Nintendo revealed during its Nintendo Direct broadcast last night that Super Smash Bros. for the Wii U and 3DS will be co-developed by Namco Bandai Games.

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 in developing the fourth Smash Bros. game.

Nintendo said it had “originally planned to develop the team from scratch,” but will be “leveraging the experience” of Namco Bandai to help “bring the game to life.”

Sakurai will work alongside Namco Bandai’s Masaya Kobayashi and Yoshito Higuchi, who recently worked on Go Vacation and the Soulcalibur series respectively. The main development team for the Tekken series will also be working on the game.

“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!”

Super Smash Bros. for the Wii U and 3DS was announced at E3 2011. Sakurai writes the games are in prototype stages.

“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.