Nintendo acquires Shiver Entertainment

Yea, I had no idea who they were, either. But I guess they were really impressed with ports! Thoughts, SW? What is Nintendo thinking with this acquisition?

I dunno what to make of it, except Nintendo usually makes long term deals with third parties to support game development, so an acquisition is definitely newsworthy in that respect.

Excellent choice

Interesting choice. Curious to see what they might work on.

Nintendo becoming a monopoly, where's the FTC when you need them 🤣

Those ports are atrocious. I guess to be fair that's more the hardware's fault

@hardwenzen: ya I’ll admit there were some problems with characters looking weird and animations. MK isn’t what it used to be my friend. The magic is gone.

Nintendo is a Japanese company. Ask the Japanese version of the FTC.

@onesiphorus: It was a joke dude I thought the laughing emoji was a dead giveaway.

But I will humour you just for a second, Shiver Entertainment is an American developer, so the FTC could block it lol.

You know what I want to see that happen now just for the shits and giggles, what have you done 🤣

@hardwenzen: @BenjaminBanklin:

Either Nintendo wants to give them a nice corner office, or they could take them under their wing and explain a few things. Either way this could be a benefit.

They excel at potatofying games. They are no Nixxes, but when you have shit tier hardware, these are the kinds of acquisitions you go for. LOL

You all know how I feel about these buyouts. But remember that Nintendo bought Monolith from Bandai Namco, who almost shut them down. And given how slimy Embracer is.

Also, it's not a company as BIG as say, Activision Blizzard or Bethesda. And we just saw what happened to companies in their wing VERY recently.

Yes, yes, we've seen the memes with the MK1 port. But perhaps working directly under Nintendo's wing will change things. Don't forget how unfocused Retro Studios was UNTIL Nintendo bought them, giving us Metroid Prime.

Those ports where all bad. They should feel bad.

They're prepping to re-release most Switch titles on the Switch 2 for $70 a pop😆

Shiver me timbers!

Not a joke, I think you are correct.

Which fucking sucks.

Pretty sure Nintendo didn't save them from death from the good of their hearts. Pretty sure they just bought them when they were at their cheapest.. Which is still a positive, but I don't like pretending a giant company is kind.

And now Nintendo doesn't let them do anything. Retro have had like 20 projects Nintendo said no to. They didn't even let them work on Metroid Prime 4 until someone else tried and failed. A decade (and counting) of absolutely nothing from that studio.

Damn, $70 for a Nintendo game… hard to fathom! Unless it’s Zelda.

If there's a company who nurtures studios the best it's Nintendo .

Nintendo as usual coming out of left field and making random moves.

Was miracles this dev team got those two games to work on Switch. Still impressed by how Hogwarts runs.

No, but pick a damn poison, giving us Xenoblade. And additional work on the Zelda titles.

"Doesn't let them do anything." Right... MPR was "nothing".

Also, coddling anti-Nintendo trolls again?

Damn Nintendonts monopolistic tactics. lol :P

Yeah, I don't have much against them or Nintendo buying them.

It's.. something, but let's not pretend one remaster in 10 years is awesome.

Wenzen? Nintendo buying Shiver to prep for more ports for Switch 2 makes sense. Some of these ports being Switch 1 games isn't far-fetched either.

Still love how Nintendo and Rare basically carried the N64.

Some folks love looking at companies as benevolent entities.🤷🏽‍♂️

It was both. The Legendary Shinji Hatano of Nintendo worked hard with the team when they were going through a creative crisis after they had lost their President at Bandi. It hurt the team in a big way and they credit Nintendo to helping save their studio and help motivate them.

Now remember at this time Nintendo doesn't own a dime of Monolith Soft. Seeing the team work so well with Nintendo and them struggling under the Bandi banner, Banda gifted Nintendo 80% of Monolith Soft. And Nintendo might not let them do anything, but they did ask Monolith Soft to create something that was unique and never done before. So they started working on Xenobalde which has now become one of the best and most unique RPGs ever made.

Nintendo has always told Studios that they can work on any project they like, but that they must also assist Nintendo on its massively big projects like Mario Kart, Smash Bros, and Zelda. If they fail to work on the money makers, they risk a closer of their studio. That's why Nintendo doesn't close its studios, there is always a home for them. Unlike shitty and greedy Microsoft and Sony who could care less about its employees.

A porting house. To different systems too. Nintendo is going multiplat!!!

....sigh. One can dream.

Yeah an odd one to make out. Porting older games to the Switch 2 would be a bit of a no brainer. With Embracer being in trouble, maybe Nintendo now concluded that it would just be cheaper to buy this studio and have an in house porting team rather than farming the work out to external studios.

Maybe they will also be used as a consultancy service/liason with 3rd party studios to help get their games on the Switch 2 also.

I bet this acquisition is done with the Switch 2 in mind. No doubt in my mind that the Switch 2 will get plenty of ports from the other consoles, and Shiver might be the best choice for that :)

"Nintendo acquires Shiver Entertainment...": Boo!!!

...

"...from Embracer": nevermind this might be a good thing after all.

@Maroxad: Ha! Yeah. I don't know why so many people are acting confused here. Nintendo probably sees the benefit of having an in-house porting studio, and Embracer was probably willing to sell cheap in their current situation. Seems like a good thing for all involved, and a fairly neutral thing for us gamers.

And yes, MK and Hogwarts have issues, but getting them to run at all on Switch is impressive. These were not already well-optimized games like Doom was.