Grasshopper Manufacture was recently acquired by publisher GungHo, and some worried this move would change the focus of off-beat developer Goichi Suda. However, GungHo president Kazuki Morishita and Suda indicate that this move will give Suda more creative freedom and allow him to potentially explore the online sphere that he’s been looking into.
“I’d like Suda-san to remain focused on Grasshopper rather than GungHo as a whole,” said Moroshita. “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 a taking load off my own work. Basically, I’d like Grasshopper Manufacture to continue to make games in the manner they are accustomed to.”
“Around 2011, I was thinking about what I should do with the company, groping about in the dark to try and figure out the real purpose, the real value of Grasshopper Manufacture,” said Suda. “So, 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.”
Source: Edge
