In a recent interview with GamesIndustry, the Japanese game designer Suda51 has claimed that after the recent acquisition of Grasshopper Manufacture by GungHo, his games will sell better. He said that now they will be able to make their own sales and promotional plans, instead of being directed by the publishers.
He said that even though Grasshopper always had a strong base, the publishers treated them in a different manner as they were basically “indie”. Each publisher acted differently as per their own sales ideas which they thought would prove to be effective. But since at that time they were not a part of any group company, they were unable to put their own creative ideas directly into product sales. He expressed that there was a kind of a wall that always came up between the creative team and the sales group. But now he feels that being a part of GungHo will help a lot in this area as there will be better coordination between the designers and the sales team. They can pitch their creative ideas together which will result in better sales figures.
Suda also spoke about the creative aspect of creating and designing games. He said that when they create a game, the issue of keeping the sales figures high is not in their minds. The focus is on the creating a good game which can be enjoyed and thus can be internally satisfying for the designer. Even though the sales volume is important, from the point of view of an artist and creator, it is always important to pay most importance to the creation above all. It can be said that even though the sales volume of Suda51’s games have not been as per the publisher’s expectations in the past, the followers and players of his games have always been satisfied.
Suda51 has had some very successful games to his credit, like the sequel to No More Heroes, which was termed as No more Heroes: Desperate Struggle and received high praise. His latest game Killer Is Dead is scheduled to come out later this year, both for Xbox and PlayStation. Now with the publishers out of the way, it is to be seen how Grasshopper along with GungHo evolve their sales strategies n the coming days.