AlphaDream, the developer behind the beloved Mario & Luigi RPGs, have sadly announced that they have filed for bankruptcy following a troubled couple of years. According to the source, the bankruptcy proceedings began on the 1st of October with Tokyo District Courts. Their former website, alphadream.co.jp, is already offline.
AlphaDream was founded back in 2000, originally called Alpha Star. Among the original staff were several notable developers from Square, and in partnership with Nintendo they produced games for the GameBoy Colour, GameBoy Advance, and the Nintendo DS and 3DS family. Most famously, they’re the geniuses behind the beloved Mario & Luigi RPG series, starting with Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga for the GameBoy Advance. According to the report, back in 2014 the company pulled in approximately 300 million yen (just over 4 million AUD) after the 3DS release of Mario & Luigi: Dream Team Bros. But by 2018 the company had seen a steep decline in revenue due in part to the “burden of development”, and had a debt of approximately 465 million yen (about 6.4 million AUD). Their last game was Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story + Bowser jr’s Journey for the 3DS.
With AlphaDream’s bankruptcy, we don’t yet know what the future will be for the Mario & Luigi RPG series. Potentially Nintendo will partner with another developer to get new titles made for the Switch, at least we can hope.
It’s so sad to see this company go, especially so close to their 20th anniversary. Thank you for so many great games and beloved moments, and especially for the bros’ iconic vaguely Italian-sounding gibberish dialogue. Thank you, AlphaDream!
About the Author
Edie W-K
she/her
If it isn't video games, Edie doesn't care about it. She's been playing games since the N64 era, and only spent enough time away from her 3DS to earn a Bachelor in Games Design from RMIT.
