Next Level Games, Inc. is a Canadian video game developer owned by

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 ...

based in

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

. Founded in October 2002 by former members of EA Black Box who've worked on games such as '' Sega Soccer Slam'' and '' NHL Hitz'' titles. Next Level Games specializes in creating console video games. Their first project was '' NHL Hitz Pro'', which was published by

Midway Games Midway Games Inc. (formerly Midway Manufacturing and Bally Midway, and commonly known simply as Midway) was an American video game company that existed from 1958 to 2010. Midway's franchises included ''Mortal Kombat'', ''Rampage (franchise), Ra ...

in 2003 and followed up from EA Black Box's prior entries in the ''NHL Hitz'' series. The company is best known for its work with Nintendo, the ''Mario Strikers'' games and ''Punch-Out!!'' for the Wii, '' Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon'' and '' Metroid Prime: Federation Force'' for the

Nintendo 3DS The is a foldable dual-screen handheld game console produced by Nintendo. Announced in March 2010 as the successor to the Nintendo DS, the console was released originally on February 26, 2011 and went through various revisions in its lifetime, ...

, and '' Luigi's Mansion 3'' for the

Nintendo Switch The is a video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. Released in the middle of the Eighth generation of video game consoles, eighth generation of home consoles, the Switch succeeded the ...

. Among other awards, Next Level Games has been named one of " Canada's Top 100 Employers" and one of BC's Top Employers in 2008, 2009 and 2012. The company has been featured in ''

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'' magazine and ''

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'' magazine.

History

In January 2014, the studio announced that it would work exclusively with Nintendo from then on. In that same interview, co-founder Jason Carr and producer Ken Yeeloy revealed that it was Nintendo who approached Next Level Games in the first place to develop ''

Super Mario Strikers ''Super Mario Strikers'', known in Europe and Australia as ''Mario Smash Football'', is a 2005 Sports video game, sports video game developed by Next Level Games and published by Nintendo for the GameCube. The game's developers had worked on ''N ...

'' for the

GameCube The is a PowerPC-based home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on September 14, 2001, in North America on November 18, 2001, in Europe on May 3, 2002, and in Australia on May 17, 2002. It is the suc ...

due to much of the team's prior work on '' Sega Soccer Slam'' at EA Black Box. In January 2021, Nintendo announced that it had purchased Next Level Games after "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". According to Nintendo's 2021 annual report, this acquisition took place on March 31st, 2021. Co-founder Tronsgard would later retire from the studio by March 2022.

List of games developed

;Notes:

Cancelled

* ''WWE Titans: Parts Unknown'' - PS2, Xbox * '' Super Mario Spikers'' – Wii * ''Catalyst'' - PS3, Xbox 360 * ''Clockwerk'' – Wii, X360, PS3

References

External links

* {{Authority control 2002 establishments in British Columbia 2021 mergers and acquisitions Canadian companies established in 2002 Canadian subsidiaries of foreign companies Companies based in Vancouver First-party video game developers Nintendo divisions and subsidiaries Video game companies established in 2002 Video game companies of Canada Video game development companies