Wada and Kimura exit Grasshopper Manufacture

Harvest Moon's Yasuhiro Wada and Little King's Story's Yoshiro Kimura have left Grasshopper Manufacture after less than a year with the developer.

Gamasutra confirmed the reports after the news began to circulate online.

Wada and Kimura have yet to comment on their departures.

Wada was formerly Grasshopper's COO, while Kimura was the chief creative officer. Both only joined the Japanese company, which recently released Shadows Of The Damned, in October 2010.

At the time, Grasshopper's director Giochi Suda had high hopes for the pair.

"This move will help us produce games in a more stable manner," he told Famitsu.

"We haven't released a single [original] title in the past year, which is something that caused a lot of regret in my mind. Having these two people join Grasshopper will make us a more sturdily-organised company, and it'll improve our development, technical, and release skills."

Wada seemed equally excited by the move.

"I think that's because this company plays home to a great deal of different cultures that all come together to discover types of fun that everyone can share. It's not a matter of marketing toward individual countries; it's about finding the inner antenna that tells you what's fun and what isn't."

Grasshopper Manufacture was founded in 1998 by Suda, and has achieved critical, if not always financial, success with titles like Killer 7 and No More Heroes.