Nintendo to acquire CG animation studio Dynamo Pictures

Under the new name Nintendo Pictures, the studio will focus on developing content featuring the gameco’s iconic IPs.
July 15, 2022

Nintendo is buying Tokyo-based Dynamo Pictures for an undisclosed amount, and will rename the CG-m animation studio Nintendo Pictures when the deal closes on October 3. 

The video game giant’s newest subsidiary will focus on planning and producing content based on Nintendo’s iconic characters and gaming IPs, which include the ever-popular Mario and his brother Luigi.

Dynamo Pictures was founded in 2011, and its credits include work on 2016’s role-playing game Persona 5 and figure skating anime series Yuri!!! On Ice (12 x 24 minutes), as well as  2019 action-adventure video game Death Stranding. The studio also partnered with Nintendo in 2014 to create three CG-animated shorts based on strategy game franchise Pikmin.

This marks the second acquisition Nintendo has signed this year, after purchasing Japanese video game developer SRD in February. SRD assisted Nintendo for almost 40 years on first-party titles including Donkey Kong (1981) and The Legend of Zelda (1986). 

While its latest acquisition ushers Nintendo into developing original animated projects, the gameco announced in 2018 that it would partner with Illumination (Minions: The Rise of Gru) and Universal Pictures to produce a feature-length CG-animated Super Mario film. The untitled movie is in development and slated for release in US theaters next April. 

One-time Nintendo rival SEGA currently holds the crown for the highest-grossing vidgame-based film, with Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022) reaching US$162.7 million at the US box office this year.

 

About The Author

Search

Menu

Brand Menu