Nintendo joins acquisition rush with a purchase of its own

By Otto Kratky February 24, 2022

While Microsoft acquires Activision Blizzard and Sony purchases Bungie, Nintendo is continuing to do things its own way, even when it comes to acquisitions. The Japanese game company has purchased SRD (Systems Research and Development), which has assisted it in developing games for nearly 40 years.

In a filing submitted to Japan’s Financial Accounting Standards Foundation, Nintendo announced that it had come to an agreement with SRD that would lead to an acquisition of all of the company’s outstanding shares. Once the acquisition closes on April 1, 2022, SRD will be a wholly owned subsidiary of Nintendo, much like The Pokémon Company.

While Nintendo is finally acquiring companies of its own, it’s nowhere near matching Microsoft and Sony’s buying spree. Say what you want of SRD, but it’s certainly not a household name like Activision Blizzard or Bungie. SRD has been a longtime partner of Nintendo, working just outside the sight of consumers over the course of nearly four decades. In the filing, Nintendo says that its acquisition of SRD “will serve to strengthen the management base of SRD and secure the availability of software development resources for Nintendo, in addition to facilitating an anticipated improvement in software development efficiency.”

SRD has played a role in a substantial number of the company’s major releases. Having begun collaborating with Nintendo while the gaming giant was making games for the Famicom, SRD has assisted with the development of the original Donkey Kong and Super Mario Bros. games, as well as modern releases including Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

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Otto Kratky is a freelance writer with many homes. You can find his work at Digital Trends, GameSpot, and Gamepur. If he's…

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