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Oh Brother

Nintendo is staying quiet on who's making Mario & Luigi: Brothership, but says some "original developers" are involved

We'll just have to wait and see, it seems.

Mario and Luigi are sat, their hands glowing, looking up in slight surprise and confusion in Mario & Luigi: Brothership.
Image credit: Nintendo
Oisin Kuhnke avatar
News by Oisin Kuhnke Contributor
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Original Mario & Luigi developer AlphaDream doesn't exist anymore, but Nintendo won't say who is making the recently revealed Brothership.

Earlier this week, Nintendo announced Mario & Luigi: Brothership, the first completely new entry in the spin-off RPG series in about nine years. It was a welcome way to open the Direct, particularly for someone like me who's a big fan of the series. But, there's one problem: AlphaDream, the original developer behind the games, was shut down back in 2019 after filing for bankruptcy. That leaves the question of who is actually developing this surprise sequel. Game File reached out to Nintendo to find out which team might be working on the RPG, and was met with a bit of a non-response "Some of the original developers who worked on the franchise are involved in the development of Mario & Luigi: Brothership. For more information about the developers, please stay tuned to the game credits at release."

As noted by VGC, it isn't particularly clear who Nintendo might be talking about here, as numerous former AlphaDream staff members have worked with Nintendo in other capacities, with series director and producer Yoshihiko Maekawa even recently supervising the remake of Super Mario RPG. In recent years, Nintendo has become increasingly reticent to actually say who is making its games, often offering a similar line along the lines of "please stay tuned to the game credits at release." It's not particularly clear why Nintendo is opting to do this, and mostly just obfuscates the fact that specific teams make its games, and not the developer itself.

Any which way, hopefully the new Mario & Luigi will still be a good return for Nintendo, and is the third Mario RPG spin-off title it will have released within a year. Perhaps it's finally ready to admit that people really like these games and enjoy doing more than just jumping on Goombas.

Mario & Luigi: Brothership is out November 7, later this year.

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