Nintendo Acquires Longtime Partner Next Level Games, The Team Behind Luigi's Mansion 3

After working with Next Level Games on numerous projects in the Luigi's Mansion and Mario Strikers franchises, among others, Nintendo has announced it will acquire the studio.

Nintendo will buy 100% of the outstanding shares of the Vancouver, Canada-based developer, and as such, Next Level Games will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Nintendo. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, but the deal is expected to close on March 1.

Nintendo's announcement said, "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."

Next Level Games' first Nintendo-exclusive project was 2005's Super Mario Strikers for GameCube, which was followed up by Mario Strikers Charged for the Wii. Next Level Games also developer 2009's Punch-Out!! for Wii, and later Luigi's Mansion Dark Moon and Metroid Prime: Federation Force for 3DS, before releasing Luigi's Mansion 3 in 2019.

Next Level Games had been an independent company before this, also working on games for Activision such as Spider-Man: Friend or Foe and Transformers: Cybertron Adventures.

Nintendo said the acquisition will have only "minor effects" for the current financial year. More details about the earnings forecasts for Nintendo factoring in Next Level Games will be announced later.