Nintendo refuses to disclose the new developer for Mario & Luigi but states that the “original staff” are involved in the project

Nintendo refuses to disclose who is developing the newly announced Mario & Luigi reboot, but claims that some of the original series developers are involved in the project.

Mario & Luigi: Brothership will be the first new game in the Mario & Luigi series in almost nine years. One of the main questions from fans has been who exactly is developing the game, as the original developer, AlphaDream, went bankrupt in 2019.

When asked about the developers, a Nintendo representative told Game File on Saturday: “Some of the original developers who worked on the franchise are involved in the development of Mario & Luigi: Brothership. For more information about the developers, please stay tuned to the game credits at release.”

The assertion that the original staff are working on Brothership doesn’t provide significant clues as to who the developer might be, since some key AlphaDream developers already work at or with Nintendo.

For example, Hiroyuki Kubota, former development manager at AlphaDream, joined Nintendo-owned Monolith Soft after his former employer’s closure. Series director and producer Yoshihiko Maekawa recently supervised the Nintendo Switch remake of Mario RPG, and producer Akira Otani remains with Nintendo.

Nintendo has been unusually secretive about its recent collaborations, often declining to confirm the identity of game creators until after release.

Previously, Nintendo declined to confirm who the new voice actor for Mario was until individuals with early copies of Super Mario Wonder discovered it in the credits. A similar situation occurred with the developer of Super Mario RPG for Switch, until its identity was found on a store page.

The company also maintains secrecy about the developer behind Princess Peach Showtime, refusing to confirm if Good-Feel is working on it when asked.