Nintendo has moved to acquire the remaining outstanding shares in Next Level Games, the studio behind games like Luigi’s Mansion 3.
The acquisition is expected to close March 1st, pending things like shareholder approval and regulatory approval by the Investment Canada Act.
Once it goes through, Nintendo will be the sole proprietor of the studio, making them a first-party studio under the publisher.
Next Level Games has developed several titles for Nintendo IPs in the past, most notably including Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon for the Nintendo 3DS and Lugi’s Mansion 3 for the Nintendo Switch.
They’ve also developed other titles such as Punch Out! for the Wii, as well as Mario Strikers for the Game Cube and its Wii Follow-up Mario Strikers Charged.
Since the company is based in Vancouver, Canada, the acquisition would have to go through Canadian regulatory boards to make sure nothing shady was happening.
In Nintendo’s Context of Acquisition, they said that acquiring the studio would allow them to allocate more resources to develop their games.
“Completion of the Acquisition will serve to secure the availability of Next Level Games development resources for Nintendo, including development expertise, as well as facilitate an anticipated improvement in development speed and quality by enabling closer communication and exchange of staff with the Nintendo development team”, the statement reads.
(Source: Gematsu)
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