Suda51 and Grasshopper Manufacture are fast becoming a force to be reckoned with in Japanese game development. Not only did he coax Resident Evil creator, Shinji Mikami, across to collaborate on their action/horror third-person title, Shadows of the Damned, but has now also recruited Harvest Moon creator, Yasuhiro Wada, to come into the company as its new Chief Operating Officer as well as Yoshiro Kimura, director of the critically acclaimed Wii title, Little King's Story as Grasshopper's Creative Director.

Aside from Shadows of the Damned, Grasshopper is also hard at work on a recently revealed Kinect title for Microsoft currently called "Codename D". Whether or not the two new additions will work directly on new IP is yet to be seen.

"We haven't released a single [original] title in the past year, which is something that caused a lot of regret in my mind," Suda51 told Japanese gaming mag, Famitsu (as translated by 1up). "Having these two people join Grasshopper will make us a more sturdily-organised company, and it'll improve our development, technical, and release skills."

Either way, it's great to see Japanese development moving forward with a young and clearly hungry studio given the state of stale development in the Land of the Rising Sun.