Nintendo studio Brownie Brown rebranding as 1-Up Studio

Brownie Brown, the Nintendo-owned studio that co-developed games such as Mother 3 and Super Mario 3D Land, is rebranding itself as 1-Up Studio, the company announced today.

Brownie Brown was founded in 2000 as a Nintendo subsidiary by former members of Square, the Japanese company behind franchises such as Final Fantasy and Mana. The company has only developed games for Nintendo handhelds, from the Game Boy Advance through the 3DS.

In addition to making Nintendo games such as the aforementioned titles, Brownie Brown has worked on games with outside developers and publishers, including Heroes of Mana with Square Enix and Professor Layton and the Last Specter with Level-5.

According to the message that the studio formerly known as Brownie Brown posted on its website, the company isn't just changing its name. "Since the production of Super Mario 3D Land in 2011, we have been collaborating with Nintendo," the company explained, "and recently, regarding this partnership, we have decided to change the company structure so we can better focus on it."

The newly branded 1-Up Studio closed by thanking its fans, saying, "In the future we will continue to work hard at developing video game software and will take advantage of past experiences as we turn over a new leaf," before noting that the current website will be shuttered at the end of March.