Type Subsidiary Founder Goichi Suda Number of employees 35 (2016) | Industry Video games Motto "Punk's Not Dead" Parent organization GungHo Online | |
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Key people Goichi Suda (CEO)
Yasuhiro Wada (COO) Website www.grasshopper.co.jp/en/ Headquarters Chiyoda, Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan Founded 30 April 1998, Suginami, Tokyo, Japan Video games Let It Die, Lollipop Chainsaw, No More Heroes, Killer7, Shadows of the Damned Profiles | ||
Grasshopper Manufacture Inc. (の株式会社グラスホッパー・マニファクチュア, No Kabushikigaisha Gurasuhoppā Manifakuchua) is a Japanese video game developer founded on 30 March 1998 in Suginami, Japan. Grasshopper gained mainstream attention in 2005 for the GameCube and PlayStation 2 game Killer7. In addition to Killer7, they have developed Michigan: Report from Hell (released in Japan, Europe) and a number of Japan-only titles. Grasshopper Manufacture was also responsible for the Nintendo DS game Contact, the Wii game No More Heroes and its sequel No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle, and Shadows of the Damned. The company is headed by Goichi Suda, also known as Suda51, and is noted for its original and imaginative titles - ones that are also fraught with financial risk. Potential losses are often made up by the development of games based on popular anime franchises, such as Samurai Champloo: Sidetracked, Blood+: One Night Kiss, and Rebuild of Evangelion: Sound Impact.
In May 2007, Suda announced during a speech at the 2007 Game Developers Conference that Grasshopper was at the time working on three titles for the Wii, two of which have now been released: No More Heroes and Fatal Frame IV. There is no information on the status of the third Wii game in development then.
Grasshopper was said to be working on an Xbox 360 title, and have presented a concept for a PlayStation 3 game called Kurayami, a non-linear action adventure inspired by the worrying and confused universe of the Czech writer Franz Kafka, whom Goichi Suda admires. This was later renamed Shadows of the Damned.
On 30 January 2013, Grasshopper Manufacture was acquired by GungHo Online Entertainment.