Nintendo Acquires Next Level Games, Developer of Luigi's Mansion 3

Nintendo has announced that it has acquired Montreal-based studio Next Level Games, the developer behind titles such as Luigi's Mansion 3, Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon and the Wii reboot of Punch-Out!! 

In its public acquisition notification, Nintendo expressed a long-term view of the acquisition, stating that it will "only have minor effects on Nintendo's results for this fiscal year". Clearly Nintendo are expecting big things from Next Level Games in the future, then.

Acquisitions are a rarity for Nintendo, a company who, despite their colossal standing within the industry, owns only a handful of subsidiary development studios. Among these are 1-Up Studio, Monolith Soft, Retro Studios and now Next Level Games. It should be interesting to see how Nintendo makes use of this new relationship with the company. Luigi's Mansion 4? Another Punch-Out!! perhaps? We'll have to wait and see.