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

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Buying a western studio is a crapshoot if they have nothing of value. If you want bodies, just lease some studio space in a desirable area and mass hire/head-hunt leads
 
ILikeFeet said:
Buying a western studio is a crapshoot if they have nothing of value. If you want bodies, just lease some studio space in a desirable area and mass hire/head-hunt leads
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I don't think its that easy to establish a new studio. Just look how difficult it is for them to manage their existing ones. If the work culture is similar to Nintendos, i would rather use the opportunity and get an existing partner. Thats why i see Wayforward or Velan. They are working mostly on licensed IP's (besides Shantae amd Mighty Switch Force), arent very expensive, habe a good relationship with Nintendo and in case of Velan are trying some new technical things like the Skylanders
concept or AR Mario Kart.
 
I think EPD should use part of their new expansions to start up a group for seeking out western development talent, as well as start up japanese talent as well. I'd like to see Nintendo gather a new generation of second party partners similar to HAL, Monster, and Grezzo.
 
Kool Savis said:
I don't think its that easy to establish a new studio. Just look how difficult it is for them to manage their existing ones. If the work culture is similar to Nintendos, i would rather use the opportunity and get an existing partner. Thats why i see Wayforward or Velan. They are working mostly on licensed IP's (besides Shantae amd Mighty Switch Force), arent very expensive, habe a good relationship with Nintendo and in case of Velan are trying some new technical things like the Skylanders
concept or AR Mario Kart.
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but we also see how difficult it is to even find studios that have compatibility with nintendo. if ones are found, like whom you listed, are they even willing to sell? establishing a studio gives them a benefit of establishing the culture from the start, especially if they hired a lot of green workers.
 
MagiCarbo said:
I think EPD should use part of their new expansions to start up a group for seeking out western development talent, as well as start up japanese talent as well. I'd like to see Nintendo gather a new generation of second party partners similar to HAL, Monster, and Grezzo.
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Their relationship with Grezzo is only a decade long; wouldn’t retire them to the same tier as HAL just yet. Monster worked exclusively with Nintendo for a decade and then after Xenoblade 3D they moved on; can’t take anything for granted.
 
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ILikeFeet said:
but we also see how difficult it is to even find studios that have compatibility with nintendo. if ones are found, like whom you listed, are they even willing to sell? establishing a studio gives them a benefit of establishing the culture from the start, especially if they hired a lot of green workers.
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Thats also right. Off course everything here is hypothetical, so we have to wait and see what happens in the future. Maybe there are negotiations with some studios, maybe not. Maybe as you said, they are investing more into organic expansion.

Anyway as much as i love Nintendogames, there is still a big hole left, since the buyout of Rareware. Thats why people are so desparate for every Retro Studios game. Next Level Games is a good starting point, and Nintendo needs more projects like Metroid Dread, Mario Rabbids and co.
 
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MondoMega said:
On that note above, I should probably update my internal engine use chart again.

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I think Switch Sports' EPD Group is easy enough to guess, but i'm trying to present things factually and we still don't know for certain. Also why Splatoon 3 isn't over on the LunchPack side yet, where it'll obviously end up. 1-2-Switch is the only game i'm unsure of at this point (hence the question mark).
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Are Big Brain Academy and Brain Training really internal, though? I thought they were mainly developed by Indies Zero, with Nintendo directing and supervising. Kinda like the Vitei games on 3DS.
 
Gingerbread Man said:
Are Big Brain Academy and Brain Training really internal, though? I thought they were mainly developed by Indies Zero, with Nintendo directing and supervising. Kinda like the Vitei games on 3DS.
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Nintendo did most of planning and design work in-house, and had indieszero finish the game based on those builds. It's a practice they've employed with quite a few internally led projects, including the Veti games.
 
I feel like the Switch gen has been pretty good for Nintendo and Western development. Next Level Games, who've had an enormous hit in Luigi's Mansion 3, have now become a subsidiary. New partnerships for exclusive games with Ubisoft Milan and WayForward, and Nintendo have cemented the partnership with MercurySteam which resulted in the release of Metroid Dread, a GOTY candidate for 2021 and soon to be the best selling Metroid yet. Retro Studios should even finally be present with a re-release and a new game in the next couple of years, too.

Like yeah, don't take anything for granted because the only 2 relationships guaranteed to continue are Retro and NLG, as subsidiaries. But WayForward seem an excellent fit for Nintendo, and the partnership with MercurySteam has reaped dividends and I don't see either side wanting to end that yet. As for Ubisoft Milan... it's a shame they're part of such a binfire of a company, but they've probably the best Mario spin off on Switch and a great looking sequel is on the way. Really solid additions to Nintendo's exclusive software line up.

Edit - should also provide a shout-out to NST, whose partnership with EPD 8 seems to be going from strength to strength and which hopefully bodes well for their future.
 
I’m not counting on any company who isn’t a subsidiary of Nintendo. Microsoft, Sony and others are looking for acquisitions. Retro should be stable next gen. NLG can put 2-3 games out a gen. NST has been doing good work. Let’s see if they’ll be able to put out original titles.
 
I still think Velan could make for a solid close partner if both parties are interested. MK Live was a cool experiment and Knockout City is a really good take on the multiplayer "shooter". The founders have a lot of history on Nintendo hardware as well.
 
Dardan Sandiego said:
I still think Velan could make for a solid close partner if both parties are interested. MK Live was a cool experiment and Knockout City is a really good take on the multiplayer "shooter". The founders have a lot of history on Nintendo hardware as well.
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I ignored Velan. Woops. But yeah, they're a good fit for Nintendo. It is a bit of a shame Nintendo aren't a bit more aggressive at securing some of these studios, assuming they'd be open to acquisition.
 
MisterSpo said:
I ignored Velan. Woops. But yeah, they're a good fit for Nintendo. It is a bit of a shame Nintendo aren't a bit more aggressive at securing some of these studios, assuming they'd be open to acquisition.
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Velan was seemingly founded because the Bala brothers wanted to get out from under Activision’s thumb and work on experimental stuff like their first two projects. Nintendo is quite receptive to those kinds of games so it could work. But it’s been a while since one of their Western subsidiaries worked on an original property…
 
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MagiCarbo said:
Nintendo did most of planning and design work in-house, and had indieszero finish the game based on those builds. It's a practice they've employed with quite a few internally led projects, including the Veti games.
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Yeah, but the development itself was done by the partner -- for example, Tank Troopers used a proprietary engine developed by Vitei. In this context, I think Brain Training and Big Brain Academy are external games.

MisterSpo said:
I feel like the Switch gen has been pretty good for Nintendo and Western development. Next Level Games, who've had an enormous hit in Luigi's Mansion 3, have now become a subsidiary. New partnerships for exclusive games with Ubisoft Milan and WayForward, and Nintendo have cemented the partnership with MercurySteam which resulted in the release of Metroid Dread, a GOTY candidate for 2021 and soon to be the best selling Metroid yet. Retro Studios should even finally be present with a re-release and a new game in the next couple of years, too.

Like yeah, don't take anything for granted because the only 2 relationships guaranteed to continue are Retro and NLG, as subsidiaries. But WayForward seem an excellent fit for Nintendo, and the partnership with MercurySteam has reaped dividends and I don't see either side wanting to end that yet. As for Ubisoft Milan... it's a shame they're part of such a binfire of a company, but they've probably the best Mario spin off on Switch and a great looking sequel is on the way. Really solid additions to Nintendo's exclusive software line up.

Edit - should also provide a shout-out to NST, whose partnership with EPD 8 seems to be going from strength to strength and which hopefully bodes well for their future.
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We also have the smaller eShop games, like Good Job or The Stretchers.
 
Gingerbread Man said:
We also have the smaller eShop games, like Good Job or The Stretchers.
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Yeah, and for Cadence of Hyrule, too. It's not exactly the same thing as Nintendo expanding Western development through acquisition or investment, but good partnerships have come about this generation. Hopefully they continue to invest in those areas; games like Good Job and The Stretchers would be excellent as subscription incentives. They don't seem to have made a splash as standalone purchases.
 
Gingerbread Man said:
Yeah, but the development itself was done by the partner -- for example, Tank Troopers used a proprietary engine developed by Vitei. In this context, I think Brain Training and Big Brain Academy are external games.


We also have the smaller eShop games, like Good Job or The Stretchers.
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I don`t know about Cadence of Hyrule, but NST was involved in Stretchers, Good Job and Scribblenauts. They`re doing a good job (no pun intended) lately as a support studio!
 
NST having something to show next year would certainly make sense given the consistency of their output.
 
Don’t think NST will be making a full release on their own yet (hopefully they can expand back to that capacity eventually), so I wonder what they’ll be assisting with next. I guess that’s just me asking what EPD Tokyo are working on next, though; unless they’ll be assisting Retro with Prime 4 or something.
 
Gingerbread Man said:
Yeah, but the development itself was done by the partner -- for example, Tank Troopers used a proprietary engine developed by Vitei. In this context, I think Brain Training and Big Brain Academy are external games.
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Projects at EPD are developed in a variety of scaling ways. EPD develops and creates games themselves internally, designs concepts and prototypes of games to ship off to other developers to help finish, produces other developers' games and creations, and supervises use of Nintendo IP in third party published projects. Brain Age and Big Brain Academy are in the 2nd category. They're internally developed games that were polished up by another studio.
 
MagiCarbo said:
Brain Age and Big Brain Academy are in the 2nd category. They're internally developed games that were polished up by another studio.
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Not the first time Nintendo have worked with Indieszero in that manner either; NES Remix was a similar case.

Never looked too deep into Sushi Striker but I believe that one was a lot more collaborative (external development staff from EPD 1 + Indieszero).
 
MondoMega said:
Never looked too deep into Sushi Striker but I believe that one was a lot more collaborative (external development staff from EPD 1 + Indieszero).
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The idea came from EPD (Kaori Ando specifically). They laid out the story, characters, and premise, and iZ just built a game around that.
 
Smash Kirby said:
I wonder if Nintendo was worried someone might pick them up. They look to be a support studio.
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They've worked on the programming for many Nintendo games since I think the original SMB.

F-Zero was the first EAD game to have no assistance from SRD, which shows how valuable they were.
 
SRD's purchasing I find to be a nonmover and barely noteworthy. Not sure how outright owning them enhances Nintendo more than SRD already was enhancing Nintendo. I am sure it was just a logistical move so they don't have to operate independent finances.
 
ILikeFeet said:
they're an army of programmers whom are housed within Nintendo's building (though their HQ is elsewhere). how do you buy that, exactly?
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N75 said:
They've worked on the programming for many Nintendo games since I think the original SMB.

F-Zero was the first EAD game to have no assistance from SRD, which shows how valuable they were.
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Interesting, I read some of the after I posted. Well, I am glad that Nintendo is making them part of themselves.
 
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NintendoPrime said:
SRD's purchasing I find to be a nonmover and barely noteworthy. Not sure how outright owning them enhances Nintendo more than SRD already was enhancing Nintendo. I am sure it was just a logistical move so they don't have to operate independent finances.
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Were you expecting something big like a Sony/Microsoft level acquisition?
 
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NintendoPrime said:
SRD's purchasing I find to be a nonmover and barely noteworthy. Not sure how outright owning them enhances Nintendo more than SRD already was enhancing Nintendo. I am sure it was just a logistical move so they don't have to operate independent finances.
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There really is no mystery here, the very basic thing of "the owners are on their way to retirement and likely wanted to cash out" is where this will end up at. Nintendo isn't in the acquisition game, as much as current sentiments in the gamingsphere may want to force it onto them. Every time they've acquired a company in recent years it was either something basic like this, where the owners were looking to sell and they happened to have been long-time close collaborators already, or and/or some strategic efficiency thing like when they bought that sales/distribution company a couple of years ago etc. They're not doing drafts here, they're not looking to fill a roster to compete next season.

There's also not really any point in doing the "who's next!" dance every time this happens. They're not gonna buy MercurySteam, for example. In Nintendo-time, they've barely just met and went on two dates. The last one went really well but that doesn't mean they're out here shopping for rings. Just as an example, because this is always where that ends up.
 
bayonetta said:
maybe Nintendo want to expand the studio to paly a bigger role supporting their internal studio ?
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No that doesn’t make sense because SRD programmers are seamlessly tied in with EPD programmers in the same building. They literally co-program games together. This is all about transitioning management for the programmers of SRD as management prepares to retire.
 
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How likely is it that Kyogoku gets promoted to a Deputy General Manager alongside Aonuma, Nogami, Eguchi, etc.? Would be nice to have a woman among Nintendo's key people. Also would be nice to have a female narrator for JP Directs Especially after all she's done with ACNH. Other developers got promoted for less.

Speaking of which, how did Tanabe manage to become a senior officer when his only directing role was Doki Doki Panic and a bit of course design in SMB3? After that he did a decade of advising/supervising and managed to become a key producer within Nintendo. Not only that, but he seemed to become a co-director of sorts (like many other JP producers) for Paper Mario titles (designing the battle system for PM:TOK).

Also, how did Shinya Takahashi become General Manager of EPD after only directing Wave Race 64 and various CG model/mocap stuff? Every other deputy manager or senior officer- Eguchi, Aonuma, Nogami, Koizumi, Tezuka, Sakomoto- all either directed or had major roles in multiple games over several years minimum. What did Takahashi and Tanabe in particular do that landed them the positions they have today?
 
mariodk18 said:
Also, how did Shinya Takahashi become General Manager of EPD after only directing Wave Race 64 and various CG model/mocap stuff? Every other deputy manager or senior officer- Eguchi, Aonuma, Nogami, Koizumi, Tezuka, Sakomoto- all either directed or had major roles in multiple games over several years minimum. What did Takahashi and Tanabe in particular do that landed them the positions they have today?
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Takahashi was the general manager of SPD, and had spearheaded all of Nintendo's non-EAD projects during the Wii U and 3DS days.
 
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Takahashi produced a lot of the really successful touch generation games during the DS era. Iwata actually handpicked and groomed him to lead the SDD group in SPD, and then move on to become the Deputy GM of SPD.
 
EAD Ninja said:
Takahashi produced a lot of the really successful touch generation games during the DS era. Iwata actually handpicked and groomed him to lead the SDD group in SPD, and then move on to become the Deputy GM of SPD.
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There's also the fact he already knew how to coordinate with multiple studios, both inside and outside of Nintendo, and managed to pull together multiple ones. Such as with Wii Play Motion and Street Pass DLC on the 3DS.
 
There is something curious about NDcube, and that is how the name is spelt. In the older logo, it's basically "Nd Cube", but the newer logo and the company's trademark is spelt as "NDcube". What does the slightly different naming generally signify?

(Also, perhaps the spelling of NDcube could be corrected in the opening post)

Thank you for reading.
 
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