Grasshopper statement itself makes no such link, and we don’t make it for them.

What we don’t know yet

No financial terms have been reported: not what Grasshopper or Suda paid, if anything, and not whether NetEase keeps any stake or rights. The reports we read say nothing about staffing. And there is no announced next game — Game Informer recalls that Suda spoke in February 2026 of releasing another title before year’s end, and adds that this remains to be seen.

The first concrete signal will be the next release’s publisher line. If it reads Grasshopper Manufacture again, the Romeo is a Dead Man model has become the plan. If it names a partner, the “wider variety of styles” Suda describes will have come with a wider variety of backers.