Nintendo acquires Shiver Entertainment from Embracer Group

US-based studio specializes in Switch ports

Marco Wutz | May 21, 2024

Nintendo

Nintendo has announced that it acquired Miami-based studio Shiver Entertainment from its previous owner, Embracer Group. Shiver specializes in video game ports with recent titles including Hogwarts Legacy, Mortal Kombat 11, and Mortal Kombat 1 for Nintendo Switch.

According to the official notice posted by the Japanese company, Nintendo purchased 100% of Shiver Entertainment from Embracer, making it a wholly owned subsidiary.

“By welcoming Shiver’s experienced and accomplished development team, Nintendo aims to secure high-level resources for porting and developing software titles. Going forward, even after it becomes a part of the Nintendo group, Shiver’s focus will remain the same, continuing commissions that port and develop software for multiple platforms including Nintendo Switch,” the official announcement stated.

Monetary details about the deal have not been disclosed, though Nintendo noted that the deal “will have only a minor effect on Nintendo’s results for this fiscal year.” In other words: It was a drop in the bucket for the Japanese juggernaut.

Shiver was previously part of Saber Interactive and went over into Embracer’s direct custody late last year, so it didn’t change hands during the divorce between Saber and Embracer earlier this year. As Nintendo looks towards the future and its upcoming successor to the Switch, it may aim to have additional capacities to assist third-party developers in bringing over their games to the new console. With the next Nintendo console very likely being less powerful than the current gen of Microsoft and Sony consoles, expertise such as Shiver’s could come in very handy – after all, its port of Hogwarts Legacy was considered to be a small miracle due to the Switch’s limitations.

Published May 21, 2024

MARCO WUTZ

Marco Wutz is a writer from Parkstetten, Germany. He has a degree in Ancient History and a particular love for real-time and turn-based strategy games like StarCraft, Age of Empires, Total War, Age of Wonders, Crusader Kings, and Civilization as well as a soft spot for Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail. He began covering StarCraft 2 as a writer in 2011 for the largest German community around the game and hosted a live tournament on a stage at gamescom 2014 before he went on to work for Bonjwa, one of the country's biggest Twitch channels. He branched out to write in English in 2015 by joining tl.net, the global center of the StarCraft scene run by Team Liquid, which was nominated as the Best Coverage Website of the Year at the Esports Industry Awards in 2017. He worked as a translator on The Crusader Stands Watch, a biography in memory of Dennis "INTERNETHULK" Hawelka, and provided live coverage of many StarCraft 2 events on the social channels of tl.net as well as DreamHack, the world's largest gaming festival. From there, he transitioned into writing about the games industry in general after his graduation, joining GLHF, a content agency specializing in video games coverage for media partners across the globe, in 2021. He has also written for NGL.ONE, kicker, ComputerBild, USA Today's ForTheWin, The Sun, Men's Journal, and Parade. Email: marco.wutz@glhf.gg