No More Heroes Dev Working With Square?

Grasshopper Manufacture, the studio behind brazenly weird games like Killer7 and No More Heroes, may be working with Square-Enix on an unannounced project.

For a self-proclaimed “video game band” boasting the motto “Punk’s Not Dead,” Grasshopper Manufacture, the makers of Killer7 and No More Heroes, sure seem to be working with a lot gigantic companies. Their latest act of selling their punk credibility (I kid) to soulless money-grubbing corporations? A partnership with none other than Japanese mega-publisher Square-Enix.

Siliconera noticed on Grasshopper’s newly redesigned website a list of the company’s “primary business partners.” Aside from Microsoft and Sony, every company on the list has or will be publishing a Grasshopper Manufacture game.

The only anomaly? Square-Enix. They’re on the list but haven’t published a Grasshopper game, which, to any conclusion-jumping mind, would imply that they will be doing so sometime in the future. This would seem like a bizarre partnership for anyone familiar with both parties. Grasshopper makes obtuse, arguably un-commercial and unarguably weird games, by any cultural standards. Square-Enix makes and publishes bestselling monoliths of money making.

Let’s not forget, however, that Grasshopper is no stranger to partnerships with huge corporate entities. Studio mastermind Suda51 is working on a horror game with Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami, to be published by none other than Electronic Arts. On top of that, sometimes they just need to make money, which in the past has meant doing Shining Soul for Sega or Fatal Frame for Tecmo. You can’t be punk 24/7. You would starve.

Square-Enix, meanwhile, has been doing everything it can in recent times to diversify its portfolio, from publishing war strategy games to Geometry Wars-style shooters. So it could be a fruitful partnership for both companies, and hopefully a fruitful one for gamers as well.