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AlphaDream, the developer of the Mario & Luigi games, has gone bankrupt and has announced that the studio will be shutting down (via Kotaku).
AlphaDream was founded in 2000 by the former president of Square, Tetsuo Mizuno. It’s best known for the Hamtaro series and the Mario & Luigi JRPGs, and primarily created games for Nintendo’s handheld platforms. The developer also made remakes of Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser’s Minions and Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story + Bowser Jr.’s Journey for the Nintendo 3DS. This latter game would be the final game AlphaDream would ever produce.
In the report on Yahoo Japan, underperforming revenues and high development costs are the causes of AlphaDream’s decision to begin bankruptcy proceedings. In 2014, the studio’s turnover was ¥300 million (£2.3 million), but by early 2018, AlphaDream was ¥465 million (£3.5 million) in debt.
Mario & Luigi JRPGs are well-loved games, and it’s unexpected given that AlphaDream was hiring for a Switch title that was in development last year. It is hoped that the team are able to land on their feet and continue their work in the games industry, as fans mourn the loss of the studio.
