Suda51: Publishers create low sales by treating indies differently

Goichi "Suda51" Suda is much happier with GungHo Online Entertainment, the new owner of his studio, Grasshopper Manufacture. Previously, the developer worked with publisher Kadokawa Games in Japan.

"Grasshopper does have a very strong base; it's just that because we were so indie, publishers were always [treating us] differently," he told GI.biz.

"Each publisher operates a different way, has different strategic ideas, so in terms of sales, what they did, was they kept creating what they thought was good," he said. "… So we believe that back then, when we were completely indie without a group company to be together with, we weren't able to translate our creative directly into sales because that was the part where there was always a wall between creative and sales transition wise."

Suda feels they'll see better sales with GungHo "because we will be able to choose our own strategy."

The main priority for Grasshopper, though, is gameplay — not sales figures. "As long as we think it's a good game then we'll be satisfied internally," he said.

In addition to working on a new intellectual property/action-role-playing game (neither Killer Is Dead nor No More Heroes), Suda is making a mobile game with GungHo.

He also said, "For Grasshopper, the biggest hurdle will be working on the online features area … and definitely that's something that we'll be working hard on to make sure that all Grasshopper titles have online features."

Suda's next release, Killer Is Dead, is coming this summer for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

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