Long-time Nintendo subsidiary NDcube, the studio behind Mario Party since Mario Party 9, F-Zero: Maximum Velocity, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, and Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics, has changed its name.
In a statement posted on its website, the company revealed that from 1st September, it will be officially known as Nintendo Cube Co., Ltd. It's not a huge change, but it's one that makes sense given the company's history.
Nintendo Cube was originally founded in March 2000 by both Nintendo and the Japanese advertising firm Dentsu. Originally, Dentsu owned 13.3% of the company's shares, but in 2010, Nintendo bought out the vast majority of these. As of 2023, Nintendo owns 99% of the shares, with the rest likely owned by individual shareholders.
Here's what the old and new logos look like:
The studio is formed of many former Hudson Soft employees, the studio behind the Mario Party series before Nintendo Cube took over. Hidetoshi Endo, former president at Hudson Soft, was president of the company for ten years before being replaced by Mario Party series director Shuichiro Nishiya in 2019. Hudson Soft was absorbed by Konami in 2012.
Nintendo Cube is currently working on Super Mario Party Jamboree, which launches on Switch on 17th October 2024. Its most recent title before that was the underwhelming Everybody 1-2-Switch!, which it co-developed with Nintendo EPD. And, just last week, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp — another Nintendo EPD co-dev project — announced it would be shutting down its online service, but a "paid" offline version will be released in the future.
Let us know what you think of the name change in the comments.