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Douglas Tronsgard, current president and former CEO of Next Level Games, announced he is retiring from the maker of Nintendo games.
Next Level Games, founded in 2002, is responsible for several popular Nintendo titles over the last two decades. Under the leadership of Tronsgard, the company certainly went places.
Gaining recognition with the Super Mario Strikers line of games, Tronsgard and Next Level Games quietly became a mainstay on Nintendo platforms. Over the next decade, the company went on to develop Punch-Out!! for the Wii and Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon for the 3DS.
The company’s relationship with Nintendo would grew in 2014 when NLG announced it would work exclusively on Nintendo content. Since that pledge, Next Level Games released Metroid Prime: Federation Force for the 3DS and Luigi’s Mansion 3 for the Switch.
On January 4th, 2021, Nintendo announced that it had acquired Next Level Games as an internal studio. Stepping down as CEO in 2021, Tronsgard finished his tenure as president of the company and left a note for friends and colleagues on LinkedIn as he gave up the president’s title as well:
After over 20 years in the Video Game Industry, I am happy to announce my retirement. I wanted to say ‘thank you’ to everyone who helped me on my journey to get here. A special thank you to Nintendo for believing in me and Next Level Games. It’s truly been my honor to be a part of NLG’s incredible history.
I look forward to a new chapter in my life that should involve lots of travelling with my wife. :).
Take care everyone and enjoy the journey!
Douglas.
Though travel may be what’s in the future for Tronsgard, Next Level Games isn’t taking a break. Keep an eye out for Mario Strikers: Battle League due out in June of this year.
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