After working with Next Level Games on numerous projects in the Luigi's Mansion and Mario Strikers franchises, among others, Nintendo has announced it will acquire the studio.

Nintendo will buy 100% of the outstanding shares of the Vancouver, Canada-based developer, and as such, Next Level Games will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Nintendo. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, but the deal is expected to close on March 1.

Nintendo's announcement said, "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."