Nintendo has acquired long-term partner SRD, a programming specialist it has worked with for almost 40 years.SRD (short for Systems Research and Development) has worked with Nintendo since 1983, and even had a hand in making the original Super Mario Bros and The Legend of Zelda games.The acquisition was announced by Nintendo, which says it “will serve to strengthen the management base of SRD and secure the availability of software development resources for Nintendo.”The Top 25 Switch Games (Winter 2021 Update)Unlike its previous acquisition of Next Level Games (developer of Luigi’s Mansion 3 and the upcoming Mario Strikers: Battle League), SRD doesn’t develop its own games but instead assists in the programming of other studios’ titles.This means it’s unlikely we’ll see major new announcements as a result of the acquisition; it will instead increase Nintendo’s development efficiency. No figure was shared regarding the cost of the move but Nintendo noted that “the acquisition will only have a minor effect on Nintendo’s results.”The company said at the beginning of February that it wasn’t all that interested in acquiring third parties in the wake of Xbox’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard and Sony purchasing Bungie, as it preferred to build up its own development studios. President Shuntaro Furukawa said that any acquisitions would need to preserve ‘Nintendo DNA’ – something buying SRD almost certainly does.SRD has been working with Nintendo since the NES and has since worked on close to 100 of its games across myriad consoles. In its earlier days, it assisted development on everything from the original NES version of Donkey Kong, Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda. Most recently on Switch, it’s worked on games such as Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Ring Fit Adventure.Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale.
Source link
