We didn't expect to get news about Pilotwings Resort during a Donkey Kong Country Returns panel, but here it is. During Retro Studios' GDC postmortem, Nintendo producer Kensuke Tanabe cited two other American developers that Nintendo works with: Next Level Games, which made Punch-Out for Wii, and ExciteTruck/ExciteBots developer Monster Games -- which he said is working on Pilotwings Resort.
Until now, it seems that this detail had been a secret (and Pilotwings creator Nintendo EAD had been assumed to be the Resort developer) -- or, at least, it just wasn't mentioned.
Resort isn't the first Pilotwings game to be co-created with an American company: Nintendo EAD worked with Paradigm Simulations for the Nintendo 64 sequel.