Although these are big news, it somehow slipped under my radar for nearly a week. Nintendo has entered an agreement to acquire animation studio Dynamo Pictures. According to the news, Nintendo will acquire 100% of the “outstanding shares” (according to Investopedia, outstanding shares are “a company's stock currently held by all its shareholders, including share blocks held by institutional investors and restricted shares owned by the company’s officers and insiders.”), except “treasury stock” (which, again, according to Investopedia, are “previously outstanding stock that is bought back from stockholders by the issuing company.”).

The plan is to make Dynamo Pictures into a subsidiary, called “Nintendo Pictures Co., Ltd”, to develop audiovisual content for the Nintendo group.

Dynamo Pictures has worked in various projects for different mediums, including games and TV. For example, Ghost in The Shell: SAC 2045, motion capture for Death Stranding, mocap for Resident Evil Vendetta, Kingsglaive Final Fantasy XV, and others.

The news on the deal don’t really specify the kind of work Dynamo Pictures will do for Nintendo. However, based on their work, I am assuming they will make all kinds of works, from mocap and VR experiences, to animated series/films based on the Nintendo IPs.

It will be interesting to see if they decide to produce their own movies or TV shows. Video game adaptations are rarely good, and, while these TV shows or movies would be developed by the actual creators of the IPs, jumping from one medium to the other is always challenging.

The deal is expected to be closed this October. However, I think it will take some time before we start seeing the fruits of this acquisition. We’ll have to keep our eyes open!