Mario & Luigi RPG series developer AlphaDream files for bankruptcy

AlphaDream, the studio behind the Mario & Luigi RPG series, filed for bankruptcy in Tokyo district court on October 1.

The company was first established in May 1991 as the interior and exterior finishing work company Mente Tomo and Ai, before changing its name to AlphaStar Soft in January 2001 (then AlphaDream in July that year) when it began work on video game planning and development.

AlphaDream is mainly known for its work on the Mario & Luigi RPG series for Nintendo and the Hamtaro series for Marvelous, among other titles. Most recently, it developed the smartphone game Kedama no Gonjiro: Fit and Run for ForwardWorks.

As the company was constantly entrusted with developing series titles, it recorded an annual income of 300 million yen in the fiscal year ended March 2014. However, the sluggish income, heavier burden of development costs, and financial deficits in recent years have entered the company into a financial state of insolvency. Performance has yet to recover since then, leading to the current measures.

As of the end of March 2018, AlphaDream’s amount of debt totals about 465 million yen.

Thanks, Yahoo! Japan.