Nintendo has announced it acquired 80% of a Bandai Namco subsidiary, and once the deal closes in April 2026, the team will be renamed Nintendo Studios Singapore. The subsidiary in question is Bandai Namco Studios Singapore, a support team that has quietly contributed to major releases over the past decade. This marks the Kyoto-based game developer’s first in-house development branch in Southeast Asia.
Bandai Namco Studios Singapore was originally founded in 2013 to help create art assets and provide development support. It helped build parts of Tekken 8, Ace Combat 7, Soul Calibur 6, and Taiko no Tatsujin: VR Festival. But not just Bandai Namco’s IP — it’s not a stranger to Nintendo’s franchises as well.
The Singapore-based studio also helped on Splatoon 3, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and New Pokémon Snap. However, its most interesting effort may have gone to a game that never happened. Reports in 2018 said that Bandai Namco Singapore was supposed to work on the original version of Metroid Prime 4 for Nintendo Switch. However, the next year, Nintendo publicly admitted the game wasn’t meeting expectations and restarted it under Retro Studios. Bandai Namco Studios Singapore’s previous work was never publicly shown, and that version of the game has never resurfaced.
Nintendo’s statement says that the Bandai Namco Studios Singapore acquisition aims to ‘strengthen its development structure’ and boost internal art production. The company plans to buy the remaining shares once the studio stabilizes, suggesting long-term plans for deeper involvement in first-party projects.
The move might reflect a growing trend across the industry as more studios are looking to expand to other parts of Asia. Multiple PlayStation games like Spider-Man and Horizon were already supported by Sony’s Malaysia support team. With Nintendo and Sony settling it, will Xbox follow with another buyout in Southeast Asia?
