Grasshopper teams with Digital Reality on Sine Mora
3D Xbox Live and PSN download planned as first of series of co-productions
No More Heroes developer Grasshopper Manufacture has announced a partnership with Digital Reality to co-develop a range of new games, beginning with side-scrolling shooter Sine Mora.
The announcement was made at the ongoing Gamescom event in Germany and will see Sine Mora released on Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network. The game will use 3D display technology and features a "unique twist" on time manipulation.
No visuals of the game were released to press, but further information and details of additional title are promised in the coming months.
"We think we can strongly benefit from having an ally such as Digital Reality in the digital publishing realm, who can provide long term online publishing services to its partners, and to gamers." said Goichi Suda, CEO of Grasshopper Manufacture.
"The partnership with Grasshopper is an important step for Digital Reality," said Andras Peller, CEO of Digital Reality. "This collaboration with a Japanese top-tier developer pursues the development of our publishing line-up, whilst offering creative freedom to developers who want to make high value titles for online distribution."
Grasshopper and CEO Goichi Suda (aka Suda51) are known for a series of cult titles - including Flower, Sun and Rain, killer7, and No More Heroes - distinguished by distinctive visuals and multifaceted storytelling.
Although none have been major commercial successes Suda is well-respected within the industry and currently has unannounced titles planned with both Resident Evil's Shinji Mikai at Electronic Arts and the mysterious Project S with Metal Gear's Hideo Kojima.
Digital Reality is a Hungarian developer best known for its work on strategy games such as Imperium Galactica, although in recent years the company has also established its own online game service. This appears to be the primary motivation for the Grasshopper partnership.