Next Level Games

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]

Next Level Games, Inc.

Company type	Subsidiary
Industry	Video games
Founded	October 2002; 22 years ago (2002-10)[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.com

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

List of games developed by Next Level Games

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

1. 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

1. "Next Level Games, Inc". MobyGames.
2. "Hands-On With The Secret-Filled Luigi's Mansion 3". Kotaku Australia. June 12, 2019. Archived from the original on June 11, 2019. Retrieved June 12, 2019.
3. Phillips, Tom (July 17, 2019). "Luigi's Mansion 3 gets the spookiest release date possible". Eurogamer. Retrieved July 27, 2019.
4. Phillips, Tom (January 9, 2014). "Luigi's Mansion 2 dev will now work exclusively with Nintendo". Eurogamer. Gamer Network. Retrieved January 9, 2014.
5. "Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon developer Next Level Games signs second-party deal with Nintendo". ScrewAttack.com. January 9, 2014. Archived from the original on October 9, 2015. Retrieved August 28, 2015.
6. Nutt, Christian (January 8, 2014). "Working with Nintendo, making a studio great for developers". Game Developer. Retrieved January 10, 2025.
7. McFerran, Damien (January 5, 2021). "Nintendo Is Buying Luigi's Mansion Studio Next Level Games". Nintendo Life. Retrieved January 5, 2021.
8. "Annual Report 2021 (page 54)" (PDF). Nintendo Co., Ltd. : Investor Relations Information. July 19, 2021. Retrieved January 11, 2025.
9. Doolan, Liam (March 4, 2022). "Co-Founder Of Nintendo-Owned Studio Next Level Games Announces Retirement". Nintendo Life. Retrieved January 10, 2025.
10. "Tom's guide to Microsoft Solitaire Collection". July 29, 2020.
11. "Next Level Games was working on a WWE game that was cancelled by publisher THQ". Unseen64.net. February 18, 2012.
12. "Super Mario Spikers is a cancelled volleyball/wrestling hybrid game developed by Next Level Games". Unseen64.net. August 6, 2011.
13. "Next Level Games was working on an Action title known as "Catalyst"". Unseen64.net. July 12, 2010.
14. "Next Level Games Was Working on a Puzzle-Platformer Called "Clockwerk"". Gamnesia.com. January 12, 2015. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved August 28, 2015.

External links

• Official website