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

[Hero of Legend]

I believe it was the Suzak-developed F-Zero games for the GBA (GP Legend and Climax) that tanked the series. GX had decent (but not great) sales, at least in the US.

Hmm, maybe. They'd work with Suzak one last time on Wario: Master of Disguise on DS however.

 

[nenned]

Hmm, maybe. They'd work with Suzak one last time on Wario: Master of Disguise on DS however.

Right, but F-Zero went on it's hiatus after Climax in 2004.

 

[Hero of Legend]

Right, but F-Zero went on it's hiatus after Climax in 2004.

I guess Nintendo didn't blame them for their F-Zero failures then?

I didn't hear great things about Master of Disguise either, but I felt like Suzak may have had potential. Shame they went belly up not long after.

 

[Marce-chan]

Still waiting on EPD 8 and EPD 9 to announce their games.

I'm more eager for those two than anything else.
The two have gone radio silent as far as non-ports and non-mobile games heavily assisted go.
The two were the most prolific Nintendo AAA studios that had steady releases every 3 years of even less.
Mario Kart 8 was EPD 9's first HD game, it's gameplay and graphics holds up to this day, is packed with content, and was impressively made in less than 2.5 years(!!!).
Super Mario Odyssey released four years after 3D and probably had about 3.5 years of dev time.
By holiday 2022 it'll be 5 years since Odyssey, and by mid 2022 it'll be 5 years since ARMS.
Such a gap between new 3D Mario's hasn't happened ever since Sunshine-Galaxy.
It's true that development in the Switch era is way longer than it was before. Hell, even compared to early Switch: Zelda BotW had four years of development, having to get everything from scratch, having problems with the physics engine, being the first 3D game and first open world. Its sequel that already has the physics engine and map done is gonna take 5 years approximately (assuming it's been in development since DLC wrapped up and releases late 2022).
That just makes me wonder how ambitious the next Mario Kart is gonna be. I don't see much room as 2022 is already super packed, so I think it's coming in 2023.
The same can be said about the next 3D Mario. I think Odyssey sequel will actually be the dream game and be way bigger than the original. I'm confident in it releasing next year to promote the movie. Also I expect that the DK game they're supposedly making will be another masterpiece.
Damn 2022 seems more and more like not only 2017 part two but actually an even better 2017 as the sequels are looking even more ambitious than the games that came first.

 

[Rowsdower]

I have every confidence we’ll get another F-Zero at some point. Just this year we got a revitalization of Famicom Detective Club. It’s only a matter of time.

You wanna talk deader than dead franchises? Poor Eternal Darkness.

 

[Dardan Sandiego]

Nintendo supposedly (or was it debunked) attempted to get Criterion on one for Wii U but they declined.

Criterion Games Founder Says Nintendo Never Asked The Studio To Make A New F-Zero

"Oh, here we go"

www.nintendolife.com

Funnily, the original story by Liam Roberts makes it sound like it was actually much more than that. Guess we'll never know.

edit: on the topic of Eternal Darkness, I think it's extremely unlikely that Nintendo will ever touch the franchise again. They tend to follow the people, like how they got AlphaDream, who consisted of Fujioka and other Super Mario RPG staff, to work on Mario & Luigi or how they specifically sought out NLG for Mario Strikers because many of the staff had worked on Sega Soccer Slam at EA Black Box before. And the way Dennis Dyack and Ken McCulloch (credited for Art Direction & Content Supervisor in Eternal Darkness, seemingly also involved in the writing) went after the demise of Silicon Knights...

 

[TheMoon]

I'm more eager for those two than anything else.
The two have gone radio silent as far as non-ports and non-mobile games heavily assisted go.
The two were the most prolific Nintendo AAA studios that had steady releases every 3 years of even less.

Worth remembering that EPD Groups are not studios (well, EPD Tokyo in its isolated bubble kinda is), just a few leads who gather their remaining teams from the entire EPD pool.

You wanna talk deader than dead franchises? Poor Eternal Darkness.

I wouldn't consider this a "franchise" tbh

As cool as the idea was, it's a one-and-done deal. They've shown they had no interest in Dyack's attempt to make a new game which led to the "we can't use the name but it's exactly the same type of game" crowdfunding project (what was it called? Shadow of the Eternals or something?). The same exact way we'll never see Geist 2.

 

[nenned]

I guess Nintendo didn't blame them for their F-Zero failures then?

I didn't hear great things about Master of Disguise either, but I felt like Suzak may have had potential. Shame they went belly up not long after.

Guess not. Although they stopped partnering with Suzak after Master of Disguise. But, F-Zero Climax absolutely tanked hard. Probably didn't help that it released in Japan only, but its sales were dire.

 

[N75]

Not sure if I'll post here that often (I don't really post much anywhere these days), but I was looking through some of the EPD directors (excluding external R&D) that we haven't seen in a while:

Hidemaro Fujibayashi - Confirmed for BotW 2.

Tsubasa Sakaguchi - Last known work was Labo. He might have worked on Game Builder Garage, but it wasn’t as director (unless he’s been promoted).

Hiroshi Matsunaga - Last known work was Ring Fit Adventure. Given the success of the game, I wouldn’t be surprised if we get an expanded version (a la Wii Fit Plus) or a full-on sequel in the near future.

Kenta Kubo - I guess he counts as Brain Training was a collaboration with indieszero instead of just being outsourced. Might be a one-off director, hard to tell. Brain Training and Big Brain Academy are not handled by the same production groups and never have been. Expect Brain vs. Brain to be an EPD 10 project.

Hiromasa Shikata - Last known work was 1-2-Switch. I don’t know if we ever get confirmation that he became an official project lead in EPD 4.

Yusuke Amano - Almost definitely the director for Splatoon 3, if he hasn’t been promoted to co-producer.

Ryutaro Takahashi - Was last credited in Miitomo which has been dead for over three years. He’s not the only Tomodachi lead who’s been absent for a while. I think it’s only a matter of time until we see something from them. Similar to the Brain Training vs BBA comparisons, Tomodachi and Miitopia shouldn't be put under the same umbrella. Miitopia is handled by EPD 4 and has honestly more in common with Find Mii/StreetPass Quest on the 3DS.

Masami Yone - Was credited in Brain Training Switch (in an unknown capacity) for….some reason? He was the sound director for the original game on DS, but there were other sound staff credited like Minako Hamano who I imagine would have been supervising. Maybe it’s because the project began by porting the original game to Switch? Anyway, the assistant director and programming director for Rhythm Heaven Megamix have been uncredited since that game, with the latter being listed under “special thanks” in Brain Training.

Kenta Motokura - Working on the next big project from EPD 8. He was also a producer for 3D All-Stars and presumably 3D World + Bowser’s Fury. The Tokyo office was hiring for both a 3D and 2D Action Game back in Late 2019 and Summer 2020, respectively. It’s unknown if the 3D game was just Bowser’s Fury.

Shiro Mouri - Last known work was NSMBU Deluxe, while also providing development support for Mario Maker 2. The Kyoto office was hiring for a new 2D Action Game back in Late 2019, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s leading that project. It’s currently unknown if this is the same game mentioned above.

Yuji Kando - Recently credited in Pikmin 3 Deluxe as Chief Director, which was his first substantial credit since the original release on Wii U. Though it should be noted that the port was mostly outsourced to Eighting. With Shigefumi Hino moving onto Mario Maker after Pikmin 3, Kando is likely in charge of Pikmin 4. We’ve heard rumblings of the game getting a reboot at some point, which may explain the large gap.

Not even going to bother with EPD 9 (Mario Kart, ARMS, etc.), as the director situation isn’t really clear right now.

I should also mention that Mario Maker series director Yosuke Oshino left Nintendo shortly after the release of Mario Maker 2 to join The Pokemon Company, so who knows what’s happening with that series.

 

[EAD Ninja]

Not sure if I'll post here that often (I don't really post much anywhere these days), but I was looking through some of the EPD directors (excluding external R&D) that we haven't seen in a while:

A good reminder of what happens at Nintendo R&D, by way of Takaya Imamura's retirement interview(s), is that a lot of staff work on projects that never see the light of day. Imamura himself worked on many that were never made public and says he was fortunate to be part of the few that were.

* We have BOTW2 and SPLAT 3 announced.
* We still have DLC for MK Tour and AC
* There's definitely a 2D and 3D game coming.. most likely different Mario projects.
* There's definitely a Mario Kart game coming..
* There's probably a Rhyhtm Tengoku game coming
* There's probably a Tomodachi game coming
* There's probably a Ring Fit Sequel coming
* There are definitely other projects being worked on that may or may not release.

 

[Rowsdower]

* There's definitely a 2D and 3D game coming.. most likely different Mario projects.

Isn’t the latest rumor that the 3D project is Donkey Kong? I’m really hoping this turns out to be true.

 

[Dark Cloud]

Isn’t the latest rumor that the 3D project is Donkey Kong? I’m really hoping this turns out to be true.

No. 3D is Mario. DK is rumored to be 2D.

 

[FossilPhantom]

Is it known if the 2D hiring listings specifically mentioned both Kyoto and Tokyo? Or was it just a general 2D hiring? For example, do we think that these listing were for a potential 2D Donkey Kong in Tokyo and a 2D Mario in Kyoto that are both concurrently in active development? Or is it more likely they were all referring to one project?

 

[EAD Ninja]

Is it known if the 2D hiring listings specifically mentioned both Kyoto and Tokyo? Or was it just a general 2D hiring? For example, do we think that these listing were for a potential 2D Donkey Kong in Tokyo and a 2D Mario in Kyoto that are both concurrently in active development? Or is it more likely they were all referring to one project?

It's hard to say 100% whether Kyoto and Tokyo were hiring for separate 2D projects, or the same project.

 

[FossilPhantom]

It's hard to say 100% whether Kyoto and Tokyo were hiring for separate 2D projects, or the same project.

Good to know, thanks!

 

[MetalLord]

Is it known if the 2D hiring listings specifically mentioned both Kyoto and Tokyo? Or was it just a general 2D hiring? For example, do we think that these listing were for a potential 2D Donkey Kong in Tokyo and a 2D Mario in Kyoto that are both concurrently in active development? Or is it more likely they were all referring to one project?

the kyoto hiring was posted 1.5 year before the tokyo one,probably they are different projects

 

[Marce-chan]

A good reminder of what happens at Nintendo R&D, by way of Takaya Imamura's retirement interview(s), is that a lot of staff work on projects that never see the light of day. Imamura himself worked on many that were never made public and says he was fortunate to be part of the few that were.

* We have BOTW2 and SPLAT 3 announced.
* We still have DLC for MK Tour and AC
* There's definitely a 2D and 3D game coming.. most likely different Mario projects.
* There's definitely a Mario Kart game coming..
* There's probably a Rhyhtm Tengoku game coming
* There's probably a Tomodachi game coming
* There's probably a Ring Fit Sequel coming
* There are definitely other projects being worked on that may or may not release.

The ones I'm more excited for and waiting for reveal are the Ring Fit sequel, the next Mario Kart, and presumably the next 3D Mario and 2D Donkey Kong by EPD Tokyo.
I also wonder when they'd release. I'm thinking the next 3D Mario might release next year to promote and take advantage of the film, with DK coming that year as well. Ring Fit can come next year too. I don't see Mario Kart releasing next year anymore, but maybe early 2023.

 

[TheMoon]

What is the source of that DK rumor anyhow? Is that even coming from a somewhat reliable place?

 

[Miraj]

What is the source of that DK rumor anyhow? Is that even coming from a somewhat reliable place?

DK Vine claimed to have insider info and were the main proponents of it, long before the media picked it up. When it blew up, they did a (very long) podcast about it:

 

[TheMoon]

DK Vine claimed to have insider info and were the main proponents of it, long before the media picked it up. When it blew up, they did a (very long) podcast about it:

Ah thanks!

Back on the "call me when a reliable source corroborates this" pile it goes

 

[maidhhc]

I’m pretty sure that Nate hinted in Era a few months ago that there’s definitely an Odyssey 2 (or similar) in development

 

[Miraj]

I'm still hoping something will come from Emily's suggestion that Nintendo was prototyping Star Fox. Also hoping that someday Koei-Tecmo will revisit that Lylat Warriors pitch that Laura Kate Dale reported on.

 

[Supreme Overlord]

You wanna talk deader than dead franchises? Poor Eternal Darkness.

That is not dead which can eternal lie.

I do wish Eternal Darkness could escape this wretched slumber. There's potential there.

 

[N75]

I feel like speculation that EPD 8 was making a DK game only started when that 2D job post went up last August. So maybe they just jumped on that.

 

[TheMoon]

I’m pretty sure that Nate hinted in Era a few months ago that there’s definitely an Odyssey 2 (or similar) in development

Nothing against Nate but ... anyone could tell you that and they'd be right.

I feel like speculation that EPD 8 was making a DK game only started when that 2D job post went up last August. So maybe they just jumped on that.

That is basically what I take from this. EPD Tokyo does 2D job listing + we know Retro is doing Metroid Prime and not another DKC and EPD Tokyo made DK before ...so they are making DK again. Feels like simple speculation math not worth taking too seriously at this point.

 

[Gartooth]

A friend of mine made a shitpost on discord back in February that Bowser's Fury was the leftover concepts of a canceled EPD8 game. I blew it off at first, but I sometimes wonder if there's more history behind it than we know. To the best of my knowledge, Nintendo never had any interview on how Bowser's Fury came to be.

 

[Polygon]

Great thread with a lot of amazing info. Thanks a lot!

 

[Dardan Sandiego]

Do we know what Hiromasa Shikata is doing these days? I think the last thing we know he worked on was 1-2-Switch. It's been a while.

 

[astrogamer]

Do we know what Hiromasa Shikata is doing these days? I think the last thing we know he worked on was 1-2-Switch. It's been a while.

Nope but, we never got credits on Labo and Game Builder Garage so he could have been a planner on one of those. We only know about 1-2 Switch because of a Nintendo recruitment post featuring him alongside 1-2 Switch