What are Nintendo's (affiliated) studios and partners up to? What can we expect for WiiU?

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In this post: other Nintendo partners, namely: Ambrella, Arzest, Bandai Namco, Chunsoft, Good-Feel, Grezzo, indieszero and Jupiter.

AMBRELLA

Developer	Latest game	Release date	Other games and projects	Next game
Ambrella	Pokémon Rumble World	April 2015	Pokémon Rumbe series   Pokémon Dash	New Pokémon Rumble

What are they working on?

Since Ambrella have only worked on Pokémon Rumble games since 2009, chaces are that they just started developing the next one for the next generation of Nintendo hardware.

What does this mean for WiiU?

With the release of Pokémon Rumble U in 2013 we have probably seen all of Ambrella’s work for Nintendo WiiU.

ARZEST

Developer	Latest game	Release date	Other games and projects	Next game
Arzest	Yoshi’s New Island	March 2014	Wii Play Motion   Streetpass Mii Plaza	(?) Terra Battle

What are they working on?

Yoshi’s New Island wasn’t received very well by critics and fans of the series. As such it is most likely that Arzest has not received a new project from Nintendo.

Arzest did work with Mistwalker on Terra Battle, so if that game would make it to WiiU (highly unlikely) we will still see some of Arzest work on a Nintendo platform. For now, however, they seem to be focusing on smartphone games, with Boost Beast planned to release this year.

 

What does this mean for WiiU?

Mistwalker’s Terra Battle on WiiU? Not very likely.

BANDAI NAMCO

Developer	Latest game	Release date	Other games and projects	Next game
Bandai Namco	Ace Combat: Assault Horizon Legacy Plus	February 2015	Mario Baseball series   Mario Kart Arcade series Donkey Konga series Project X Zone series Pac-Man series Disney Magic Castle series Tekken series Ridge Racer series Tales of series One Piece series Star Fox Assault	Project X Zone 2   Project Treasure Pokkén Tournament

What are they working on?

Bandai Namco is working with Sora Ltd. On DLC for Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros for WiiU and Super Smash Bros for 3DS.

Bandai Namco are developing Pokkén Tournament, a crossover between Pokémon and Tekken, for Arcades. This game may still come to WiiU in 2016. They are also developing Project Treasure, a free-to-play multiplayer action game for WiiU which is also set to release in 2016.

Bandai Namco are working on at least two titles for Nintendo 3DS. Disney Magic Castle 2 and Project X Zone 2 (which they develop together with Monolith Soft) should both release in 2016 as well.

No titles from their other big series are known to be in development for Nintendo platforms at the moment, although it is very likely that Ganbarion is working on One Piece Unlimited: World BLUE, which may also come to Nintendo platforms.

 

What does this mean for WiiU?

Bandai Namco is still developing DLC for Super Smash Bros for WiiU. With Project Treasure set to release in 2016 and the possibility of Pokkén tournament and a new One Piece game releasing on WiiU in 2016 as well, Bandai Namco has all but abandoned WiiU development. Sadly they won’t be publishing Project C.A.R.S on WiiU, since the studio that developed the title was unable to get it to work on Nintendo’s console.

SPIKE CHUNSOFT

Developer	Latest game	Release date	Other games and projects	Next game
Spike Chunsoft	Attack on Titan: Humanity in Chains	July 2015	Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series   Wii Play: Motion StreetPass Mii Plaza Zero Escape series	Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon

What are they working on?

Spike Chunsoft are in charge of the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series. The next installment in the series (Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon) will be released next year.
Spike Chunsoft has also started working on Zero Escape 3 for Nintendo 3DS, the third game in the series, after 999 and Virtue’s Last Reward. They game will be released in 2016

What does this mean for WiiU?

Spike Chunsoft does not develop games for Nintendo WiiU.

GOOD-FEEL

Developer	Latest game	Release date	Other games and projects	Next game
Good-Feel	Yoshi’s Woolly World	June 2015	Wario Land: Shake It!   Kirby’s Epic Yarn Wii Play: Motion StreetPass Mii Plaza Mario & Luigi: Dream Team	(?) New Wario Land

What are they working on?

With 97 employees Good-Feel has become quite the studio. It is, however, unlikely that their next game will still be released on WiiU, though not impossible. Development on Yoshi’s Woolly World has been finished for a while now, and Good-Feel has expressed their willingness to develop a new Wario Land game. With their track record, Nintendo may just grant them their wish.

Good-Feel has also made some smaller mini-games that are part of larger compilations or are part of another game (they did the giant battles for Mario & Luigi: Dream Team). It is possible that they one of their new mini-games releases before their next big platform game.

What does this mean for WiiU?

A Wario Land game may still be in development for WiiU, but a lot depends on when development for the game started. If they just recently begun working on it, chances are that it will end up on NX.

GREZZO

Developer	Latest game	Release date	Other games and projects	Next game
Grezzo	The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D	February 2015	The Legend of Zelda remakes   StreetPass Mii Plaza Line Attack Heroes	(?) The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess remake

 

What are they working on?

Tokyo EAD 1 has mostly been working together with external developer Grezzo to remake several The Legend of Zelda games for Nintendo 3DS (Occarina of Time 3D, Four Swords Anniversary Edition and Majora’s Mask 3D).

Most likely they just started working together with Grezzo on another The Legend of Zelda remake, and the most likely contenders in that respect are: Twilight Princess HD (for WiiU) and Four Swords Adventures Anniversary (for New 3DS and WiiU). While the latter may seem the most feasible for the studio, fans have really been dreaming of a Twilight Princess remake ever since the tech demo shown at E3 2013. With some help of Kyoto EAD 3, it is not unlikely that Tokyo EAD1 is working on making this dream a reality together with Grezzo… but most likely for Nintendo NX.

Grezzo may, however, be working on remaking an entirely different N64 game for Nintendo 3DS.

What does this mean for WiiU?

Chances are small that Grezzo is working on a game for Nintendo WiiU. Most likely contender in that respect would be Four Swords Adventures Anniversary, which could release on both WiiU and (New) Nintendo 3DS.

INDIESZERO

Developer	Latest game	Release date	Other games and projects	Next game
indieszero	Ultimate NEX Remix	November 2014	NES Remix series   Nintendo 3DS Guide: Louvre Theatrhythm series DualPenSports	(?) Theatrhythm Dragon Quest

What are they working on?

While Theatrhythm Dragon Quest was already released in Japan for Nintendo 3DS, it has not (yet) been announced for a Western release.  With Dragon Quest VII and VIII for Nintendo 3DS having been (somewhat) confirmed for Western release it is not unlikely that we will see the game come to Europe and the U.S. It is likely that indieszero is working on yet another Theatrhythm game.

Indieszero is also a known partner for Tokyo EAD 2. They have co-developed the NES Remix series and Nintendo 3DS Guide: Louvre. A SNES Remix may be in the works, and could still come to Nintendo WiiU.

 

What does this mean for WiiU?

Indieszero could be working on SNES Remix for WiiU.

JUPITER

Developer	Latest game	Release date	Other games and projects	Next game
Jupiter	PICROSS e5	November 2014	PICROSS series   Pokémon Pinball series Spectrobes series The World ends with You Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories	(?) PICROSS e6

What are they working on?

Jupiter is probably working on PICROSS e6, which may still release this year. (EDIT: it was released a month ago, well after I originally finished writing this piece. So that’s one good prediction . At the moment they’re probably working on PICROSS e7, which may come to 3DS in 2016).

The only non-PICROSS game they have made for the current generation of Nintendo systems is a Medabots game which released exclusively in Japan on Nintendo 3DS. While a new Pokémon Pinball game for Nintendo 3DS may be in the works, it does not seem very likely, since the series didn’t even appear on the immensely popular Nintendo DS.

Although Jupiter co-developed The World ends with You and Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories with Square Enix, they have not worked together with the publisher since the release of those two games.

 

What does this mean for WiiU?

 

Jupiter does not develop games for Nintendo WiiU.