Nintendo announced on Tuesday plans to acquire Next Level Games. The Vancouver-based studio first formed in 2002 and has released many exclusives for Nintendo over the years. These include 2019’s Luigi’s Mansion 3, 2009’s Punch-Out!!, and the Mario Strikers series. Now, the team will be an in-house developer. The acquisition should close on March 1, 2021, as long as the deal meets all terms and conditions. You can read the full statement here, but the reasoning behind the purchase is pretty straightforward:
Nintendo and Next Level Games’ Successful Relationship
When this deal goes through, Nintendo will gain 100% of the outstanding shares of the studio. While the acquisition statement gives no price details, the purchase seems to be in the best interest of everyone. Luigi’s Mansion 3 was a highly successful collaboration. It holds an 86 on Metacritic and, as of November, reached 7.83 million sales worldwide. Next Level Games also developed the previous entry in the series, 2013’s Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon on the 3DS. Perhaps this deal will lead to a fourth entry and a shorter amount of time between games than 6 years.
Generally speaking, Next Level Games’ work with Nintendo characters has usually fared better than its other games, which include 2010’s Transformers: Cybertron Adventures and 2011’s Captain America: Super Soldier. The team’s Punch-Out!! revival on the Wii received positive reviews and likely led to Little Mac becoming a playable character in the Super Smash Bros. series. The Mario Strikers games are fondly remembered sports spin-offs. However, the team also released the divisive Metroid Prime: Federation Force on the 3DS.
