It's been announced that Nintendo is going to acquire Luigi's Mansion 3 developer Next Level Games, with the Big N expected to own 100% of the Canadian-based company by March 1. Nintendo and Next Level Games have been closely linked for well over a decade now, but the announcement still came as a surprise to many. Unlike some of its competitors, Nintendo rarely acquires other studios, instead making many of its big games in-house or collaborating with independent companies like Next Level Games.
Now that Next Level Games is officially joining the Nintendo family, one has to imagine that it will create brand new opportunities for the studio moving forward. Perhaps Nintendo will trust it with more of its IP, or maybe it will give Next Level Games the freedom to work on something completely original. It remains to be seen what Next Level Games will make as its next project, but in the meantime, the acquisition has huge implications for both companies.
Here is why Nintendo's acquisition of Next Level Games makes a lot of sense.
History of Next Level Games
Ever since Next Level Games was founded in 2002, the company has primarily made games for Nintendo systems. In fact, almost every game it has developed has launched for a Nintendo system, with the exception of two titles: Ticket to Ride on Xbox 360 and Captain America: Super Soldier, which launched on the PS3 and Xbox 360.
Next Level Games' first title, NHL Hitz Pro, was a multiplatform release, as was its 2007 game, Spider-Man: Friend or Foe. However, it started working closely with Nintendo fairly early on, developing Super Mario Strikers for the GameCube in 2005. Since Next Level Games developed Super Mario Strikers, it made a number of other games for the company, like Punch-Out!! on the Wii. It also worked on Wii exclusives of games published by Activision and Ubisoft in the form of Transformers: Cybertron Adventures and Ghost Recon, respectively.
For the past decade, though, Next Level Games has worked almost exclusively with Nintendo, developing games for its handheld and home console devices. A new title from Next Level Games has dropped for a Nintendo platform every three years since 2013, with the company putting out Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon, then Metroid Prime: Federation Force, and finally, the critically-acclaimed Luigi's Mansion 3 for the Switch, which launched in 2019.
Next Level Games Is A Proven Asset for Nintendo
Next Level Games has produced many Nintendo titles, including a variety of games based on Nintendo IP. With the Luigi's Mansion games especially, Next Level Games has shown an understanding of Nintendo's IPs and what makes them special. It has also shown that it is more than capable of creating critically-acclaimed games based on Nintendo IP, and not only that, but that the games it produces sell, for the most part.
Both Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon and Luigi's Mansion 3 were huge sales successes for Nintendo, selling millions of copies each. Both games were also award-winning titles, with Luigi's Mansion 3 winning the award for Best Family Game at The Game Awards 2019. The exception to Next Level Games' success is Metroid Prime: Federation Force, which struggled to impress critics and fans alike, with poor sales reflecting its reception. However, Metroid Prime: Federation Force's failure is arguably more due to the drastic changes it made to the Metroid formula and negative pre-launch publicity as opposed to quality of Next Level Games' work.
Nintendo Rarely Acquires Studios
What makes Nintendo's acquisition of Next Level Games interesting is that the company rarely acquires studios. As previously mentioned, Nintendo seems content to develop its games in-house or collaborate with independent studios. In fact, it's been over a decade since the last time Nintendo acquired a studio, with its latest purchase being Xenoblade series developer Monolith Soft. This is in stark contrast to other gaming companies, which seem to be acquiring as many other studios as possible. The big example of this is Microsoft, which has been especially aggressive, acquiring a number of studios in an effort to build the Xbox brand and take its gaming services to new heights.
But now that Nintendo has acquired Next Level Games, it begs the question of whether or not it will now start acquiring more studios. It's entirely possible that Nintendo will look to acquire more studios to help bolster its lineup of upcoming Switch exclusive games, but it's also possible that it will be content with its acquisition of Next Level Games for the time being, and may not make a move to acquire another studio for more years to come.
If Nintendo does ever decide to purchase another studio, there are a couple of distinct possibilities that come to mind. Game Freak, the primary developer of the Pokemon games, comes to mind, as does Intelligent Systems, which has made quite a few Nintendo games these past few decades, including the critically-acclaimed Fire Emblem and Paper Mario games.