Nintendo has acquired a production company by the name of Dynamo Pictures. The Japanese gaming giant has acquired 100% of the shares in the CG production company and intends to rename it "Nintendo Pictures", upon which it will focus on expanding Nintendo's portfolio of "visual content".
What are the terms of Nintendo's acquisition of Dynamo Pictures?
According to an official Nintendo announcement released earlier today, the Tokyo-based CG production house Dynamo Pictures is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Nintendo. The production company has 34.5 million yen in capital and was originally founded back in March 2011, before which various Dynamo staff members assisted with the production of the rather poorly-received Metroid: Other M. Now, however, Dynamo, which will be renamed "Nintendo Pictures" following the closing of the deal, will be repurposed as a Nintendo visual content production house.
The Nintendo announcement of Dynamo's acquisition states that the studio will now focus on "the planning and production structure of visual content in the Nintendo group". Given that Dynamo largely makes CG animation, it's likely that Nintendo is looking to make CG movies or shows starring some of its characters. Dynamo's previous work includes Final Fantasy XV: Kingsglaive, Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness, and Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero, so it's a studio with a pretty solid pedigree. Despite this, Nintendo says the acquisition will have "only a minor effect" on its fiscal results for the financial year.
What movies will Nintendo work on with its new Nintendo Pictures division?
Nintendo's next major movie project is the upcoming Super Mario Bros movie, which will star Chris Pratt (and will presumably be significantly better than the 1993 adaptation was). It remains to be seen what the company intends to do with its new Nintendo Pictures acquisition, however. We could see more off-the-wall anime productions like the 80s Mario movie recently restored by fans, but it's more likely we'll see a glut of Nintendo CG shows and movies with major franchises like Mario and Zelda at the forefront of the slate.
We'll have to wait and see what Nintendo Pictures' inaugural project ends up being, but one thing's for sure: video game movies are increasingly big business. There's long been a perception that good gaming movies can't exist, but recent releases like Tom Holland's Uncharted and Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City show that studios are still very willing to try on this front. Successful TV shows like The Witcher (and its maddeningly catchy songs) and Castlevania also demonstrate that there's still an appetite for great visual content based on games, so hopefully, Nintendo Pictures can contribute to that small but growing canon. We'll bring you more on this as we get it.
