Nintendo has just announced the acquisition of the Canadian software developer Next Level Games, the studio is best known for the critically acclaimed Luigi’s Mansion 3.
Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa confirmed that 100% of the shares of the studio has been purchased, the studio and its development team will be a wholly-owned subsidiary of Nintendo. The Acquisition is expected to be official on March 1, 2021.
Next Level Games is a studio established in Vancouver, Canada under the direction of Douglas Tronsgard, CEO of the company. The studio has nearly two decades of experience producing games for several platforms.
Next Level Games’ shares are currently held entirely by its owner-directors and employees. A number of owner-directors recently determined that the time is right for them to sell their shares, and Next Level Games, therefore, began exploring potential sale transactions. Completion of the Acquisition will serve to:
- “Secure the availability of NLG development resources, including development expertise”: by buying the company, Nintendo is making sure the company will now dedicate 100% of its resources towards development for Nintendo platforms;
- “Facilitate an anticipated improvement in development speed and quality by enabling closer communication and exchange of staff with the Nintendo development team”: now Next Level Games is a subsidiary, it has access to all Nintendo’s development resources.
The first project of the studio was the 2003’s sports game NHL Hitz Pro for PS2, Xbox, and GameCube. Interestingly, Nintendo hired the services of the studio in 2005 for a sports game based on the Super Mario franchise, the project was Mario Strikers for GameCube.
The good relationship between companies ended up in more IPs from Nintendo being produced for Nintendo Wii, Nintendo 3DS, and Nintendo Switch. Next Level Games has produced: Punch-Out!!, Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon, Metroid Prime: Federation Force, and Luigi’s Mansion 3.
Source: Nintendo
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