Alphadream files for bankruptcy

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Sweet Snow

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Well, this is the end, beautiful friends
Alphadream, of the Mario and Luigi's series has filed for bankruptcy.
While I hope the series can continue another way, I hope the workers can find new jobs
 
Yeah, I shared this earlier in another thread, just gonna say that while the company is bankrupt, the series and IP remain as well as the people working on it. The future for Mario & Luigi games is really uncertain now as well as the characters from those series' fates. Moreso, Paper Mario's future is also uncertain too since we haven't heard a single chirp about a Paper Mario game for console, but at least Intelligent Systems, also developer for Fire Emblem and WarioWare, is probably financially well off. Anyhow, people might pin the blame on the two vastly underperforming remakes we had, understandable since they were lazy remakes, but I think the company was probably going down well before those two remakes and might be the reason those remakes weren't that good. Dream Team had high production values with quality sprites, really nice music, and whatnot, but people noticed that there were reused assets since and maybe that was a symptom of the decline? As well as the utter lack of a console Mario & Luigi game for Switch despite demands for it? Can't be too sure. What I'm sure of is that this is dismaying to read about and I do also really hope the workers find a job. I know they needed a break from making Mario & Luigi games, but I didn't figure they were already financially dire.
 
nintendo owns the ip, hopefully the developers can get together in a new name and continue making m&l games, since it's the people behind the company responsible for the games, not the brand name. nd cube was such as an example of a series developed under a new name that continued and have the same people.

that still means we wouldn't get a new m&l in a long while though, not until the developers get these things sorted out.
 
This is a unexpected and saddening turn of events, I hope that maybe some of the previous guys that worked on the series can reformed under another moniker and keep the dream alive.
 
Not shocked but also shocked? It's weird. I knew they were kind of leaning off the edge of the cliff with how poorly their games have been doing lately, but I didn't think they'd actually fucking fly off.
Dr. Baby Luigi said:
nintendo owns the ip, hopefully the developers can get together in a new name and continue making m&l games, since it's the people behind the company responsible for the games, not the brand name. nd cube was such as an example of a series developed under a new name that continued and have the same people.

that still means we wouldn't get a new m&l in a long while though, not until the developers get these things sorted out.
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ND Cube had a lot of Hudson employees by the time they started on the Mario Party series. Unless AlphaDream employees start up a new company soon, I doubt the same thing will happen here
 
Mario's Painting said:
Yeah, I shared this earlier in another thread, just gonna say that while the company is bankrupt, the series and IP remain as well as the people working on it. The future for Mario & Luigi games is really uncertain now as well as the characters from those series' fates. Moreso, Paper Mario's future is also uncertain too since we haven't heard a single chirp about a Paper Mario game for console, but at least Intelligent Systems, also developer for Fire Emblem and WarioWare, is probably financially well off.
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I don't quite see that Paper Mario's future is considered uncertain only because I never felt that it's overdue for a new Paper Mario game. After all, it's not like the series is biennial or triennial in a way one would expect Mario Party or Mario & Sonic to be. Perhaps to those who are hungry for a Paper Mario game with qualities they like in Thousand Year Door they might be, but I felt that Paper Mario is handled well even if not everybody agrees with the way it's handled now.

Perhaps if Mario & Luigi couldn't continue as it is, then the staff of Mario & Luigi could work on Paper Mario and that might appease to the fans of both.

Thank you for reading.
 
I can't say I'm all that surprised. They were only making M&L games and the sales of those had been in steady decline for years.
 
That hurts my soul. M&L was the only consistently good Mario RPG series left. It's also given life to so many of my favorite characters including my namesake. I really hope the devs can band together again somehow and revive the series, or at least let its characters be used in the rest of the franchise. I'd hate to see everything this series contributed in an eternal limbo :(
 
Honestly, I could see Nintendo de-emphasizing Mario RPGs at this stage. It's clear that they don't really know what direction to take them in since the last really solid one was probably Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story 10 years ago, and they've just all kind of bombed to varying degrees since then. Now that Nintendo actually has a whole host of Japanese developers on board the Switch, with the likes of Square Enix and Atlus even producing some exclusives, and they also have other JRPG series made in house that are trending upward and becoming more mainstream like Fire Emblem and Xenoblade, it just kind of would be the time to retire them. Hell, they've got a Mario SRPG that works if they want to make a Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle follow-up too.

Especially since I think Miyamoto's hard line stance against original Mario characters and push back against their existence has contributed to the overall issues with these titles.

Mario RPGs might just get benched for much of this generation unless they've got some relaunch or attempt at a more traditional one somewhere in development.
 
Let's not play the "this is Miyamoto's fault" game alright? Especially with AlphaDream. The only M&L game not to include "original characters" was Paper Jam and AD themselves flat out said it was their own decision to do that for that game.
 
AlphaDream...I'm so sad about this. Your games were all consistently amazing, and I can never thank you enough for all the joy they gave me. I just...I can't believe this is happening. I wish the best for your employees, while I guess I'll just have to settle for the Paper Mario series...

If it is at all possible for M&L to make a comeback after this, just like Mario Party did...please try to make it happen.
 
Look, we also don't know what kind of internal financial management issues AlphaDream had. We can't lay the blame entirely on the 3DS games past Paper Jam alone, because they very well may be the symptoms of an ailing company using desperate, low-cost measures to earn what they lost back. The article itself even mentions management but I can't exactly tell what because of a poor Google translation.
 
God damn... Superstar Saga and Partners in Time were my childhood, so many memories from those games. I remember the hype I had waiting for Bowsers Inside Story to come out like it was yesterday. The Mario and Luigi series has been my favorite video game series of all time. This makes me so sad, like the child in me wants to cry, but I'm too old to cry.
 
Mcmadness said:
Let's not play the "this is Miyamoto's fault" game alright? Especially with AlphaDream. The only M&L game not to include "original characters" was Paper Jam and AD themselves flat out said it was their own decision to do that for that game.
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And yeah, for the record, Miyamoto took that stance in Sticker Star's development (and idk about Color Splash), which had absolutely nothing to do with AlphaDream and the Mario & Luigi series.
 
winstein said:
I don't quite see that Paper Mario's future is considered uncertain only because I never felt that it's overdue for a new Paper Mario game. After all, it's not like the series is biennial or triennial in a way one would expect Mario Party or Mario & Sonic to be. Perhaps to those who are hungry for a Paper Mario game with qualities they like in Thousand Year Door they might be, but I felt that Paper Mario is handled well even if not everybody agrees with the way it's handled now.

Perhaps if Mario & Luigi couldn't continue as it is, then the staff of Mario & Luigi could work on Paper Mario and that might appease to the fans of both.

Thank you for reading.
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I don't expect Paper Mario to be either biennial or triennial either but the last Paper Mario game did poorly, given that it was on a poor install base. I kinda lost track of the years since Color Splash but Fire Emblem just had a game this year, dunno if Intelligent Systems wants to make WarioWare next since WarioWare Gold did pretty well, and Paper Mario seems to be pretty demoralizing. The Switch is great this time, though, and maybe it's too soon and pessimistic to start feeling uneasy about Paper Mario right after AlphaDream went down.

Pokerninja2 said:
Honestly, I could see Nintendo de-emphasizing Mario RPGs at this stage. It's clear that they don't really know what direction to take them in since the last really solid one was probably Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story 10 years ago, and they've just all kind of bombed to varying degrees since then. Now that Nintendo actually has a whole host of Japanese developers on board the Switch, with the likes of Square Enix and Atlus even producing some exclusives, and they also have other JRPG series made in house that are trending upward and becoming more mainstream like Fire Emblem and Xenoblade, it just kind of would be the time to retire them. Hell, they've got a Mario SRPG that works if they want to make a Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle follow-up too.

Especially since I think Miyamoto's hard line stance against original Mario characters and push back against their existence has contributed to the overall issues with these titles.

Mario RPGs might just get benched for much of this generation unless they've got some relaunch or attempt at a more traditional one somewhere in development.
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It's not just the RPGs getting thinner, I think the Mario series over the past few years is experiencing downtime where we're just not seeing as many Mario games. This year alone we have, what, Super Mario Maker 2, the upcoming Luigi's Mansion 3, upcoming Mario & Sonic game, a few atrociously standard mobile free to play "games"? And practically nothing from this year's subpar, disappointing E3 (E3, however, has also been on steady decline, and this year's E3 has been a disaster for security with ESA accidentally doxxing attendees, this is another topic, though). A lot spinoffs I feel haven't seen a new game in years like full fledged Mario Golf (though if Golden Sun comes first, that's fair game since Camelot hasn't made one of those in forever and the last one is disappointing I hear), Mario Baseball, Mario Strikers, Mario Kart. Again, the Mario spinoffs I know are on Switch barring Wii U ports are Kingdom Battle, Tennis Aces, Super Mario Party, Luigi's Mansion, and the Olympics. Not even Mario vs Donkey Kong? Not a whole lot when it comes to Mario. I should probably give some time, maybe, but I note the line up is pretty similar to Wii U barring Mansion and Kingdom Battle, and Wii U had Captain Toad and Mario Kart and Mario vs Donkey Kong.
 
Hey I have an idea to make this sad news more uplifting. Let's share some of our favorite memories from the Mario and Luigi series.

This animation is just beautiful
 
I love the glitch in SuperStar Saga where Mario gets mad and launches into the sky from his anger when Luigi smacks him on top of a fountain before Mario gets the smashed Mario power

Also spamming L and R in Superstar Saga for the two to constantly yell the moves is hilarious.

Those sprites are really good. Superstar Saga's sprites might be the most used assets in Mario sprites, but this means people saw a lot of value in those like their simplicity and easiness on the eyes. But the next games have really good sprites and Dream Team's style is still my favorite in the series. Oh yeah, it's a bummer that Mario & Luigi, one of the few games to still use sprites, is put on hold, but at least we have a lot of sprites to use.
 
Mario's Painting said:
It's not just the RPGs getting thinner, I think the Mario series over the past few years is experiencing downtime where we're just not seeing as many Mario games. This year alone we have, what, Super Mario Maker 2, the upcoming Luigi's Mansion 3, upcoming Mario & Sonic game, a few atrociously standard mobile free to play "games"? And practically nothing from this year's subpar, disappointing E3 (E3, however, has also been on steady decline, and this year's E3 has been a disaster for security with ESA accidentally doxxing attendees, this is another topic, though). A lot spinoffs I feel haven't seen a new game in years like full fledged Mario Golf (though if Golden Sun comes first, that's fair game since Camelot hasn't made one of those in forever and the last one is disappointing I hear), Mario Baseball, Mario Strikers, Mario Kart. Again, the Mario spinoffs I know are on Switch barring Wii U ports are Kingdom Battle, Tennis Aces, Super Mario Party, Luigi's Mansion, and the Olympics. Not even Mario vs Donkey Kong? Not a whole lot when it comes to Mario. I should probably give some time, maybe, but I note the line up is pretty similar to Wii U barring Mansion and Kingdom Battle, and Wii U had Captain Toad and Mario Kart and Mario vs Donkey Kong.
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I can't lie, I'm not all that upset over the lack of installments in the other Mario spin offs. I feel like many of them were of mixed quality and were kind of cheapening the brand a bit.

Not to mention the rising costs of game development in general results in less overall games being made. It's not just a Mario or Nintendo thing, it's an industry wide thing. It's why many first party folk put so much emphasis on indie devs these days, they need them to have more games for people to buy.
 
i like how baby mario and baby luigi got starring roles and they totally kick ass in partners in time. it's undoubtedly their best appearance.
 
TheSuperStarSaga said:
I don't recall that, is there a video of that out there?
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It's documented in Supper Mario Broth. There's GIFs and all.

Mcmadness said:
I can't lie, I'm not all that upset over the lack of installments in the other Mario spin offs. I feel like many of them were of mixed quality and were kind of cheapening the brand a bit.

Not to mention the rising costs of game development in general results in less overall games being made. It's not just a Mario or Nintendo thing, it's an industry wide thing. It's why many first party folk put so much emphasis on indie devs these days, they need them to have more games for people to buy.
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The first one is just a matter of disagreement. I've enjoyed most of the spinoffs they put out and people are still asking for more. I always had a lot of fun with these especially playing with my sister and I can't say I sunk a similar amount of time to the Mario platformers, especially after I was done with those. They're all fine harmless games and have done well to diversify the brand (even if it felt a little cash-cow during the mid 2000s). It's no secret Mario outgrosses Marvel Cinematic Universe with video games dominating revenue, an outstanding $30.25 billion, which is unrivaled in terms of game sales (Pokemon is so high because of merchandising, the anime, etc.).

The second one, though, that's a questionable industry talking point used to justify grindier, more expensive games with less content overall and less releases overall (owing particularly to "live services" and "roadmaps") or in Nintendo's case, justifying selling remasters for full price or Link's Awakening for full price. I don't buy it because industry spends a ton already promoting games through heavy use of hi-quality CGI trailers while when you look at revenue, it's almost always record profits for the biggest companies. Telling me Nintendo struggles with money for making games is a hard sell to me when they own two of the top ten biggest media franchises in the world and they made a CGI trailer with Mario squaring off against famous tennis professional Rafael Nadal, made several slick trailers promoting even the worst of their garbage (Nintendo Switch Online). I mean, there's a grain of truth that production values have gone up and it's a professional job on the same tier as movies but you also can't overlook the exploding profit margins and sky-high marketing costs of video game giants.
 
I more mean in regards to the spin off stuff, which never had the same level of hype or audience behind them. When it comes to the heavy hitters they still go all in with those.
 
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