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News Nintendo Acquires Shiver Entertainment from Embracer Group (Port Studio behind Mortal Kombat 1 on Switch, and others)

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ILikeFeet

Warpstar Knight


Nintendo Co., Ltd. (HQ: Kyoto, Japan, President and Representative Director: Shuntaro Furukawa; hereinafter “Nintendo”) hereby announces that it has entered into an agreement with Embracer Group AB (HQ: Karlstad, Sweden, CEO: Lars Wingefors) to acquire 100% of the outstanding shares of Shiver Entertainment, Inc. (HQ: Miami, Florida, U.S; CEO: John Schappert; hereinafter “Shiver”) and to make it a wholly owned subsidiary (the “Acquisition”).

1. Purpose of Acquisition Shiver is a video game development company that develops software for multiple platforms including Nintendo Switch. Since its establishment in 2012, Shiver has partnered with publishers and developers through commissions for large scale title developments, and recently, has worked on porting and developing software titles such as Hogwarts Legacy and Mortal Kombat 1.

Nintendo will acquire 100% of the outstanding shares of Shiver and make it a wholly owned subsidiary. By welcoming Shiver’s experienced and accomplished development team, Nintendo aims to secure high-level resources for porting and developing software titles. Going forward, even after it becomes a part of the Nintendo group, Shiver’s focus will remain the same, continuing commissions that port and develop software for multiple platforms including Nintendo Switch. The Acquisition will be completed pending satisfaction of all relevant customary closing conditions.
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Acquiring port studios who have worked on AAA games bodes well for potential 3rd party deals next generation. Wonder if they got them in a fire sale with Embracer falling apart.
 
Going forward, even after it becomes a part of the Nintendo group, Shiver’s focuswill remain the same, continuingcommissions that port and develop software for multiple platformsincluding Nintendo Switch
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Hmm, "multiple platforms including Switch" is interesting. I'd assume that just means "and also Switch 2", but a veeery small part of my brain is tempted to read this as "oh, like how Sony bought Nixxes to be their PC port studio"

Anyway, classic Nintendo once again buying a "literally never heard of them" studio rather than any of the usual suspects people online insist Nintendo "needs" to acquire

e: Also, maybe not what I'd have picked up if I was sifting through the ruins of Embracer (Purple Lamp feels like it maybe could have been a good fit, and I'm hoping somebody can pull Eidos and Crystal Dynamics out of that mess), but not a bad idea to just have a studio dedicated to 3rd party ports (or assisting with 3rd party ports). iirc NST kinda started out doing that sort of thing before moving onto other things?
 
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Definitely feels like this came about due to Embracer still having a fire sale. Good pickup for Nintendo though, particularly if they’re expecting a lot of third party ports with next gen switch.
 
That's a good get.

  • Another Western studio
  • Familiar with Switch hardware which can automatically mean shorter learning curve to the Switch 2 hardware
  • Pretty good ports which could lead to assistance with Switch 2 (and 1) ports in the future
  • Saved from Embracer Group
 
Having a studio devoted exclusively to porting multiplatform games to their hardware? I've thought for years that Nintendo owning a developer focused on such tasks would be beneficial, but I never actually thought they'd actually do it.
 
Going forward, even after it becomes a part of the Nintendo group, Shiver's focus will remain the same, continuing commissions that port and develop software for multiple platforms including Nintendo Switch.
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wink wink, nudge nudge
 
That's very strange.

There are better port studios out there that they could have acquired.

But I guess the Embracer situation made this one very available, and likely inexpensive.
 
Step 1: Hire Gio Corsi

Step 2: Acquire a talented port studio

Now I really wanna now about the third step in Nintendo's quest of securing AAA support for the successor.
 
BlackthornOrion said:
Hmm, "multiple platforms including Switch" is interesting. I'd assume that just means "and also Switch 2", but a veeery small part of my brain is tempted to read this as "oh, like how Sony bought Nixxes to be their PC port studio"

Anyway, classic Nintendo once again buying a "literally never heard of them" studio rather than any of the usual suspects people online insist Nintendo "needs" to acquire
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Let's hope they never cannibalize their hardware sales by doing PC ports.
 
Going forward, even after it becomes a part of the Nintendo group, Shiver’s focus will remain the same, continuing commissions that port and develop software for multiple platforms including Nintendo Switch.
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broke: switch 2
woke: mario on playstation
 
Danny said:
It seems that Nintendo bought this studio solely for porting games. I wonder why Nintendo felt the need to have an in house porting studio though.
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Well they did say developing games for Switch 2 would take longer and cost more money. My first thought was buy some studios to help out.
 
why is a Miami studio called "Shiver"

embracer.com

Embracer Group acquires Shiver Entertainment - Embracer Group

Embracer Group AB (”Embracer”), through its wholly owned subsidiary Saber Interactive Inc., has acquired 100 percent of the shares in U.S based Shiver Entertainment Inc. (“Shiver”) from its founders. Shiver is a game development studio founded by industry veterans John Schappert and Jason...
embracer.com embracer.com

When Embracer bought them, they were a studio of 17, and I'd imagine they haven't grown much since. They were also supposedly working on original titles, though who knows what would've happened to those.

I can't be too mad at Nintendo scooping this crew up, considering the alternative headline for the studio would've likely been its closure. Curious to see what they do in the future.
 
Danny said:
It seems that Nintendo bought this studio solely for porting games. I wonder why Nintendo felt the need to have an in house porting studio though.
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Could be of value for their own stuff, but I could see a lot of merit to being offer that service directly to publishers considering many barely work in the Switch environment at all. Particularly considering that several of the studios that were involved the biggest Switch ports are now Microsoft owned.
 
Interesting, and very unexpected! I wonder if they will be mainly used as a support studio for third party ports, if they will be tasked to port/remaster titles from Nintendo's own catalogue, or something else entirely.

Regardless of Nintendo's plans, the fact that another studio has escaped from Embracer's grasp is nothing but great news.
 
they are a very small studio it seems, probably didn't cost them too much. Though Miami is a pretty expensive city these days
 
0
You can tell my knowledge of this studio is limited when my first thought was "I wonder what this means for Scribblenauts"
 
This is very unexpected, but between this and recent Sony producer hiring shows that they're aiming to get as much major support from 3rd parties as possible.
 
Apopheniac said:
why is a Miami studio called "Shiver"

embracer.com

Embracer Group acquires Shiver Entertainment - Embracer Group

Embracer Group AB (”Embracer”), through its wholly owned subsidiary Saber Interactive Inc., has acquired 100 percent of the shares in U.S based Shiver Entertainment Inc. (“Shiver”) from its founders. Shiver is a game development studio founded by industry veterans John Schappert and Jason...
embracer.com embracer.com

When Embracer bought them, they were a studio of 17, and I'd imagine they haven't grown much since. They were also supposedly working on original titles, though who knows what would've happened to those.

I can't be too mad at Nintendo scooping this crew up, considering the alternative headline for the studio would've likely been its closure. Curious to see what they do in the future.
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Being that small makes it even weirder that Nintendo bought them. They won't be offloading much work from Nintendo being that size.
 
Anybody being saved from Embracer is a win in my eyes, but I don't think they'll help with third party ports. This is probably for general Switch 2 first party support with bug testing and maybe next-gen patches.
 
NintenDuvo said:
The fact that no "insider" scooped this is also amazing and shows that Nintendo are still the kings of Sleuth
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Jesus, imagine the chaos if someone knew this was gonna happen and teased it: "Yeah, Nintendo is about to purchase a studio that has worked on some very significant titles. I'm talking multi-million sellers, AAA games here."

Fami would have crashed. Hard.
 
Interesting acquisition. I suppose having a port studio with - after some time - a close working relationship with Nintendo (and the knowledge of the hardware that'll come with) is likely a benefit to them when doing 3rd party ports, which should mean more third-party games make their way to Switch / Switch 2 in the future.
 
Danny said:
Being that small makes it even weirder that Nintendo bought them. They won't be offloading much work from Nintendo being that size.
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The aim isn't for Nintendo to offload work onto them.

The intent seems to be business as usual for Shiver. They'll continue to take on commissions. At least that's what it says in the press release.

So it's a way for Nintendo to help 3rd parties bring their games to Switch 2, thus bringing in more business for them.
 
Danny said:
Being that small makes it even weirder that Nintendo bought them. They won't be offloading much work from Nintendo being that size.
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I would imagine that they would continue to port titles from other platforms. Considering the popularity of the Warner Bros. games they've ported, they're very valuable to Nintendo relative to their size.
 
What a big get for Nintendo. Literally being able to target and port games for other studios is huge. Anything they have a hard time porting, Nintendo does the port work.

I really think Nintendo is going to try and compete with Sony now, and I think they might succeed too.
 
Let them cook with that 12 gigabytes of sweet LPDDR5X.
 
Nintendo is actually thinking about the third party!!

Like what the hell, like I’m actually kinda shocked that Nintendo bought a studio for third party ports, it’s something that’s not typical by Nintendo.

We might actually see way bigger Switch 2 ports, like damn, we might actually be feasting with third party supports and ports

shocked-meme-shocked-miles-morales.gif
 
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