The end may be nigh for Mario & Luigi RPG series developer AlphaDream. After developing titles like Superstar Saga, Bowser's Inside Story, Dream Team, and other Mario & Luigi RPG titles, the studio has filed for bankruptcy. According to a Japanese article via Yahoo! Japan, the filing was due to the company having an unpayable debt of 465 million yen, or $4.3 million USD. Despite cult status of the original Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga entry, further entries only began to slow down, in terms of sales, with industry insiders reportedly claiming that the latest game, a Nintendo 3DS remake of Bowser's Inside Story had sold so poorly, that it had caused Nintendo to halt further plans to develop titles on the aging platform.

Source

 

[codezer0]

This is what happens when people pirate great games

Even for as easy to break as the Wii was, the amount of those that modded their systems was maybe 1.5% according to the makers of the most common entry points used to hack and mod the console.

Even with that in mind, their latest *new* entries into the franchise didn't seem to muster up much of an impression, considering they felt they had to do a rerelease of superstar saga to get by for a bit longer.

 

[Frankbel]

Meh, the first one on GBA was fine, but later produced games were boring to me. I won't miss them.

 

[RivenMain]

Well that sucks

That isn't even remotely true, piracy only accounts for what, less than 1% of sales if that.

That may of been true years ago, but it's increased no doubt. Loot Boxes and forced online authentication for games should be a indication of piracy. You can't go on craigslist and search for 3ds without finding all of them hacked with games on it. Things like Xbox app are helping fight piracy letting you download plenty of games to play month. Nintendo with it's lower quality software is just easier to hack. Piracy isn't just a form of playing on a 3ds. You also have to include the Citra userbase. Most people would rather play at 1080p/4k than at 240p. Adding both those numbers should be more than 1% Poor Switch already was being Emulated on its first month.

For what happened though to the company it bites, it happens to most game companies.. But with the amount of money they owed I feel Management played a large part. Most of those that worked in the company probably found new jobs.

 

[Kraken_X]

I love the series, but the last one I bought was Dream Team since I don't have much time for portable gaming and the games are pretty long.

I also already own Bowser's Inside Story for DS, and my 3DS plays it since it's backwards compatible, so why rebuy it? I feel like the poor sales are likely because others thought the same, which is a shame because it was great on DS. Remaking a 2D game for a console that is only one generation apart and can already play the original, while making neither version available on a TV was a bad business choice. It would have done much better on the Switch.

 

[CzechTea]

Thats sad, they created Hamtaro games too.

 

[Techjunky90]

This is what happens when people pirate great games

Lmfao, developers and publishers would rather you pirate their games instead of not playing their games period, so no, you're wrong.

 

[altorn]

Damn, my childhood memories.

 

[Reynardine]

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The end may be nigh for Mario & Luigi RPG series developer AlphaDream. After developing titles like Superstar Saga, Bowser's Inside Story, Dream Team, and other Mario & Luigi RPG titles, the studio has filed for bankruptcy. According to a Japanese article via Yahoo! Japan, the filing was due to the company having an unpayable debt of 465 million yen, or $4.3 million USD. Despite cult status of the original Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga entry, further entries only began to slow down, in terms of sales, with industry insiders reportedly claiming that the latest game, a Nintendo 3DS remake of Bowser's Inside Story had sold so poorly, that it had caused Nintendo to halt further plans to develop titles on the aging platform.

Source

Oh, that makes me sad. Superstar Saga was a huge part of my childhood. Living in Europe I never got to play Super Mario RPG.

Well, the sequels, especially Partners in Time felt like rehashes and more of the same to me. The one real bright spot was Bowser's Inside Story, though. That game was another stroke of genius.

The 3DS remake was rather poorly handled, though. 30 fps, no 3D and released on a dying platform. It was destined to fail, I fear.

I never want to see developers closing doors, that's awful. Both for the people working there and for fans of their games. I was hoping to see the series carried on on the Switch, I wonder what is going to fill that gap now.

 

[tech3475]

I hope they recover, the M&L series were the first RPGs I played which I liked.

I'm surprised Nintendo doesn't just buy them.

 

[EmulateLife]

I guess I don't understand I thought they were just a developer under Nintendo and Nintendo would take the loss, not them.

 

[phreaksho]

But... But... Partners in time didn't get one of those sweet remakes

 

[James_]

Welp, looks like we probably won't be seeing any new Mario & Luigi games anytime soon. That sucks.

(by the way, this is my first ever post)

 

[bobmcjr]

I'm not surprised. I don't see how any of these companies think they can survive by tying themselves to a singular first party effectively as a contractor unless they're bought by said first party.

When your entire library and IP is made obsolete and impossible to profit from when a console goes obsolete ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[chartube12]

I was hoping for a Mario & Luigi collection for the switch using unreal 4. Besides the remakes, Bowers inside story is the only one I didn’t own at one time.

 

[NoNAND]

Oh boy and what can we expect from this... Here's hoping Nintendo themselves continue to work on the series or file a partnership with another company.

 

[pLaYeR^^]

They produced excellent games. It seems there won’t be any sequels for the switch

 

[Deleted User]

Something is telling me that Nintendo will either find another developer or develop new entries internally. But I doubt that it'll ever be the same. Looking on the bright side, if the franchise doesn't return, at least Paper Mario might get an actual genuine comeback, due to it being the only RPG spin-off of the franchise.

 

[StrayGuitarist]

Agh, how unfortunate. I loved Bowser's Inside Story, and I had always through they were just an in-house studio with Nintendo, not a separate company.. Huh.

Maybe Nintendo'll just buy them out?

 

[Silent_Gunner]

Nintendo should absorb this into a second party and have them make games for the Switch.

With the debt that they've accrued? Just speaking from a business standpoint that'd be a hard sell if you ask me!

Then again, who knows how much debt these companies are operating with all the time...

 

[pedro702]

well their first 3 games were good but after those they became meh and probably didnt sold well that is why this happened imo.