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

Was he involved in the original Metroid Prime? If so, then he's probably working on the remake.
No. Well, technically yes but only in a guidance role in the writing, special thanks style. But he isnt involved in an active manner in any of the games as far as i know
 
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If Wario Land came back I wonder if it would go under Sakamoto's group as an old R&D1 IP, or instead move to Tanabe's group similar to WarioWare
 
I expect Nintendo to continue with Tomodachi, but surely Metroid 6 is planned too.

Sakamoto's internal staff was mainly involved with mobile (Tomodachi, Dr. Mario) in collaboration with the Smart Device Group. A lot of his internal staff was moved over to Kawamoto's group so there is question on the status of any internal project surfacing for the Switch.

Sakamoto/Yamano - EPD Production Group No.07
  • Miitomo (2016) - Planning, Art, Program, Sound in collaboration with EPD Smart Device Group
  • Dr. Mario World - Planning, Art, Program, Sound in co-development with NHN and collaboration with EPD Smart Device Group

  • Metroid: Samus Returns (2017) - Planning, Music in co-development with Mercury Steam
  • Detective Club (2021) - Production with Mages
  • Metroid Dread (2021) - Planning, Music in co-development with Mercury Steam
 
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After the success of Famicom Detective Club, I can see EPD7 working on other neglected R&D1 series, like Card Hero or Kaeru no Tame, while continuing working with MAGES and Mercury Steam on FDC and Metroid. I'm afraid their days as internal developers are over, though.

Tomodachi and Rhythm Heaven could be under EPD4 now, and we could likely see at least one of them soon (co-developed by Indies Zero, perhaps?). As for Wario, I think a new Land could be produced either by EPD2 (if Good-Feel is involved) or EPD6. It entirely depends if someone (either an internal producer or an external partner) is interested in pushing such a game.
 
Indies Zero develop Rhythm Heaven feels like such a no brainer I’m surprised it hasn’t happen yet. For Wario land Good-Feel is the obvious choice but I feel like WayForward would be a good choice for a new entry
 
After the success of Famicom Detective Club, I can see EPD7 working on other neglected R&D1 series, like Card Hero or Kaeru no Tame, while continuing working with MAGES and Mercury Steam on FDC and Metroid. I'm afraid their days as internal developers are over, though.

Tomodachi and Rhythm Heaven could be under EPD4 now, and we could likely see at least one of them soon (co-developed by Indies Zero, perhaps?). As for Wario, I think a new Land could be produced either by EPD2 (if Good-Feel is involved) or EPD6. It entirely depends if someone (either an internal producer or an external partner) is interested in pushing such a game.

Kaeru no Tame (Bell Tolls for the Frog Prince) or Card Hero could be perfect for remakes in the Sakamoto/R&D1 heritage line. It would be a shame for Sakamoto's group to lose Tomodachi and Rhythm Tengoku, but some of the others make sense.
 
Quoted by: N75
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Kaeru no Tame (Bell Tolls for the Frog Prince) or Card Hero could be perfect for remakes in the Sakamoto/R&D1 heritage line. It would be a shame for Sakamoto's group to lose Tomodachi and Rhythm Tengoku, but some of the others make sense.
If Yone, Takeuchi, and Masaoka have moved to other groups, it kind of makes sense for Rhythm Heaven to do the same. Though I guess there's nothing stopping them from working with Sakamoto/Yamano again.

Do we know if Ryutaro Takahashi and Noriyuki Sato worked on Dr. Mario World?
 
Any chance Sakamoto would want to work on Kid Icarus again with an external dev? Sakurai doesn't want to, so it may make sense for Sakamoto to work on the series again if Nintendo is going to bring the IP back.
 
was detective club successful? didnt hear too much about it after launch.
They didn’t sell that well (under 30k physical Japanese copies as of a year ago), but assuming that they probably didn’t need to sell a ton to be successful. Not sure tot’s digital sales, but can’t be that high. Unfortunately, I think it’s hard to discount them since they have a buy one get one for less promotion (or so I’ve seen speculated).
 
was detective club successful? didnt hear too much about it after launch.
It doesn't feel like it's been a huge hit worldwide, but MAGES said it was "selling well". It was probably a "success" relatively to the kind of game it is.

They didn’t sell that well (under 30k physical Japanese copies as of a year ago), but assuming that they probably didn’t need to sell a ton to be successful. Not sure tot’s digital sales, but can’t be that high. Unfortunately, I think it’s hard to discount them since they have a buy one get one for less promotion (or so I’ve seen speculated).
Looking at other MAGES titles in Japan, it sold in line with their average. More or less like Steins;Gate Elite (20k PSV+PS4+Switch), a lot more than Occultic;Nine (less than 10K PS4+PSV), less than Yu-No (27k PS4+PSV). The only retail SKU was also an expensive limited edition!
 
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They didn’t sell that well (under 30k physical Japanese copies as of a year ago), but assuming that they probably didn’t need to sell a ton to be successful. Not sure tot’s digital sales, but can’t be that high. Unfortunately, I think it’s hard to discount them since they have a buy one get one for less promotion (or so I’ve seen speculated).
Those 30k physical Japanese copies are all they made, is the thing, lol. The physical was a more expensive limited edition with extras; no regular edition available.

Even if it managed to reach 1m worldwide by some miracle there's a high chance we'd never know because Nintendo don't share sales for digital-only titles.
 
Even if it managed to reach 1m worldwide by some miracle there's a high chance we'd never know because Nintendo don't share sales for digital-only titles.
I think there is a chance that we would get a PR post in that case by MAGES just because how big of a deal that would be, same if it reached 500k really.
 
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Those 30k physical Japanese copies are all they made, is the thing, lol. The physical was a more expensive limited edition with extras; no regular edition available.

Even if it managed to reach 1m worldwide by some miracle there's a high chance we'd never know because Nintendo don't share sales for digital-only titles.
Ah, makes sense then. Would be nice to know then. I would have bought a physical copy if the English script were on it. I assume it at least met expectation since they would have had the VC data to go off of.
 
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I personally think FDC met Nintendo's expectations. Whether or not those sales warrant Nintendo greenlighting a sequel is the real question.

Another bit of Hopium. (Sept 2021)
 
We probably will never know the total sales unless CESA counts sub-million sales or Nintendo says something. But considering the market, name of the game and the way they sold it seems to do well or at expectations. And who knows budget wise, it probably made profit.
 
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A year between Luigi's Mansion being finished and starting Strikers doesn't make sense, unless something got canned in between.
 
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Since people were talking about outsourcing in the direct thread, I guess it gives me an excuse to post this. The external R&D EPD groups are a bit more difficult to keep track of, so here are many of the development leads for EPD 1/2/6 and their most recent credited roles (outside of coordination/supervision/etc.). Other groups are also involved with external development, but these are the main three.

EPD 1
  • Genki Yokota (Co-Producer) - Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition (2020), Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light (2020)
  • Kei Ninomiya (Associate Producer/Coordinator) - Kirby and the Forgotten Land (2022)
  • Kenta Nakanishi (Director/Coordinator) - Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light (2020)
  • Kazuyoshi Toriyama (Director/Coordinator) - Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light (2020)
  • Yuki Sakamoto (Director) - Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition (2020)
  • Kaori Ando (Director/Coordinator/Product Manager) - Astral Chain (2019), Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore (2020), Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury (2021, role unknown)
  • Makoto Okazaki (Director/Coordinator) - Style Savvy: Styling Star (2017), Astral Chain (2019)
  • Ryuichi Nakada (Director) - Tetris 99 (2019), Super Mario Bros. 35 (2020)
  • Tomoko Nakayama (Director) - Buddy Mission BOND (2021)


EPD 2
  • Shinya Saito (Producer/Project Manager) - Mario Golf: Super Rush (2021), Mario Party Superstars (2021)
  • Toshiharu Izuno (Producer/Project Manager) - Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story + Bowser Jr.'s Journey (2018)
  • Akira Otani (Producer) - Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story + Bowser Jr.'s Journey (2018)
  • Yoshiaki Onishi (Associate Producer/Coordinator) - Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 (2019)
  • Nobuo Matsumiya (Associate Producer) - Yoshi’s Crafted World (2019), Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 (2019)
  • Emi Watanabe (Associate Producer) - Yoshi’s Crafted World (2019), Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 (2019)
  • Kazuyuki Gofuku (Project Manager) - Yoshi’s Crafted World (2019)
  • Yuji Ichijo (Project Manager/Coordinator) - DC Super Hero Girls: Teen Power (2021)
  • Tomohiro Yamamura (Director) - Mario Golf: Super Rush (2021)
  • Masataka Takemoto (Director/Planner) - Yoshi’s Crafted World (2019, Planner), Good Job! (2020, Director)
  • Tomomi Sano (Director/Coordinator) - Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story + Bowser Jr.’s Journey (2018)
  • Yoshinori Tsuchiyama (Director/Coordinator) - Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story + Bowser Jr.’s Journey (2018)
  • Ayako Moriwaki (Director/Planner/Coordinator) - Ever Oasis (2017, Director), Yoshi’s Crafted World (2019, Planner)
  • Kenta Usui (Planner) - Yoshi’s Crafted World (2019), Good Job! (2020)


EPD 6
  • Risa Tabata (Assistant Producer) - Dillon’s Dead-Heat Breakers (2018), Paper Mario: The Origami King (2020)
  • Akiya Sakamoto (Project Manager) - Luigi’s Mansion 3 (2019), Paper Mario: The Origami King (2020), WarioWare: Get it Together! (2021)
  • Satoshi Kira (Progress Manager/Coordinator) - Luigi’s Mansion 3 (2019)
  • Takayoshi Sato (Visual Producer) - Luigi’s Mansion 3 (2019), Paper Mario: The Origami King (2020)
  • Goro Abe (Director) - WarioWare: Get it Together! (2021)
  • Hideaki Araki (Planner/Coordinator) - WarioWare: Get it Together! (2021)

Something to make note of is that things seem to be more centralized in EPD 1, with Akira Kinashi and Toyokazu Nonaka being directly involved with most/all titles. EPD 2/6 are more segmented, with various producers and project managers. Though we're seeing this change a bit with Genki Yokota and Kei Ninomiya being promoted to co-producers for FE/Xenoblade and Kirby, respectively. There are also other staff like Keisuke Terasaki, who are involved with external projects from multiple groups.
 
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If Wario Land came back I wonder if it would go under Sakamoto's group as an old R&D1 IP, or instead move to Tanabe's group similar to WarioWare
Tanabe seems like he has too much on his plate for more IPs. On the other hand Sakamoto doesn't strike me as someone who's interested in wario anymore.
 
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Not sure if it was known about before, but the Ask the Developer interview also confirms that Shinji Okane was the director of Jump Rope Challenge.
 
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What were the three unannounced games related to job titles?

I believe it was a 2D and a 3D game for the Mario Odyssey group and a 2D game for the Pikmin team. Is that right?
 
What were the three unannounced games related to job titles?

I believe it was a 2D and a 3D game for the Mario Odyssey group and a 2D game for the Pikmin team. Is that right?
EPD Tokyo hired for a 3D Action Game in 2019 and a 2D Action Game in 2020. EPD Kyoto (not confirmed to be EPD 10; behind New Super Mario Bros. / Pikmin; but most likely option) hired for a 2D Action Game in 2019.
 
EPD Tokyo hired for a 3D Action Game in 2019 and a 2D Action Game in 2020. EPD Kyoto (not confirmed to be EPD 10; behind New Super Mario Bros. / Pikmin; but most likely option) hired for a 2D Action Game in 2019.

Hey Pikmin 2 confirmed for march 2023 (botw2 is cancelled).
 
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The December 2017 post could have been for BotW 2, as the description is similar to the level designer/scenario planner posts from later on. Ring Fit Adventure is another possibility. These are all contract positions, which would indicate that the games were at least well into production at the time, and that seems pretty early for BotW 2. The Champion's Ballad was literally about to release.
 


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