Nintendo snaps up Shiver Entertainment from Embracer to bring more third-party games to Switch

Nintendo has announced a new M&A deal, acquiring Miami-based developer Shiver Entertainment. The studio, which specializes in game ports, will no longer be part of Embracer Group.

According to the official announcement, Nintendo agreed to acquire 100% of Shiver Entertainment shares from Embracer Group. The financial terms of the deal remain undisclosed.

By making Shiver its wholly owned subsidiary, Nintendo plans to “secure high-level resources for porting and developing software titles.” The studio will continue to make versions of third-party games not only for Switch, but for other platforms.

“Nintendo’s next-generation machine is expected to be less powerful than the PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X, thus the purchase now is to expand the company’s support for outside developers when making high-end games for the new platform,” Toyo Securities analyst Hideki Yasuda told Bloomberg.

Founded in 2012, Shiver Entertainment is still led by CEO John Schappert. He is experienced industry manager, who also ran Xbox Live at Microsoft and worked as COO at companies such as Electronic Arts and Zynga.

The studio is best known for working with other developers to help them bring their titles to various platforms. Its portfolio includes Switch versions of Hogwarts Legacy and Mortal Kombat 11 & 1, as well as its own party game Scribblenauts Showdown.

In December 21, Embracer Group acquired Shiver for an undisclosed sum through its subsidiary Saber Interactive. The latter recently went independent from the Swedish holding company as part of a broad restructuring that ultimately led to the split of Embracer into three public companies.