Next Level Games

Canadian video game developer

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

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]

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

[edit]

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

[edit]

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

[edit]

* WWE Titans: Parts Unknown \- PS2, Xbox[11]
* Super Mario Spikers – Wii[12]
* Catalyst \- PS3, Xbox 360[13]
* Clockwerk – Wii, X360, PS3[14]

## References

[edit]

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

[edit]

* Official website

* v
* t
* e

Next Level Games

Nintendo

Luigi's Mansion|

* Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon
* Luigi's Mansion 3

Mario Strikers|

* Super Mario Strikers
* Mario Strikers Charged
* Mario Strikers: Battle League

Punch-Out!!|

* Punch-Out!!
* Doc Louis's Punch-Out!!

Other games|

* NHL Hitz Pro
* The Suffering
* Spider-Man: Friend or Foe
* Ticket to Ride
* Jungle Speed
* Transformers: Cybertron Adventures
* Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon
* Captain America: Super Soldier
* Metroid Prime: Federation Force

* v
* t
* e

Nintendo development teams

Nintendo

Divisions|

* Entertainment Planning & Development (EPD)
* Platform Technology Development (PTD)

| Former|

* Research & Development 1
* Research & Development 2
* Integrated Research & Development (IRD)
* Research & Engineering (RED)
* Entertainment Analysis & Development (EAD)
* Software Planning & Development (SPD)
* System Development (NSD)

|

Subsidiaries|

* 1-Up Studio
* iQue
* Monolith Soft
* Next Level Games
* Nintendo Cube
* Nintendo European Research & Development (NERD)
* Nintendo Pictures
* Nintendo Software Technology (NST)
* Retro Studios
* Shiver Entertainment

Major affiliates|

* Bandai Namco
* Studios
* Camelot Software Planning
* Creatures Inc.
* Cygames
* DeNA
* Game Freak
* Genius Sonority
* Good-Feel
* Grezzo
* HAL Laboratory
* indieszero
* Intelligent Systems
* Koei Tecmo
* Omega Force
* Team Ninja
* PlatinumGames
* The Pokémon Company
* Sora Ltd.

| Former|

* AlphaDream
* Artoon
* Angel Studios
* Argonaut Games
* Cing
* DMA Design
* Factor 5
* Hudson Soft
* Left Field Productions
* Marigul Management
* Ambrella
* Noise
* Param
* Monster Games
* Rare
* Silicon Knights
* Skip Ltd.
* syn Sophia
* Vanpool

|

* v
* t
* e

Companies based in Metro Vancouver

Active|

* 49th Parallel Coffee Roasters
* 604 Records
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* Alterra Power
* Arcana Studio
* Avigilon
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Defunct|

* Air BC
* Barnard's Express
* BC Tel
* British Columbia Resources Investment Corporation
* Capcom Vancouver
* Catalena Productions
* Distinctive Software
* EA Black Box
* Foley, Welch and Stewart
* Future Shop
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* MacMillan Bloedel
* Mozilla Messaging
* NCIX
* Pacific Western Airlines
* The Pas Lumber Company
* Pixar Canada
* Propaganda Games
* Radical Entertainment
* Recon Instruments
* Rockstar Vancouver
* Slant Six Games
* United Front Games
* West Coast Air

Authority control databases

International|

* VIAF

Other|

* IdRef

*[Year]: Year of first release
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