Just last night, GungHo Online Entertainment revealed that they had acquired famed Japanese developer Grasshopper Manufacture, the studio best known for games such as No More Heroes, Shadows of the Damned and Lollipop Chainsaw. For those keeping track, GungHo is sort of becoming a beast in the eastern world. Grasshopper is the company's fourth studio acquisition, along with Ragnarok creator Gravity, Lunar and Grandia developer Game Arts and Acquire, the team behind the Tenchu series. For those worried about how this will impact the projects Grasshopper already has in development, like the recently announced Killer is Dead, fret not, for all current games will not be impacted by the acquisition.

In their press release this morning, GungHo had this to say about the news: "We believe the strength of a publisher lies in its creative talent so with the addition of Grasshopper Manufacture and Suda51 we are adding some of the most innovative talent in today’s gaming world to our stellar family of independently-operated studios,” President and CEO of GungHo Online Entertainment, Kazuki Morishita, said. He went on: "Suda51 projects are known to put a unique spin on every game so coupled with our proven ability to support development with AAA resources including a tailored online experience, we believe gamers will benefit from this collaboration.”

Founder and Managing Director of Grasshopper, Goichi Suda, commonly known as Suda51, had this to say in response: “By joining GungHo Online Entertainment, we are aligning ourselves with a strong, established publishing force that will support our vision to further create inspired new games that appeal players across the world. The Grasshopper team and I have many new ideas to share with our fans as we move forward so this union with GOE will help us realize our future plans.”