Nintendo has acquired a content studio in order to speed up its focus on “development of visual content utilizing Nintendo IP,” the gaming company announced in a regulatory filing.
Nintendo on Thursday acquired Tokyo-based Dynamo Pictures, a CG and animation company, and will rename the studio Nintendo Pictures Co., Ltd. The deal is expected to close on Oct. 3 of this year pending regulatory hurdles.
Dynamo specializes in CG and animation for video games and television and previously worked on a series of shorts based on the video game series “Pikmin.”
Nintendo has accelerated its original content push of late and is in the works on a major movie adaptation of “Super Mario Bros.” with Illumination Entertainment featuring Chris Pratt as the voice of Mario. The film will open in theaters in April 2023.
But being able to take their IP content development in house will help them compete with the likes of Sony’s Playstation Studios or even Riot Games’ in-house entertainment, the latter of which produced “Arcane” for Netflix. Playstation meanwhile has upcoming a series based on “The Last of Us” for HBO, a “Twisted Metal” series for Peacock and in early stages of development projects based on “Horizon Zero Dawn,” “God of War” and “Ghost of Tsushima.”
