Next Level Games
Canadian video game developer From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Next Level Games, Inc. is a Canadian video game developer owned by Nintendo based in Vancouver. 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 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, and Luigi's Mansion 3 for the Nintendo Switch.[2][3]
| |
| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Video games |
| Founded | October 2002[1] |
| Founders | Eric Randall Douglas Tronsgard Jason Carr David Catlin |
| Headquarters | Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada |
Key people | Eric Randall (president) |
Number of employees | 140 (2024) |
| Parent | Nintendo (2021–present) |
| Website | nextlevelgames |
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 Maclean's magazine and BC Business magazine.
History
In January 2014, the studio announced that it would work exclusively with Nintendo from then on.[4][5] 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 for the GameCube due to much of the team's prior work on Sega Soccer Slam at EA Black Box.[6]
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".[7] According to Nintendo's 2021 annual report, this acquisition took place on March 31st, 2021.[8] Co-founder Tronsgard would later retire from the studio by March 2022.[9]
List of games developed
| Year | Title | Platform(s) | Publisher(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | NHL Hitz Pro | GameCube Xbox PlayStation 2 |
Midway Games |
| 2005 | Super Mario Strikers | GameCube | Nintendo |
| 2007 | Mario Strikers Charged | Wii | |
| Spider-Man: Friend or Foe | PlayStation 2 Xbox 360 Wii |
Activision | |
| 2008 | Ticket to Ride | Xbox 360 | Playful Entertainment |
| 2009 | Jungle Speed | Wii | |
| Punch-Out!! | Nintendo | ||
| Doc Louis's Punch-Out!! | |||
| 2010 | Transformers: Cybertron Adventures | Activision | |
| Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon | Ubisoft | ||
| 2011 | Captain America: Super Soldier | Xbox 360 PlayStation 3 |
Sega |
| 2012 | Microsoft Solitaire Collection[a][10] | Microsoft Windows iOS Android |
Xbox Game Studios |
| 2013 | Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon | Nintendo 3DS | Nintendo |
| 2016 | Metroid Prime: Federation Force | ||
| 2019 | Luigi's Mansion 3 | Nintendo Switch | |
| 2022 | Mario Strikers: Battle League |
- Notes
- Co-developed with Arkadium and Smoking Gun Interactive
Cancelled
- WWE Titans: Parts Unknown - PS2, Xbox[11]
- Super Mario Spikers – Wii[12]
- Catalyst - PS3, Xbox 360[13]
- Clockwerk – Wii, X360, PS3[14]
References
External links
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