hello. Another game studio has left the embrace of the warm, er, wonderful little friendship that recently morphed into a hugging conglomerate, this time through a Nintendo acquisition. The studio is Shiver Entertainment, and if you’ve ever played Mortal Kombat 1 on Switch, you’ll love some of their work.
Ahead of the news, Saber Interactive founder Matthew Karch said it’s been an interesting year for the publisher, as Embracer has ditched Saber and Master of Borderlands in recent months. Gearbox Software, the developer of Earth, has received some bad criticism for this.
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As stated in Nintendo’s acquisition notice, the deal will “acquire 100% of the outstanding shares” of Shiver, which was founded in 2012, making it a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Switch maker.
What does this deal mean for the studio? The studio is primarily known for developing Nintendo Switch ports of games like Rap Beef Suit, Mortal Kombat 1, and another game not mentioned here? Well, more ports will be made in the future.
“By welcoming Shiver’s experienced and accomplished development team, Nintendo aims to secure premium resources for porting and developing software games. Going forward, Shiver’s focus will remain the same even after becoming part of the Nintendo Group, continuing to embrace Porting commissions and developing software for multiple platforms including Nintendo Switch,” Nintendo’s notice reads.
Interestingly, this is Nintendo’s first major acquisition since acquiring Japanese production company Dynamo Pictures – which was renamed Nintendo Pictures in 2022 in an effort to increase the world’s awareness of characters like that cheeky plumber you may have heard of familiarity. What’s his name, Marco?
While Embracer has been busy unloading a lot of stuff, it still owns the rights to The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, with a new Gollum-centric film from the former series currently in active development.