Video game giant Nintendo is expanding further into the entertainment business.
According to a regulatory filing in Japan Thursday, the company has agreed to acquire the visual content company Dynamo Pictures Inc. Once the deal closes (it’s expected to close in October), Dynamo will be renamed Nintendo Pictures Co. and become a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company.
According to Nintendo, Nintendo Pictures will “focus on development of visual content utilizing Nintendo IP.”
Dynamo is a CG animation company that specializes in animation for video games and TV, and also works with motion capture technology.
The move by Nintendo suggests that the gaming company is planning a larger push into entertainment. The company is already producing an animated movie with Universal’s Illumination studio based on its iconic Super Mario Bros. franchise. That film is now set for an April 2023 release.
But an owned studio could give Nintendo the flexibility to produce its own fare alongside tentpole projects like the Mario movie.
That is a strategy that has become very much in vogue among video game companies. Sony, which owns the Playstation platform, said at an investor day in May that it plans to develop more film and TV series content based on its large library of video game IP.
Projects based on Sony titles Twisted Metal, The Last of Us, and Ghost of Tsushima are already in production with another 10 or so in various stages of development.
Beyond Mario (and spinoffs like Mario Kart), Nintendo owns franchises like Kirby, The Legend of Zelda, Donkey Kong, Star Fox and Animal Crossing, all of which could be ripe for a reimagining in the entertainment space.
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