Grasshopper team "to continue to make games in the manner they are accustomed to"

Publisher interference is not on the cards as part of GungHo's acquisition of Grasshopper Manufacture, both companies have said.

“I’d like Suda-san to remain focussed on Grasshopper rather than GungHo as a whole," GungHo president Kazuki Morishita told 4Gamer, as translated by EDGE.

"Of course now I’ll be involved in Grasshopper’s creative output, but since Suda-san is there, in a lot of ways it actually equates to taking a load off my own work. Basically, I’d like Grasshopper Manufacture to continue to make games in the manner they are accustomed to.”

Grasshopper founder and lead Goichi Suda said the acquisition will free him from some unwanted responsibilities.

"While we were deciding our next project, I was too absorbed in the management side of business to really focus on the creative. Morishita-san said ‘isn’t that my job?’, and it put me back on the right path," he said.

Suda also commented that although he's learned a lot from dealing with publishers as an independent developer and thinks the back-and-forth results in better games, he found it "difficult to truly grasp the creative reigns of a project" while doing so.

"I believe as a developer, to stay in this kind of environment is stifling. We really want to go all out in the future, and I think it’s necessary for a closer relationship with the publisher in order to do so," he said.

As an example, Suda said that if he wanted to make a game focussed on online play, he might have difficulty finding a publisher to fund it, but that on is own, Grasshopper doesn't have the experience to produce such a title.

"I’ve always wanted to make use of the strengths of online. It’s a layer I’ve wanted to add to our repertoire," he said, presumably implying that GungHo will nurture such a project thanks to its extensive online experience.

Grasshopper is well known for its over the top violence and unusual premises. Its next release is Killer is Dead, which is coming west thanks to XSEED and Deep Silver.

Thanks, GoNintendo.