AlphaDream, the developers behind the Mario & Luigi series for the Nintendo handhelds and home consoles, have filed for bankruptcy.

GoNintendo picked up the news from a report over on Yahoo! News Japan, where they confirmed that AlphaDream filed for bankruptcy.

The article notes how AlphaDream was originally founded as Alpha Star back in Japan, but eventually became known as AlphaDream after making a name for themselves producing a number of titles for Nintendo’s systems. They initially got into the business working on some smaller titles, but over the course of 19 years of development, they became renown for working on the top-selling Mario & Luigi games for Nintendo’s handhelds.

However, as time went on they just couldn’t seem to keep up with the change in the software development landscape and things began to slip… and slip bad.

As noted by GoNintendo, debt eventually caught up with them…

“As of March 2018, the company was facing nearly $4.3 million in debt, which contributed to the bankruptcy filings”

If Nintendo continues to make the Mario & Luigi RPG titles, it won’t be done with the help of AlphaDream. Of course, this is assuming that Nintendo even wants to continue to produce those games.

The last outing in the series was the North American release of Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam Bros. for the Nintendo 3DS back in 2016. However, a remake of the 2009 outing of Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story for the Nintendo DS was re-released for the Nintendo 3DS in 2019. Despite being one of the better selling titles in the series, it still wasn’t enough to keep AlphaDream afloat.

You know things are bad when a company making best-selling titles for Nintendo systems has to file for bankruptcy. I do wonder if this means we’re going to be seeing a shift in how games are produced in the near future? Or will things just keep trucking on toward the inevitable collapse?

(Thanks for the news tip alex9234)