Nintendo acquires Dynamo Pictures to make its own game-based movies

Japan-based video game company, Nintendo, has announced the acquisition of Tokyo-based animation movie specialist, Dynamo Pictures, earlier today. The move, announced in Nintendo’s regulatory filing in Japan, will “strengthen the planning and production structure of visual content in the Nintendo group.”

The move comes as global video game companies, including Japan’s Sony and Nintendo itself, are looking to roll out a number of movie adaptations based on video game storylines. In 2023, Nintendo is scheduled to premiere an animated movie based on its Super Mario Bros game universe – one of the most popular and enduring video game lineups of all time.

While the last Super Mario Bros movie adaptation came close to three decades ago, Nintendo’s acquisition of Dynamo Pictures suggests that it is looking to produce more movies based on its multiple video game lineups. The company’s adaptation of its Pokemon franchise in 2019’s Detective Pikachu serves as an example of how future video game-movie adaptations can pan out.

Fellow game developers at Sony have also been working on a number of on-screen adaptations of video game portfolios. The company has already worked on a movie based on PlayStation Studios’ Uncharted series, with protagonist Nathan Drake serving as a key example of how game characters have grown in popularity and show clear demand among mainstream movie audiences.

The company is working on a show based on its highly rated flagship game, The Last of Us, which may premiere soon.

Nintendo further announced in its filing that after the acquisition is completed by October this year, Dynamo Pictures will be renamed to Nintendo Pictures Co Ltd. The move suggests that Nintendo is not looking at one-off movie adaptations of video games, but could look at a more frequent schedule for producing animated movies based on its games.

Apart from Super Mario Bros and Pokemon, one of Nintendo’s major video game intellectual properties (IPs) include The Legend of Zelda, which too remains a popular choice among video game hobbyists and fans.