Nintendo Acquires Metroid: Federation Force Developer

Nintendo announced today that they have acquired Next Level Games.

They are known for being the developers of Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon for 3DS and Luigi’s Mansion 3 for Switch, Punch-Out!! for Wii, Super Mario Strikers for Gamecube and Mario Strikers Charged for Wii.

Here is the full announcement from Nintendo, which can be found here:

“Nintendo Co., Ltd. (HQ: Kyoto Minami-ku; Representative Director and President: Shuntaro Furukawa; hereinafter “Nintendo”) would like to announce that it has entered into an agreement to acquire 100% of the outstanding shares of Next Level Games Inc. (HQ: Vancouver, Canada; CEO: Douglas Tronsgard ; hereinafter “NLG”) and to make it a wholly owned subsidiary (the “Acquisition”).

1. Context of Acquisition

NLG is a video game development company based in Vancouver, Canada which has nearlytwo decades of experience creating video games for various console platforms. More recently, NLG has worked exclusively with Nintendo in developing software titles for the Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo Switch systems, including titles in the critically acclaimed Luigi’s Mansion series of video games. NLG’s 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 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.

The Acquisition is expected to close on March 1, 2021, pending satisfaction of all relevant terms and conditions, including shareholders’ approval, regulatory approval under the Investment Canada Act and other customary closing conditions.“

Blame Def for the clickbait headline.