Nintendo Acquires Animation & Graphics Studio Dynamo Pictures, the gaming giant has made another acquisition, this time of the Japanese production house. Nintendo is expanding its portfolio of studios, this time moving into CG production. Nintendo has acquired 100% of the shares of the company’s CG productions division, with plans to rename it Nintendo Pictures, whereupon it will concentrate on expanding Nintendo’s visual content portfolio. Upon the completion of its acquisition, its name is expected to change to Nintendo Pictures Co., Ltd., with a focus on developing visual content using Nintendo IP.
Following the acquisition, the name of the animation studio is expected to change, the announcement stated the studio will now concentrate on visual content programming and production facilities within Nintendos Group. Nintendo has decided to purchase 100% of Dynamo Pictures’ outstanding shares (excluding its holding company shares) and establish it as an entirely owned subsidiary in order to reinforce the planning and production structure of visual content in the Nintendo group. The press release stated Nintendo has decided to purchase all shares in order to strengthen the Nintendo Group.
Breaking the news via a press release, Nintendo explained that Nintendo has acquired 100% of the outstanding shares of visual production company Dynamo Pictures, with an expected completion date of acquisition of October 3, 2022. Nintendo announced that it would be purchasing Dynamo Pictures, a Tokyo-based visual production company that has been the mastermind of the animated short Pikmin series. According to the official Nintendo announcement released earlier today, the Tokyo-based Dynamo Pictures CG production company is now a fully-owned subsidiary of Nintendo for an undisclosed sum, a deal that is currently expected to be completed on Oct. 3.
We posted the News Release "Notification of the Acquisition of Dynamo Pictures, Inc.”.https://t.co/CKhJWFx72D
— 任天堂株式会社（企業広報・IR） (@NintendoCoLtd) July 14, 2022
The most likely reason behind the acquisition is Japanese production company Dynamo Pictures working on visual effects for Nintendo’s upcoming games and projects, such as CGI cutscenes and animated shorts, like those developed for the Pikmin projects. While it is easy to assume the newly formed Nintendo Pictures would mainly focus on adapting Nintendo IPs to television and film media, it is also possible that Nintendo would buy film production company Dynamo Pictures in order to bolster Nintendo’s CG output both for its games and for its marketing.
It is still not entirely clear what kind of things Nintendo Pictures will produce, but an acquisition is an undeniable sign that Nintendo will ramp up its efforts in this area, just like we saw both Sony and Microsoft doing with The Last of Us and Halo, respectively. Acquired is a surprising buy for Nintendo, which has for years insisted its focus remains strictly on making video games.
