formerly known as Nd Cube and later NDcube, is a Japanese

video game developer A video game developer is a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large business with em ...

and a subsidiary of

Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto. It develops, publishes, and releases both video games and video game consoles. The history of Nintendo began when craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi ...

headquartered in

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

with an additional office in

Sapporo is a Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, designated city in Hokkaido, Japan. Located in the southwest of Hokkaido, it lies within the alluvial fan of the Toyohira River, a tributary of the Ishikari River. Sapporo is the capital ...

. They are best known as the developers of the ''

Mario Party is a series of party video games created by Hudson Soft and owned by Nintendo. It features List of Mario franchise characters, characters from the Mario (franchise), ''Mario'' franchise in which up to four local players or Artificial inte ...

'' series since ''

Mario Party 9 is a 2012 party video game developed by NDcube and published by Nintendo for the Wii. The ninth main installment in the ''Mario Party ''series, it was announced at E3 2011 and released in Europe, North America, and Australia in March 2012, follow ...

'' when they took over the series from the original developer

Hudson Soft was a Japanese video game company known for releasing numerous titles across video game consoles, home computers, and mobile phones. Headquartered in the Midtown Tower in Tokyo, it also maintained an office in the Hudson Building in Sapporo. F ...

History

The company was founded on March 1, 2000, as Nd Cube, as a joint venture between Nintendo and the biggest advertising firm in Japan called

Dentsu , simply known as , stylized as dentsu, is a Japanese international advertising and public relations joint stock company headquartered in Tokyo. Dentsu is the largest advertising agency in Japan and the fifth largest advertising agency network in ...

, hence the "ND" (Nintendo-Dentsu) in the name. Nintendo had 78% of the shares of the company at the time, while 13.3% of the shares were owned by Dentsu and the rest of the 8.7% were owned by other shareholders. In the years after

Mario Party 8 ''Mario Party 8'' is a 2007 party video game developed by Hudson Soft and published by Nintendo for the Wii. It is the eighth main installment in the ''Mario Party'' series, as well as the first title in the series to be released for the Wii. Lik ...

's 2007 release, many employees from

migrated to Nd Cube including former Hudson Soft president Hidetoshi Endo who became president of Nd Cube around 2009. In 2010, Nintendo decided to buy out the company's shares from Dentsu and the other shareholders, being then the major shareholder on the company, with its changing from 78% to 96% initially, to 97% in 2015, and since 2023, to 99% of the shares. In 2012, Nd Cube rebranded to NDcube. In the same year, the company released

for the

Wii The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America, and in December 2006 for most other regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major home game console, f ...

— the company's first Mario Party. In 2019, the director of the ''

'' series from ''

Mario Party 6 is a 2004 party video game developed by Hudson Soft and published by Nintendo for the GameCube. It is the sixth installment in the ''Mario Party'' series, the third title in the series for the GameCube, and the first GameCube game to make use o ...

'' to '' Super Mario Party'', Shuichiro Nishiya, replaced Hidetoshi Endo as the company's president. Endo had served as president of NDcube for almost ten years. In 2024, NDcube rebranded to Nintendo Cube.

Games

Notes

References

External links

* {{Authority control Software companies based in Tokyo Video game companies established in 2000 Japanese companies established in 2000 First-party video game developers Video game companies of Japan Nintendo divisions and subsidiaries Video game development companies Dentsu