Grasshopper Manufacture, the game development studio led by Goichi ‘Suda51’ Suda and most known for its postmodern hack-and-slash No More Heroes franchise, is teasing a major announcement on 15 June 2023. A countdown has been set up on the Grasshopper website, with a simple tease stating: ‘Something’s gonna happen.’
At this stage, it’s currently unclear what exactly Grasshopper has planned, but we’ll learn more when the countdown ends on 15 June at 2:00 pm AEST. The timing doesn’t seem to align with any known Summer Game Fest activities, so it could be a dedicated showcase celebrating the 25th anniversary of the studio – or just a standalone game reveal.
Read: Summer Game Fest 2023 – Full event schedule
Whatever Grasshopper is cooking, it should be worth noting. The studio has become known for its wild creativity over the last decade, with titles like No More Heroes pushing the bounds of surreal video game storytelling.
The latest title in the series, No More Heroes 3, stars professional assassin Travis Touchdown as he fights off an alien invasion, taking on odd jobs like toilet cleaning and grass mowing to help pay for his entrance into ranked superhero battles. The further you dive into the game, the weirder it gets – and this seems to typify Grasshopper’s game lineup.
The studio has largely remained quiet since the release of NMH 3 in 2021, and while it has teased new releases, nothing has been confirmed yet. Given the countdown timer, June could mark the official reveal of Grasshopper’s next project, or the mystery game in the works at its Yabukiri Studio.
When Grasshopper was acquired by NetEase in 2021, it also announced it had plans for at least three major new games over the next decade – and any one of these could put in an appearance following the countdown’s end.
Stay tuned to the Grasshopper website for more details of this planned reveal.
