Nintendo acquires SRD Co, longtime partner and support studio

What you need to know

• SRD, or Systems Research and Development, has been a collaborator with Nintendo since The Legend of Zelda.
• The team aids in game development, but was technically a support studio, seperate from Nintendo itself.
• Nintendo announced on Thursday that it is acquiring SRD for an undisclosed amount of money.
• The deal is set to close by April 1, 2022.

Nintendo is acquiring SRD Co, a longtime partner and support studio. The company has worked with Nintendo going all the way back to Donkey Kong in 1983 and The Legend of Zelda in 1986. Despite working together closely for these many years and even operating out of the same building, SRD — Systems Research and Development — was technically a completely seperate company.

According to the announcement, the deal is set to close by April 1, 2022. After that, things should stay roughly the same, with Nintendo and SRD continuing to work together on upcoming Nintendo Switch games. In more recent years, some of the projects SRD has worked on include Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Ring Fit Adventure and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

The gaming industry is going through a consolidation phase right now, with studios and publishers purchased at an increasingly rapid and ravenous rate. Most notably, Microsoft and Sony are currently working to close the acquisitions of Activision Blizzard and Bungie, respectively.

Nintendo has stayed out of the seeming power struggle, though the company did purchase Luigi's Mansion developer Next Level Games back in March 2021. Like the purchase of SRD, buying Next Level Games allowed Nintendo to guarantee it could continue to work with important longtime development partners.