Illumination is an active studio with two ongoing projects: the Super Mario Galaxy Movie, which has crossed US$1 billion worldwide, and the Super Real Mahjong Venus Returns game, launching on Steam on August 27.
Illumination's recent output spans two very different projects. The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, a sequel from Nintendo, Illumination, and Universal Pictures, opened in April and became the first film of 2026 to earn over US$1 billion worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo. It has sold 5.18 million tickets in Japan as of May 31, and in its fifth weekend it dropped from first to second place at the Japanese box office, selling 203,000 tickets for 276,962,830 yen.
On the game side, Illumination is releasing Super Real Mahjong Venus Returns for PC via Steam on August 27, in partnership with Infinite Loop. The game is the official sequel to the arcade classic Super Real Mahjong, which ran in Japanese game centers from the Showa to Heisei eras. A 2025 crowdfunding campaign raised roughly 33.8 million yen against a 2 million yen target, reaching 1,690 percent of the goal, which funded full voice acting and a grand finale. The game features four heroines, including series first heroine Shoko, at the mahjong cafe P's CLUB, and includes 35 episode parts, a memories function to revisit all 62 scenes, and a free camera.
Illumination also continues to support its existing VR title, VR Kanojo, which received a 20% discount during the Steam Summer Sale, dropping the price from 6,200 yen to 4,960 yen. The game's VRM Heroine Function lets players load custom VRM models as heroines.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the cited Yomimono stories below, each itself
sourced, then editorially reviewed. Every
fact links the story it came from.
Aug 6
ILLUMINATION and Infinite Loop will release the strip mahjong game Super Real Mahjong Venus Returns for PC via Steam on August 27. The main desktop version costs 4,980 yen, with a VR mode additional DLC priced at 1,980 yen and a bundle set at 5,916 yen. Distribution begins at noon on release day. The game is the official sequel to the arcade classic Super Real Mahjong, which ran in Japanese game centers from the Showa to Heisei eras. A crowdfunding campaign in 2025 raised roughly 33.8 million yen against a 2 million yen target, reaching 1,690 percent of the goal, which funded full voice acting and a grand finale. The game features four heroines, including series first heroine Shoko, at the mahjong cafe P's CLUB. It includes 35 episode parts for conversations, a memories function to revisit all 62 scenes, and a free camera for matches and reward scenes. The zero-distance stripping system is standard in the desktop version. A 20 percent off sale runs from August 27 to September 10.
Jun 28
ILLUMINATION announced a 20% discount on VR Kanojo for the Steam Summer Sale, dropping the price from 6,200 yen to 4,960 yen. The sale runs June 26 to July 10, 2026. The game's VRM Heroine Function lets players load custom VRM models as heroines.
Jun 8
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie has become the first film of 2026 to earn over US$1 billion at the global box office, according to Box Office Mojo. The sequel from Nintendo, Illumination, and Universal Pictures has earned an estimated US$1,000,028,930 worldwide, including US$428,527,930 in the U.S. and US$571,501,000 internationally. The film opened in April and has sold 5.18 million tickets in Japan as of May 31.
May 28
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie fell from first to second place at the Japanese box office in its fifth weekend, selling 203,000 tickets for 276,962,830 yen. Detective Conan: Highway no Datenshi dropped to fourth in its seventh weekend, while the live-action Sakamoto Days film held fifth place in its fourth weekend.