Producer Akira Otani revealed in a just-published interview that there were various discussions about continuing the franchise following Paper Jam, but “needed to aim for something new that would keep up with hardware advancements while maintaining the appeal of the classic Mario & Luigi games.” After not being able to accomplish this, Nintendo “thought it might not be possible to make any more games in the series and considered giving up.” But after reaching out to Acquire, things progressed from there and that led to Mario & Luigi: Brothership.