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Private company

Next Level Games

Logo: https://www.nintendo.com/consumer/gameslist/manuals/Wii_Punch_Out.pdf, Non-free logo, via Wikipedia3

Canadian video game developer

Next Level Games, Inc. is a Canadian video game developer owned by Nintendo since 2021 and based in Vancouver. Founded in August 2002 by former members of EA Black Box who worked on games such as Sega Soccer Slam and NHL Hitz titles, Next Level Games specializes in creating console video games. The company's first project was NHL Hitz Pro, which was published by Midway Games in 2003 and followed up from EA Black Box's prior entries in the NHL Hitz series.2 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

Aug 22, 2002Founded1
  • Industryvideo game industry1
  • HeadquartersVancouver1
  • Founded inVancouver1
  • Websitenextlevelgames.com
  • Legal formsubsidiary company1

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Next Level Games, Inc. is a Canadian video game developer owned by Nintendo since 2021 and based in Vancouver. Founded in August 2002 by former members of EA Black Box who worked on games such as Sega Soccer Slam and NHL Hitz titles, Next Level Games specializes in creating console video games. The company's first project was NHL Hitz Pro, which was published by Midway Games in 2003 and followed up from EA Black Box's prior entries in the NHL Hitz series. The company is best known for its work with Nintendo, developing titles including the Mario Strikers games and Punch-Out!! for the Wii, Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon and Metroid Prime: Federation Force for the Nintendo 3DS, and Luigi's Mansion 3 for the Nintendo Switch.2

Corporate structure

Next Level Games is part of a group headed by Nintendo. 42 entities, 8 countries on record. Switch between the flow chart and the network, and select any entity to see its details.

Built from parent and subsidiary links from GLEIF, the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (CC0); subsidiaries, stakes and holdings from Wikidata (CC0). Each entity in the chart links to its source.

The story

In January 2014, the studio announced that it would work exclusively with Nintendo from then on. In that same interview, co-founder Jason Carr and producer Ken Yeeloy revealed that it was Nintendo who approached Next Level Games in the first place to develop Super Mario Strikers for the GameCube due to much of the team's prior work on Sega Soccer Slam at EA Black Box.

In January 2021, Nintendo announced that it had purchased Next Level Games after "A number of owner-directors recently determined that the time is right for them to sell their shares, and NLG therefore began exploring potential sale transactions". According to Nintendo's 2021 annual report, this acquisition took place on March 31, 2021. Co-founder Tronsgard would later retire from the studio by March 2022.

From Wikipedia’s article on Next Level Games, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4

Products and brands

Notes

Cancelled

WWE Titans: Parts Unknown - PS2, Xbox

Super Mario Spikers – Wii

Catalyst - PS3, Xbox 360

Read the full text

Clockwerk – Wii, X360, PS3

From Wikipedia’s article on Next Level Games, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4

Subsidiaries and ownership

Parent company

From Wikidata.1

Timeline

  1. Mar 1, 2021Acquired Acquired by Nintendo1
  2. Aug 22, 2002Founded Founded in Vancouver1

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

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