News
21 CommentsWarren Spector: 'I'm not ready to retire yet'
By Michael McWhertor on Feb 07, 2013 02.07.13
Game designer Warren Spector spoke at the DICE Summit today, one week after the closure of his Disney-owned studio, Junction Point, telling attendees that he's "not ready to retire yet" and still has games he wants to make. Spector opened his speech by clarifying that he wouldn't be talking about "the elephant in the room," the closure of Junction Point, Disney Interactive or the last eight years, "other than to say I worked with an amazing team on some amazing projects." "It's all good," he said, before launching into his talk, "The Graying of Gaming," in which Spector spoke about the aging gaming population, of which he is a part. "I had a little wake-up moment last week in the wake of events," the 57-year-old game designer said, following the shuttering of the studio he...
News
2 CommentsSuda51: Grasshopper Manufacture joined GungHo because it doesn't want to be an "outsourced developer"
By Tracey Lien on Jan 31, 2013 01.31.13
Grasshopper Manufacture boss Goichi "Suda51" Suda sold his studio to publisher GungHo Online Entertainment because he wants the studio to be an in-house developer, according to an interview with 4Gamer (in Japanese). GungHo announced earlier this week that it bought Grasshopper, the developer behind games like Lollipop Chainsaw, No More Heroes and the upcoming Killer Is Dead. Both Grasshopper and GungHo confirmed yesterday that all projects that are currently in development will continue as usual and will not be affected by the studio acquisition. When asked why he chose to sell the studio, Suda said that up until now Grasshopper Manufacture has mostly worked with big clients and many of the difficulties it has encountered has resulted from its role as an "outsourced developer." He...
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3 CommentsKiller is Dead coming to North America and Europe this summer
By Emily Gera on Jan 31, 2013 01.31.13
Killer is Dead, the upcoming title in development from Lollipop Chainsaw's Grasshopper Manufacture and SUDA51, will receive a global release thanks to a partnership between publishers Kadokawa Games, Deep Silver and Xseed Games. Xseed is now slated to bring the futuristic action game to North America, while publisher Deep Silver heads distribution of the game in Europe and Australia. Grasshopper Manufacture was recently acquired by GungHo Online Entertainment; However, the company stated the development of Grasshopper's titles would not be affected by this acquisition. In Killer is Dead, players will take on the role of an executioner called Mondo Zappa, whose weapons of choice are a Japanese sword held in one hand, coupled with interchangeable weapons in his left, artificial arm. The...
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6 CommentsGrasshopper Manufacture's current games in development will not be affected by GungHo acquisition
By Tracey Lien on Jan 30, 2013 01.30.13
GungHo Online Entertainment's recent acquisition of Lollipop Chainsaw and Killer Is Dead developer Grasshopper Manufacture will not affect any games that are already in development, the publisher announced today. GungHo is the publisher of games like Ragnarok Online, Ragnarok Odyssey and Dokuro. The company announced yesterday that it bought Grasshopper Manufacture, the studio behind the No More Heroes series, Shadows of the Damned, Lollipop Chainsaw and the recently announced Killer Is Dead. Today it confirmed that Grasshopper Manufacture will continue to operate under studio boss Goichi Suda and all titles already in development at the studio before the acquisition will not be affected by the deal. President and CEO of GungHo Online Entertainment, Kazuki Morishita (pictured above,...
News
4 CommentsRagnarok publisher buys Grasshopper Manufacture
By Tracey Lien on Jan 30, 2013 01.30.13
Ragnarok Online and Dragon Saga publisher GungHo Group bought Lollipop Chainsaw and Killer is Dead developer Grasshopper Manufacture, it was announced today. Publishing a statement on its website (in Japanese), company GungHo Group said it is merging the planning and development power of Grasshopper Manufacture with the power of managing online games cultivated by both companies to produce high quality content. We have reached out to GungHo group for comment on how the acquisition will affect Grasshopper's current and future projects. An extensive interview (in Japanese) conducted by 4Gamer with Grasshopper Manufacture's Goichi Suda and GungHo's Morishita Hee can be read here. We will update this story as more information is available. Update: Comments from Goichi "Suda51" Suda...
The Besties Podcast
11 CommentsThe Besties Podcast XV
By Justin McElroy on Jun 15, 2012 06.15.12
The Besties are back from their E3 sojourn and they've been playing all the latest games so they can talk about them, for that is the social contract you and they have entered into. Also, Russ Frushtick shares the sad, sad story of attempting to do a pull-up.
Review
51 CommentsLollipop Chainsaw review: evil dead
By Arthur Gies on Jun 14, 2012 06.14.12
LOLLIPOP CHAINSAW IS MORE FORGIVING THAN YOU MIGHT EXPECT The good news: Lollipop Chainsaw is more mechanically sound than anything Grasshopper Manufacture has put its name on. Less clunky than Shadows of the Damned, free of the burdens of motion control that hung around No More Heroes' neck like an albatross, Lollipop Chainsaw mostly plays as it should. There's a workable combo system that isn't overly reliant on the upgrades you can buy throughout the game, and you won't need to enlist the aid of a sensei to drill the combo commands into your head. Instead, some mild experimentation yields acceptable zombie-killing results. Lollipop Chainsaw establishes new enemy types that affect combat scenarios at a good pace. As the game progresses, fights become more about crowd...
Grasshopper Manufacture releasing five student-made Vita games free on PlayStation Plus
By Samit Sarkar on Jun 12, 2012 06.12.12
Octalide, an action game in which you help a cute orange creature flee from the giant ball of pointy teeth chasing it through the cosmos, is one of five student-developed PlayStation Vita games that Grasshopper Manufacture will release for free June 21st to Japan's PlayStation Plus subscribers. The other four winners fall into the puzzle genre: Eledive, a tilt- and touch-equipped block-pushing title; Mou, Sou Suru Shika Nai!!, in which you direct the path of crawling ants; Uni Uni Union, a switch-flipping puzzle-platformer; and Volt, in which you guide a robot through a power plant. Game design students built the titles as part of Grasshopper's Game Campus Festa initiative, which saw the Suda51-led Japanese studio behind such games as No More Heroes and Lollipop Chainsaw providing...
Lollipop Chainsaw's Fast Times inspiration and sequel aspiration
By Brian Crecente on Apr 07, 2012 04.07.12
Starring a chainsaw-wielding, lollipop-eating cheerleader and the still living, head of her boyfriend, Lollipop Chainsaw is the sort of hack and slash adventure game that only developer Suda51 could come up with. We sat down with him during a recent visit to New York to talk about the game's Fast Times at Ridgemont High inspirations, how the relationship between a cheerleader and a living head can still be touching and why Suda51 doesn't consider himself an auteur game maker.
Lollipop Chainsaw coming stateside June 12th
By Griffin McElroy on Mar 06, 2012 03.06.12
Lollipop Chainsaw, Grasshopper Manufacture's gas-powered, over-the-top zombie-carving game, will launch in North America June 12th, and in Europe June 13th. The announcements came at a Warner Bros. event at GDC 2012, which featured both zombie and cheerleader cosplayers, a combination guaranteed to fill everyone in attendance with unbridled anxiety. Those launch dates line up troublingly well with Grasshopper's commercially tepid June 2011 release, Shadows of the Damned. Then again, that particular game didn't feature some of the elements seen in Lollipop Chainsaw's latest batch of screenshots, which is to say, characters who vaguely resemble Bootsy Collins. We've got our fingers crossed for more cameos by members of the Parliament Funkadelic.
