Next Level Games, the developers behind Luigi’s Mansion 3 and the Super Mario Strikers games, has been acquired by Nintendo in the first big video game acquisition of 2021.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed. A statement from Nintendo said that “a number of owner-directors [of Next Level] recently determined that the time is right for them to sell their shares.” The company expects that a closer relationship with the studio will deliver “an anticipated improvement in development speed and quality.” Nintendo says the deal will close by 1 March.
Next Level’s Luigi’s Mansion 3, which launched on 31 October 2019, was a critical and commercial success, selling 7.83 million copies worldwide as of November. Next Level also won awards for Luigi’s Mansion 3 at The Game Awards 2019, the DICE Awards and BAFTA’s Games Awards in 2020.
In the notification of acquisition, Nintendo said it has entered into an agreement to acquire 100 per cent of the outstanding shares of Next Level Games and to make it a wholly-owned subsidiary.
Next Level Games “has nearly two decades of experience creating video games for various console platforms,” the document states.
More recently, it notes, the company “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.”