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StarTopic Nintendo First Party Software Development |ST| Nintendo Party Superstars

Playing Mario Tennis GBC again for the first time as an adult and it's still every bit as good as I remember it.

I wish so hard we would get an RPG story mode in Mario sports games again. Looking back at Mario Tennis, it's not even anything super elaborate, the world is comprised of like 6 locations total? As someone who never really cared much for multiplayer (especially online), I simply have no incentive to play these games anymore despite loving the gameplay.
I played it again a few weeks ago and thought the same thing. I'd really like to see the next Mario Tennis take on some of that DNA and atmosphere.

If I'm remembering correctly TCG Live is developed internally by TPCi so there's that. TPC does not have an internal game development team as far I know.
It seems to me that TCG Live is being developed with DeNa, with whom TPC has just set up a joint venture. I think MetaLord may be talking about something else, and I'd be very curious to know more.
 
I played it again a few weeks ago and thought the same thing. I'd really like to see the next Mario Tennis take on some of that DNA and atmosphere.


It seems to me that TCG Live is being developed with DeNa, with whom TPC has just set up a joint venture. I think MetaLord may be talking about something else, and I'd be very curious to know more.
That's TCG Pocket. TCG Live is the successor to TCG Online. It's basically a way to play the trading card game online.
 
you right,its old news, they already released a game, TCG live, but they have a division called Game Studio and seem to be growing fast and hiring experienced staff, even from nintendo and working on multiple games

"I started at Pokémon as a Senior Producer working on one title with a team of two. Since then, my responsibilities have grown with the studio. Today, I'm pleased to be working on several titles within the Game Studio and leading nearly a dozen producers."

  • Job Title: Technical Designer
  • Job Summary: The Technical Designer role at The Pokémon Company International will work on the release and development pipeline for multiple products to ensure rapid and stable development. This role will work across development groups to develop automation, tooling and continuous integration processes that will support the life of our products from pre-production to post launch content. These live products will be maintained post launch through multiple content releases which requires multiple tools and resources and a tight collaboration across disciplines.
 
you right,its old news, they already released a game, TCG live, but they have a division called Game Studio and seem to be growing fast and hiring experienced staff, even from nintendo and working on multiple games

"I started at Pokémon as a Senior Producer working on one title with a team of two. Since then, my responsibilities have grown with the studio. Today, I'm pleased to be working on several titles within the Game Studio and leading nearly a dozen producers."

  • Job Title: Technical Designer
  • Job Summary: The Technical Designer role at The Pokémon Company International will work on the release and development pipeline for multiple products to ensure rapid and stable development. This role will work across development groups to develop automation, tooling and continuous integration processes that will support the life of our products from pre-production to post launch content. These live products will be maintained post launch through multiple content releases which requires multiple tools and resources and a tight collaboration across disciplines.
Funny, Game Studio is the name of a Japanese dev who I think are owned by the owners of Tri-Ace, but most relevant in my research actually have origins with .. Marigul! Explains why Noise (Custom Robo) have been their support dev on recent DQ spin-offs, specifically Dragon Quest of the Stars and Adventures of Dai.
 
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TPCi making games is a smart move given Game Freak will have to let their games cook for longer. not because of skill, but because they're now working with PS4+ hardware. they are not making games in 3 years unless they are still at the fidelity of 3DS games
 
you right,its old news, they already released a game, TCG live, but they have a division called Game Studio and seem to be growing fast and hiring experienced staff, even from nintendo and working on multiple games

"I started at Pokémon as a Senior Producer working on one title with a team of two. Since then, my responsibilities have grown with the studio. Today, I'm pleased to be working on several titles within the Game Studio and leading nearly a dozen producers."

  • Job Title: Technical Designer
  • Job Summary: The Technical Designer role at The Pokémon Company International will work on the release and development pipeline for multiple products to ensure rapid and stable development. This role will work across development groups to develop automation, tooling and continuous integration processes that will support the life of our products from pre-production to post launch content. These live products will be maintained post launch through multiple content releases which requires multiple tools and resources and a tight collaboration across disciplines.

This sounds more akin to what the engineers at NTD (Nintendo Technology Development Inc.) do at Nintendo rather than dedicated game studios. Essentially tech and development coordination.
 
you right,its old news, they already released a game, TCG live, but they have a division called Game Studio and seem to be growing fast and hiring experienced staff, even from nintendo and working on multiple games

"I started at Pokémon as a Senior Producer working on one title with a team of two. Since then, my responsibilities have grown with the studio. Today, I'm pleased to be working on several titles within the Game Studio and leading nearly a dozen producers."

  • Job Title: Technical Designer
  • Job Summary: The Technical Designer role at The Pokémon Company International will work on the release and development pipeline for multiple products to ensure rapid and stable development. This role will work across development groups to develop automation, tooling and continuous integration processes that will support the life of our products from pre-production to post launch content. These live products will be maintained post launch through multiple content releases which requires multiple tools and resources and a tight collaboration across disciplines.
interesting thing about this job listing is that this job in particular has heavy emphasis on TCG Live. but the position would naturally go to other games. same with the Technical Artist role

interestingly, it'll all be in Unity. probably to keep the knowledge pool consolidated
 
This sounds more akin to what the engineers at NTD (Nintendo Technology Development Inc.) do at Nintendo rather than dedicated game studios. Essentially tech and development coordination.

this job listing give this impression, but the other one and recent hires seem to point to a game dev,quite a lot of game designers

Get to know the role

  • Job Title: Technical Artist
  • Job Summary: The Technical Artist role will serve to connect our artists and engineers enabling our team to maintain and improve the efficiency and the efficacy of our content pipelines and workflows. The primary role is to develop tools, scripts, and plugins to facilitate art asset integration into the Unity engine. In addition, this role will regularly work to enhance workflows with animation controllers, character rigging, shaders, UI systems and perform regular performance optimization.
  • FLSA Classification (US Only): Exempt
  • People Manager: No


What you’ll do

  • Work closely with Art Leads, Engineers, Animators, VFX and UI artists to support and improve workflows, pipelines and processes.
  • Develop tools, scripts and plugins to improve and streamline art asset integration into the Unity build environment.
  • Set up animation controllers, state machines, triggers, events and timeline sequences.
  • Efficiently and proactively solve problems, analyze performance metrics, perform optimizations and diagnose technical issues.
  • Support the art team and designers by developing tools and processes to help prototype new concepts and ideas.
  • Research and develop new tools and technologies.
 
I am glad that we are seeing more Youtubers look into Nintendo development process, as there's far too many Nintendo focused Youtubers who keep asking "where's X franchise?", "why isn't Nintendo making X?", or like complaining about the existence of a franchise as if it's taking resources away from a different IP, even though an entire separate team works on that. The answers are a lot more apparent if you have an idea of what teams work on what franchises.

Not all the video are super in-depth, but it's nice to see more of a spotlight on it.
 
I am glad that we are seeing more Youtubers look into Nintendo development process, as there's far too many Nintendo focused Youtubers who keep asking "where's X franchise?", "why isn't Nintendo making X?", or like complaining about the existence of a franchise as if it's taking resources away from a different IP, even though an entire separate team works on that. The answers are a lot more apparent if you have an idea of what teams work on what franchises.

Not all the video are super in-depth, but it's nice to see more of a spotlight on it.
yeah me too, its cool to see this being more known. Just wish those videos had more views.
 
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Was just poking around Next Level Games' old site (www.nlgames.com) on Wayback and found this gem.

mechanical_egg.gif


That is all.
 
Shiver seems to be bought as a porting studio so they will not be involved in game development at Nintendo.
I don't think about that, they're still going to do ports but they will also have the enough money for Shiver to create new IP and develop new titles based on Nintendo franchises.
 
More resources to help Nintendo maintain a healthy supply of software with 3rd parties is always a good thing. Surprising to see Nintendo of all companies accept an acquisition pitch from another company
 
More resources to help Nintendo maintain a healthy supply of software with 3rd parties is always a good thing. Surprising to see Nintendo of all companies accept an acquisition pitch from another company
Shiver was under Embracer, who seems to be having something of a fire sale because of their... whole thing. I wonder just how cheap the price tag must have been to get Nintendo's attention
 
I can see some people see this as Shiver being bought to make PC ports of Nintendo games just like Sony bought Nixxes for that reason. But I don't think Nintendo bought Shiver for that.
 
Shiver were founded by the founders of EA Tiburon!


But yeah, I hope if they're somehow still allowed non-Nintendo work, it's just to polish off any current contracts and will naturally become wholly Nintendo-exclusive afterwards.

But what's also wild; Nintendo is the only of the big three to grab an Embracer team, right? We all figured it'd have been MS with say, Crystal Dynamics or something.

Crying shame it wasn't Free Radical that Nintendo got. Oh my god could you imagine the GET that'd have been?!

Fractured Byte is another I'd have picked since their Switch ports have been stellar, especially Borderlands 3. I'd also love for Kaiko to be picked as they've done amazing remasters like Darksiders 1 and Red Faction Guerilla.

Not sure who else from Embracer feels perfect for Nintendo. Saber themselves are WAY too enormous. That'd have been a pipe dream and then some, even if their ports have been the highest profile.
 
Shiver seems to be bought as a porting studio so they will not be involved in game development at Nintendo.
Technically, being part of Nintendo, any development they do, they do it on Nintendo. Although later it is a port of a third party game financed by, for example, Warner.


In any case, being a Nintendo purchase and studio, I think it is of interest both for this thread and to keep track of what they are doing and their work.
 
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Shiver was under Embracer, who seems to be having something of a fire sale because of their... whole thing. I wonder just how cheap the price tag must have been to get Nintendo's attention
I feel like other studios have had to have begged Nintendo for an acquisition like Alpha Dream among others, so that's why it's interesting to see this, especially in context of a random port studio (with honestly not the greatest track record) being sold off by a 3rd party. Almost thought it wasn't about money but something else. Maybe you're right and the price was dirt or something

Edit: Apparently they also did MK11 Switch as well? Iirc, that port was actually pretty okay, so maybe they do have the chops. How was their port of the unnamed game?
 
I feel like other studios have had to have begged Nintendo for an acquisition like Alpha Dream among others, so that's why it's interesting to see this, especially in context of a random port studio (with honestly not the greatest track record) being sold off by a 3rd party. Almost thought it wasn't about money but something else. Maybe you're right and the price was dirt or something

Edit: Apparently they also did MK11 Switch as well? Iirc, that port was actually pretty okay, so maybe they do have the chops. How was their port of the unnamed game?
For the price they most likely got them at, there is a lot more upside than a company like AlphaDream.
 
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I feel like other studios have had to have begged Nintendo for an acquisition like Alpha Dream among others, so that's why it's interesting to see this, especially in context of a random port studio (with honestly not the greatest track record) being sold off by a 3rd party. Almost thought it wasn't about money but something else. Maybe you're right and the price was dirt or something

Edit: Apparently they also did MK11 Switch as well? Iirc, that port was actually pretty okay, so maybe they do have the chops. How was their port of the unnamed game?
The port of that game is very good. And MK1 has been polished for months and has been a good port for a long time.
 
Firstly, not caring at all about Nintendo, I'm glad the employees of this company are keeping their jobs, given Embracer's logic.

Secondly, I really like the idea of Nintendo having ITS own ports studio. I see this as a sign of openness towards third-party publishers, which is good.

If studios are reluctant to come to the Nintendo platform, being able to say "we've got a team to take care of that" is great.
 
Edit: Apparently they also did MK11 Switch as well? Iirc, that port was actually pretty okay, so maybe they do have the chops. How was their port of the unnamed game?
for what they were asked to do, they've done as best as they could. those ports also give them a lot of expertise that could be a great value going forward
 
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I feel like other studios have had to have begged Nintendo for an acquisition like Alpha Dream among others, so that's why it's interesting to see this, especially in context of a random port studio (with honestly not the greatest track record) being sold off by a 3rd party. Almost thought it wasn't about money but something else. Maybe you're right and the price was dirt or something

Edit: Apparently they also did MK11 Switch as well? Iirc, that port was actually pretty okay, so maybe they do have the chops. How was their port of the unnamed game?
Alpha Dream games were selling less and less overtime and it's when they tried to do HD development for other platforms that they collapsed under their own weight.

Hardly worth acquiring instead of poaching the talent from Nintendo pov.
 
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But what's also wild; Nintendo is the only of the big three to grab an Embracer team, right? We all figured it'd have been MS with say, Crystal Dynamics or something.
They must have been looking for a specific studio. A port studio. A cheap one. Remember what Furukawa said, Nintendo only considers acquiring something if they really need it. I think they're building some sort of third party support service.
 
I assume Nintendo acquired this to support their own games, to port their own titles and also for third party projects. Really surprising though, Nintendo as always making acquisitions out of nowhere and with companies we dont even know lol except on things like srd or nlg ofc
 
Also sales of that unnamed game have been fantastic based on all sales data, possibly even better than the Xbox version. So maybe the value of the studio who developed one of their best selling multiplat ports + being a generally experienced dev with ambitious 3rd party games with high fidelity/realistic and big budget 3rd party games was a good deal on top of being mega cheap
 
good feel may be working at another project for nintendo, wario land director who didnt work on peach or crafted work talk about woking with a client and is holding a joycon on the photos,other staff havent been credited for a long time and are still at the company per those interviews
 
good feel may be working at another project for nintendo, wario land director who didnt work on peach or crafted work talk about woking with a client and is holding a joycon on the photos,other staff havent been credited for a long time and are still at the company per those interviews
These 11h shifts 😭
 
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Question, let's say a 3rd party game was ported by this now Nintendo-owned studio. Would that port be considered first-party?

I don't know if we've ever had a comparable scenario.

Nintendo (NST to be specific) was actually involved with the Gameboy Color port of SNK's Crystalis. It's not exactly the same scenario, but I want to say that Nintendo still does have some ownership over that version of the game even to this day.
 
Also sales of that unnamed game have been fantastic based on all sales data, possibly even better than the Xbox version. So maybe the value of the studio who developed one of their best selling multiplat ports + being a generally experienced dev with ambitious 3rd party games with high fidelity/realistic and big budget 3rd party games was a good deal on top of being mega cheap
I read this post and think, "Oh, so is this who is going to help CD Projekt RED port their Witcher projects and help Square Enix port Final Fantasy VII R 1-3 to Switch 2?"

In 2035, I'm going to be very interested in reading Shiver's decade of game credits under Nintendo's ownership.
 
I wonder how soon after the acquisition they'll learn all about the successor from Nintendo. Or maybe they'll just do ports for the Switch 1 until the very end of its life.
 
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good feel may be working at another project for nintendo, wario land director who didnt work on peach or crafted work talk about woking with a client and is holding a joycon on the photos,other staff havent been credited for a long time and are still at the company per those interviews
Wario Land confirmed

not actually confirmed but I can dream
 
Question, let's say a 3rd party game was ported by this now Nintendo-owned studio. Would that port be considered first-party?

I don't know if we've ever had a comparable scenario.
No.

For a comparable scenario, look at the work Brownie Brown did. They made numerous games for third parties while being owned by Nintendo. MonolithSoft did too for Bandai Namco right after they were bought
 
Question, let's say a 3rd party game was ported by this now Nintendo-owned studio. Would that port be considered first-party?

I don't know if we've ever had a comparable scenario.
Not really. It would be a Nintendo Published Third-Party at best. A case study for that would be something like Octopath Traveler being published by Nintendo outside of Japan, just because it's being ported/published by them for a specific demographic it doesn't mean they own/made it.
 


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