Nintendo Acquires Luigi's Mansion 3 Developer

Nintendo today announced the acquisition of the Vancouver-based studio Next Level Games, developer [...]

By Rollin Bishop

Nintendo today announced the acquisition of the Vancouver-based studio Next Level Games, developer of titles like Luigi's Mansion 3 and Metroid Prime: Federation Force. Pending regulatory approval and the like, Nintendo expects the acquisition to close on March 1st. Other than that, the nature of the deal is undisclosed, so it is unclear just how much Nintendo is paying to acquire the developer.

"NLG's shares are currently held entirely by its owner-directors and employees," the acquisition notification from Nintendo states. "A number of owner-directors recently determined that the time is right for them to sell their shares, and NLG therefore began exploring potential sale transactions. Completion of the Acquisition will serve to secure the availability of NLG 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."

Next Level Games has, of late, been developing titles exclusively for Nintendo. Its most recent title, Luigi's Mansion 3, released in late 2019 and currently sits at a score of 86 over on Metacritic. ComicBook.com's own review of the game, which gave it a 4 out of 5, called it "a spooktacular comeback well worth the wait." The last time the developer released a title for a company other than Nintendo was a decade ago at this point. And now, it seems like that will only continue into the future.

As noted above, the acquisition is expected to close on March 1st. It is unclear what the developer might currently be working on. You can check out all of our previous coverage of Nintendo right here.

What do you think of Nintendo acquiring Next Level Games? Are you excited to see what the developer comes up with next? Let us know in the comments, or feel free to reach out and hit me up directly over on Twitter at @rollinbishop to talk about all things gaming!

[H/T GamesIndustry.biz]

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