'Super Smash Bros.' for Wii U & 3DS co-developed by Bandai Namco & Sora

New updates on Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and Nintendo 3DS.

The next Super Smash Bros. title will tap the development talent of Namco Bandai Games, Nintendo revealed today during its Nintendo Direct live stream.

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata announced that Project Sora, the studio helmed by Masahiro Sakurai and developer of Super Smash Bros. Brawl for Wii, will work alongside Namco Bandai games in creating the fourth Smash Bros. game for Wii U and Nintendo 3DS.

Namco Bandai has two key fighting game franchises of its own, Tekken and Soulcalibur.

The collaboration between the two companies could mean opportunities for Namco Bandai characters like Pac-Man or Dig Dug to cameo in Nintendo's next fighting game.

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and 3DS was first announced at E3 2011, but Sakurai has said that development on the title is still in the very early stages.

During Nintendo of America's livestream tonight, Nintendo said that it "originally planned to develop the [Super Smash Bros. development] team from scratch" but will be "leveraging the experience" of Namco Bandai to help "bring the game to life."

"All the top creators from Namco Bandai are gathered here to create a never-before-seen dream team for this project."

Super Smash Bros. Brawl designer Masahiro Sakurai will work alongside Namco Bandai's Masaya Kobayashi and Yoshito Higuchi who recently worked on Go Vacation and Namco's Tales series, respectively. Higuchi has also worked on the Soulcalibur series.

Kobayashi said in a message that the "main development team staff from the Tekken series" and the art director/sound director from the Soulcalibur series were also hard at work on the new Super Smash Bros. title.

"All the top creators from Namco Bandai are gathered here to create a never-before-seen dream team for this project," Kobayashi wrote. "We will fully utilize our experience and knowledge in action/fighting game development, technical capability, and organizational strength, and we hereby promise you that we will develop the best and most powerful 'Super Smash Bros.' title ever!"

Sakurai writes that the new Super Smash Bros. games are in a prototype stage. The game "looks pretty good, and it's working great," he says.

"I would love to provide more information, but for now, I'm going to stay quiet until I have something solid to show you," Sakurai said.