Nintendo makes first acquisition since 2022, and it’s from Embracer

Nintendo has made its first acquisition in two years.

The company has entered a deal with embattled Swedish games company Embracer to purchase Shiver Entertainment, a studio responsible for porting the likes of Mortal Kombat 1 and Hogwarts Legacy onto Nintendo Switch.

On the deal’s completion, which is “pending satisfaction” of all relevant customary closing conditions, Nintendo will acquire 100 percent of Shiver’s outstanding shares, making it a wholly owned subsidiary.

“By welcoming Shiver’s experienced and accomplished development team, Nintendo aims to secure high-level resources for porting and developing software titles,” Nintendo said in its notice of acquisition.

“Going forward, even after it becomes part of the Nintendo group, Shiver’s focus will remain the same, continuing commissions that port and develop software for multiple platforms including Nintendo Switch.”

And Switch 2, perhaps?

This marks Nintendo’s first acquisition of a company since 2022, when it purchased both Dynamo Pictures (which subsequently became Nintendo Pictures), and SRD. Prior to these acquisitions, Nintendo also purchased Next Level Games – the studio behind Luigi’s Mansion 3 – in 2021.

Resharing Nintendo’s notice of acquisition on social media platform X, Embracer thanked “all the great people at Shiver for their contribution.”

Following the collapse of a $2bn “major strategic partnership” last May, Embracer began a “comprehensive restructuring programme”. This has seen a number of studio closures and layoffs, as well as other studio sales such as Borderlands developer Gearbox, which Embracer sold to Take-Two in March of this year.