Monster Games, a studio Nintendo fans will likely know from the Wii days thanks to Excite Truck and Excitebots, has been acquired by iRacing Motorsport Simulations, it's been announced.
The developer, which released games exclusively on Nintendo platforms for almost a decade following the release of Excite Truck, will now help to bolster iRacing's growing portfolio of studios. iRacing is said to be the leading PC-based racing simulation on the market and, in a press release, the company notes that "the acquisition will bring another level of expertise under the iRacing roof, and further the company’s ability to bring the highest quality racing games to the broader market, including the console space."
Monster Games hasn't worked alongside Nintendo for some time now – its work on Xenoblade Chronicles 3D for the Nintendo 3DS was the last time the two paired up – but this new partnership ensures that the studio will at least continue its work with console titles. The studio's president and owner, Rich Garcia, has shared the following statement:
"I’m really excited for the future of Monster Games and iRacing... Our studios will really compliment each other’s and I fully expect to see positive impacts on both products. To now have tools and resources, and quite frankly time, to build these games and to do it with the leading racing simulation company in the marketplace is beyond exciting for me. I can’t wait to get started!"
Thanks to Greatsong for the tip!
[source iracing.com, via nintendoworldreport.com]
Comments 41
I wish Excite Truck got a sequel on Switch.
That game is so much fun and a new version on Switch would be awesome.
I'll also take Waverace, 1080 and F Zero while I'm wishful thinking.
Man I loved Excite Truck on Wii and Excitebots was one of my most wanted EU/UK localisations. I wonder what this means for future Switch releases of these Excite series games? Probably no change.
Rare all over again?
Why the hell didn’t Nintendo buy these guys? They surely know how to do excellent hyperactive racing games. (They could have been a really good F-Zero developer)
It’s a bit worrisome when you hear Tencent, Sony and Microsoft hoarding all the studios and Nintendo is just there, sitting on their laurels.
I guess we then wait until Sony or Tencent buys Platinum or something along those lines.
Ugh!
Goodbye Monster Games.. you had great potential.
@fafonio Nintendo said in novemeber they will spend about 1bn to expand their first party studios, and that includes acquisitions.
@Eighties Nintendo being Nintendo
i still dont understand why i never got around to play excite truck on the wii. i always wanted to but for some reason i never got it :/
I haven't played either companies' racing games, I hope to hear of something interesting soon. This isn't terrible news like Codemasters selling to EA.
@fafonio Nintendo bought Next Level Games a few years ago. As for why they didn't buy Monster Games, I don't know.
"Our studios will really compliment each other’s"
complEment -_-
Yeah, missed opportunity for Nintendo.
Especially since it's a studio that has already proven what it can do and the Switch has a severe lack of racing games (certainly partly thanks to Nintendo's refusal to introduce analog shoulder buttons).
Oh well, best of luck to them.
@Paulo yeah, that it’s true, but it’s ONE acquisition in years. Have you seen the buying spree of Sony, Tencent and Microsoft in the last couple of months?
Im a bit worried that they are taking things lightly and for granted with their studio collaborations.
Nobody wants another Rare situation.
@Kayvoo Was it really that terrible considering Codemasters last few releases?
I'd go so far as to say that their DLC shenanigans had become even more predatory than EA's usual nonsense (not counting FIFA here) plus things like Dirt 5 were a mockery of its own franchise :/
But let's say this:
It can't be worse than what happened to Project Cars 3.
And another one's gone. I do respect the lack of buy-outs to a certain extent, but it yet another studio that Nintendo's letting slip through the cracks. Rare, Hudson, AlphaDream, when does it stop? Then again, if Nintendo was to buy anyone, it would probably be either Grezzo or Goodfeel, just to finally truly bring them under the Nintendo umbrella. I would love to see something wackier, though.
Nintendo doesn’t buy studios unless they absolutely have to and even then they seem hesitant hence why so many have let go elsewhere or just left to go under. Problem is, they rely on these studios to do a huge amount of their games.
@Faruko I thought they said acquisitions wasn’t the strategy but instead to focus on expanding their internal teams?
@Einherjar
I know, their last few releases have been predatory, threadbare and awful. I have enjoyed their games for decades and love Dirt Rally so forgave them for one or two bad decisions but yeah you're right. EA must've liked the cut of their jib with all the DLCs. Uuuuggghhh Project Cars 3.... Dirt 5..... OK I take it back
@Freek Let's add Excitebike to that list
Monster Games worked on some of my favorite games including Excite Truck, Pilot Wings Resort, Excitebike: World Rally. Hope this doesn't mean we'll never see another Excite game.
God Damn! Nintendo buy some f**cking studios already. They're working with their old strategy of just asking for contracted games and because of that we missed out on more cool Bomber Man, Donkey Kong/other Rare games, Mario&Luigi, games by Skip, SMT that doesn't rely on the stupid Unreal Engine and now studios like Grasshopper and Marvelous are owned in part/wholly by Chinese companies.
The market is being partitioned and if Nintendo doesn't try to get a piece of that pie they'll miss out, and ultimately we will miss out.
Nintendo should have grabbed them up while they had their chance.
Dangdiggity!
I fell the depletion of my hopes to another Excite Truck/Bots...
@fafonio From the rumor mills on the internet, and what I can conclude based on looking at everything, it appears that there were leaks from inside Monster Games regarding Nintendo and contracts Monster was working on for Nintendo.
Nintendo takes leaks extremely seriously, and there's other evidence/rumors to this from reports regarding companies like High Voltage (supposedly was working on the OG Splatoon, somebody leaked they were working with Nintendo, Nintendo gave them a few weeks to find/fire the leaker, they wouldn't/couldn't, and Nintendo canceled the contract?), and from what it looks like, the rumors here are probably mostly true?
Somebody at Monster leaked some info, Nintendo found out there was an issue, Monster either wouldn't/couldn't figure it out, and their contracts were canceled.
ExciteBots was absolutely awesome on the Wii, and I was hoping to see more craziness like that from them, but when you look at the timing of the leak/rumors, it would appear Nintendo cutoff all ties with Monster because of the leaks, and Monster immediately went back to making NASCAR games, which is something they hadn't done since they started working with Nintendo.
I played the 3 Excite Wii games for the first time a little over 3 years ago. When I did all I was thinking was "How did I miss these games all these years?". Now my hopes for a new Excite game on the style of the Wii games are gone.
For anyone interested, ExciteBots is available on the Wii U eShop. I don't remember if Excite Truck is also available there, though. Sadly Excitebike: World Rally isn't.
@6ch6ris6 No better time than the present to rectify that. Also worth noting is that Excite Truck on Wii was one of the few games that supported MP3 music from an SD card. I remember playing this with friends while listening to Audioslave Out of Exile album and others. Good times.
@Nico07 it was such a shame that there weren't many games using that feature. the original xbox already had plenty of games where you could listen to music from your hard drive.
I really don’t understand why Xenoblade 3D was the last time they worked directly with Nintendo after collaborating so frequently before then
@larryisaman according to @CoffeeWithGames it was probably a leak situation.
Monster was actually a co-developer for Tropical Freeze after their work on Returns 3D. I remember thinking at the time they could be a good studio to take the reigns of the DK franchise (a Diddy Kong Racing by them would've been great), but that was obviously never happening even before this. Bit of a shame.
iRacing?, Oh wow, the same that in the 90' were known as Papyrus, great studio for simulation racing games ^^
@LEGEND_MARIOID I remember that, Excitebots had a UK release date, I was looking forward to it, then it just never came out. Pretty frustrating as Wii was region locked.
Not gonna b!tch about Nintendo not buying them, but they would have been a good addition.
Nintendo can still contract them, people!
Nintendo should have bought Monster Games and should proactively look to buy Wayforward and integrate Shantae into the Nintendo 1st party lineup.
@RootsGenoa "Your studio really is lovely!" "Why thank you, but your studio is delightful as well!"
Well they didn't do much for Nintendo anyways. Before that they were making NASCAR and Test Drive games for Atari and then return to make more NASCAR games for PS4 and Xbox. While none of those are bad games, none of those are original games they made themselves either. They are just a freelance dev team so it make sense that they finally got acquired. Y'all should be worried though, the reason why they were able to make those good games was because they were a freelance dev team even when they were working with Nintendo and was able to add their own touch to those games, now that they are acquired they won't have that same freedom of creativity. Raw Thrills (creator of Cruis'n) maybe next too, they too are also a freelance dev team at the moment, if they got acquired by an outside publisher then the Cruis'n series as we know it is dead.
@Specter_of-the_OLED the Cruis'n IP is owned by Nintendo.
I get your point though.
@Orpheus79V that was part of the rumor/leaks I think, and part of Nintendo's plans for what they wanted to do with the Switch launch. NintendoLife covered part of it a few years ago on the Diddy Kong Racing side: https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2018/06/rumour_was_monster_games_working_on_a_sequel_to_diddy_kong_racing
@fafonio Nintendo will go 3rd party in 5 years.
@Arkay Yeap cause even though Nintendo own it, Raw Thrills had always been the dev who are behind those games. It would not feel the same if the series is handle by any other devs though and the risk that it could end up like the garbage Wii version is likely.
@liveswired Nintendo is as big as Disney now. I don't think they will go third party that easily. They had thousands of IPs they could still make profits off of as well as new ones they could constantly make. They had the best game console engineers working for them, the best game devs and partners from around the globe working for them, thousand of employees working around the clock in a non-toxic environment on all their branches, hundreds of media sponsors like Fuji TV, Netflix, Toei, Disney, WWE, Showtime, YouTube, Google, GameStop, Play-Asia, Limited Run Games, Newegg, Amazon, etc. (these are partners that promote their products), they are a family own company, they own both a US baseball team, various theme parks, and game studios from all across the globe and they had products for all ages from toys, movies, musics, gadgets, and videogames. It's really difficult to see them leave the hardware business behind at this point since they are on the right track this gen.
@CoffeeWithGames Oh man, that really sucks now I know there probably was going to be a new Diddy Kong Racing.
They've done some really good work besides Truck and Bots. Wow.
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