Today, Nintendo announced that it has entered into an agreement with Bandai Namco Studios to acquire Bandai Namco Studios Singapore.
The company plans to acquire 80% of the shares of the Singaporean studio by April 1, 2026, and the rest will be acquired at a later date, after the operation of the studio has stabilized.
The studio will become a subsidiary of Nintendo and will change its name to Nintendo Studios Singapore. The acquisition has been decided to strengthen Nintendo’s development structure.
BNSS is described as a studio with strong expertise in creating in-game art assets and has already worked with Nintendo in the past, specifically on Splatoon 3, for which it has done Concept Art, Character Modelling, Environment Modelling, and Animation.
According to its homepage, the studio, founded in 2013, also worked on Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown, SoulCalibur VI, Tekken 7, Tekken 8, and more.
With the Nintendo Switch 2 just out of the door, Nintendo likely needs more development juice to ramp up the catalog of games for the new console, so the acquisition makes perfect sense.
Bandai Namco has not commented on the acquisition just yet, so we don’t know why it has decided to cede part of its development structure. That being said, it has worked on several Nintendo games like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Pokkén Tournament, and more. The two companies have a long history of tight collaboration.
Considering Nintendo’s recent financial results and the initial success of the Switch 2, it’s not surprising that the console manufacturer based in Kyoto has plenty of capital for M&A operations.