Damn, that sucks....but to tell you the truth, I wasn't a huge fan of M&L. Maybe now Paper Mario can shine now. But who knows, Nintendo probably will end up picking up key figures of Alpha Dream and form a new 1st Party studio. Man I didn't know their debts were so large. Their games weren't selling so hot recently so I guess the writing was kind of on the wall.

Yeah, that seems about right. I bought the remake of Superstar Saga, which I assume didn't sell very well, given that I don't remember hearing much about it.

So this company has nothing to do with Nintendo, but Nintendo paid them to make the game? In situations like that wouldn't Nintendo usually give them a flat price anyways and profit from sales would go back to Nintendo?

I suppose it would make sense for Nintendo to offer them an incentive to make the game well, and therefore give them a fraction of the sales profits, but how much would sales of those games have mattered to their bottom line?

They were working on a project for Switch and PS4 (seemingly a new IP) when they went under. Looks like the transition to HD development threw them off completely.

Yup, Superstar Saga, which is a great game, the remake didn't do too hot. I don't even remember seeing it anywhere in the charts. Nor Bowser's Inside Story Remake. But yes, Alphadream is a 3rd party developer that happened to be contracted by Nintendo to make M&L games. I would imagine Nintendo funding most of the development with Alphadream maybe getting a percentage of the profits like you pointed out.

But keep in mind, Alphadream also had other projects they were working on that took up resources and funding. They even supposedly had PS4 projects in development. I think this will end up similar to what happened to Hudson Soft. Although Hudson Soft didn't go bankrupt they did have banking issues that Konami essentially saved them from. Hudson Soft developed a lot of Nintendo Software, the most popular being Mario Party. So when they went under Konami's Wing they took key developers from Hudson and fused them with ND Cube which still makes Mario Party games today. I think Nintendo didn't want to inherit that debt, so they'll do something similar to this. 

I don't know the way it works in Japan, but in America it is possible to use bankruptcy as a means of eliminating debt and hopefully restructuring and becoming profitable again.

I declared bankruptcy three or four years ago, and due to my income at the time, I was right at the threshold of being eligible for Chapter 11 (in my favor), which means that I didn't have to pay the debt back. Between my wife and I, we wrote off a total of over $80,000 worth of debt.

If you're curious, a lot of it was credit card debt. A lot of it was also because of a vehicle which I got a loan for (brand new) and didn't make any payments on. A lot of it was medical, as we recently had our first child. Lots of miscellaneous things, like a rent payment that I never made on an old apartment I had. I used to drive through toll-ways without paying, and there was like $1,000 owed in my name. Minor things like utility bills, phone service providers that I didn't pay back, you get the idea.

If it is similar in Japan, perhaps they will liquidate the assets of the company and eliminate their debt, and the company can try and make profits again. I'm not sure how a partially coded videogame can be liquidated, though.

Edit: Made shorter; I'm rambling too much.

It’s because none of you played Paper Jam...
Just kidding...
It’s a shame though...
I know a lot of people really went hard for the Mario and Luigi games...

There was a serious drop in quality of their games over the years. Bowser's Inside Story was their best work, but then Dream Team and Paper Jam both dropped so hard in reviews. Dream Team was 81 in reviews, which is still a must buy game, but a hard drop off from the 90 that was BIS. Then Paper Jam came out and got 76 in reviews. I didn't even buy Paper Jam, because it looked like they were emphasizing the non-RPG aspects of it too much.

Mario RPGs have been all going downhill lately though. SMRPG hasn't had a sequel ever. Paper Mario series left its RPG roots ages ago. Sticker Star, and Color Splash hardly resemble the N64 and GC classics.


I picked up the Superstar Saga and BIS remakes though.

Damn, I really like the Mario and Luigi games. If we don't get one on the switch I'll be disappointed.

Hope Nintendo gets someone else on the series, or alternatively at least make Paper Mario with the same battles like the original.

The thing is, 465m yen is like... less than 4m Euro this isn't a drop in the ocean compared to the Net worth of Nintendo which was $37b as of 2018, Nintendo could bail them out 925 times if they wanted to invest and acquire I'm sure the debtors could come to an agreement, anyone would rather get a % of what their owed rather than nothing.

^ that.

Seriously SE + Nintendo should work together to do a SMRPG 2.
Also They need to throw Sticker Star + Color Splash formula into a trash can, and go back to TTYD style of Paper Mario.

Mario & luigi series was okay,... but amongst fans it wasnt ever as big as SMRPG or TTYD.

Nintendo should listen to what fans want, and give it to them :P
So TTYD 2,  and Mario Galaxy 3......

(this almost belongs to one of those "what would you do if you where president of Nintendo" threads)