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

After FDC and Dread, I wouldn't rule out new sequels/remakes of Card Hero and Kaeru no Tame from EPD7 and external partner companies, with EPD4 co-developing Tomodachi and Rhythm Paradise with Indies Zero.
 
If all external development is being moved under EPD Group 2, I imagine its because Takahashi and Co. recognized the lack of internally generated titles at EPD throughout the Switch era. Group 4 so far had been EPD's most productive studio in terms of internal development, and I think Nintendo wants to use that as a model for its next system, streamlining EPD so that everything not from Group 2 is internally developed.

I think Co-development partnerships ala Star Fox Zero and Metorid are still on the table. But I think EPD wants to scale back its dependency on external development going forward, especially since the Switch turned out to be a smash hit, allowing Nintendo to pump more money into EPD.
 
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If all external development is being moved under EPD Group 2, I imagine its because Takahashi and Co. recognized the lack of internally generated EPD titles throughout the Switch era. Group 4 so far had been EPD's most productive studio in terms of internal development, and I think Nintendo wants to use that as a model for its next system, streamlining EPD so that everything not from Group 2 is internally developed.

I think Co-development partnerships ala Star Fox Zero and Metorid are still on the table. But I think EPD wants to scale back its dependency on external development going forward, especially since the Switch turned out to be a smash hit, allowing Nintendo to pump more money into EPD.
IIRC decreasing reliance on external devs was one of the stated reasons for their big hiring announcement and the new building.
 
IIRC decreasing reliance on external devs was one of the stated reasons for their big hiring announcement and the new building.
Then that would line up with Fire Emblem/Xenoblade/Pokemon now suddenly being under Group 2 instead of Group 1. I think EPD Group 1 has some big internal project that they've been working on since 2019. We may see it this year, or next year with the Switch 2 reveal.
 
This isn't my idea (shoutouts to Lite_Agent in private chat off-site) but I wanna throw it out there regardless: What if Yamagami's actually still at EPD1 and part of whatever that restructuring/initiative is they're doing there. Since he's apparently too young to retire and we'd have heard about it had he been poached or something. That would certainly also explain the absence of a proper main credit and news about him moving on or something.
 
I'm happy to see more people being into the nitty & gritty of how EPD is set up nowadays.

I remember like 10 years ago it was literally only @EAD Ninja and @MetalLord regularily posting and being really knowledgable about EAD. And before that it was only @EAD Ninja.

Also glad to see that http://kyoto-report.wikidot.com/ is still being updated, though search doesn't seem to be working. Shouldn't that site be linked in the OP by the way? It should be.
 
I'm happy to see more people being into the nitty & gritty of how EPD is set up nowadays.

I remember like 10 years ago it was literally only @EAD Ninja and @MetalLord regularily posting and being really knowledgable about EAD. And before that it was only @EAD Ninja.

Also glad to see that http://kyoto-report.wikidot.com/ is still being updated, though search doesn't seem to be working. Shouldn't that site be linked in the OP by the way? It should be.
EAD Ninja didn't have it linked in his old version of the thread, since the subsequent ones were always just adapted versions of that one, it's probably just a holdover from that but yea, good point - should be there imo.
 
Speaking of EPD composers, their last known game:

  • Koji Kondo - Super Mario Maker 2 (2019)
  • Kenji Yamamoto - Metroid: Samus Returns (2017) (may have composed/arranged for Dread, "Music Director" is a bit too vague and no soundtrack/sound selection has been released)
  • Minako Hamano - Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (2014) (likely moved into a support/supervisor role)
  • Kazumi Totaka - Animal Crossing: New Horizons (2020)
  • Masaru Tajima - Big Brain Academy: Brain vs. Brain (2021)
  • Masami Yone - Big Brain Academy: Brain vs. Brain (2021) (unknown whether he composed or was just the sound director/supervisor)
  • Kenta Nagata - Mario Kart Tour (2019)
  • Hajime Wakai - The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (2017)
  • Toru Minegishi - Super Mario Maker 2 (2019)
  • Shinobu Nagata - Animal Crossing: New Horizons (2020)
  • Mahito Yokota - Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker (2014) (may have moved into a management/supervisor role)
  • Asuka Hayazaki - Ring Fit Adventure (2019)
  • Toshiyuki Sudo - Miitopia (Switch) (2021)
  • Ryo Nagamatsu - Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit (2020)
  • Shiho Fujii - Ring Fit Adventure (2019)
  • Manaka Kataoka - The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (2017)
  • Shinji Ushiroda - Ring Fit Adventure (2019)
  • Megumi Inoue - Miitopia (2016) (likely moved into a supervisor role)
  • Daisuke Matsuoka - Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury (2021)
  • Atsuko Asahi - Super Mario Maker 2 (2019) (also did the two ARMS arrangements for Smash Ultimate)
  • Yasuaki Iwata - Animal Crossing: New Horizons (2020)
  • Naoto Kubo - Super Mario Odyssey (2017) (also credited in the Captain Toad 3DS/Switch ports, but I don't think those have any new music)
  • Yumi Takahashi - Animal Crossing: New Horizons (2020)
  • Maasa Miyoshi - Ring Fit Adventure (2019)
  • Soshi Abe - Metroid Dread (2021)
  • Sayako Doi - Big Brain Academy: Brain vs. Brain (2021)
  • Masato Ohashi - Animal Crossing: New Horizons (2020)
  • Haruko Torii - Nintendo Switch Sports (2022)
  • Takuhiro Honda - Nintendo Switch Sports (2022)

This should be mostly accurate, as Nintendo hasn't released a mobile game since 2019 and the only recent EPD 4 project that hasn't had credits is Game Builder Garage (wouldn't be surprised if Sudo worked on that, given that he was involved with Labo). We also don't know who's working on the arrangements for the MK8D Booster Course Pass, but there were no additional staff added to the first update, so some of the original composers returning is likely.

For upcoming games, I'm almost certain that Minegishi is returning for Splatoon 3, as he's the one that gave the series its sound identity to begin with. That story mode trailer music is also kind of a giveaway. I think Nagamatsu is back as well based on the Salmon Run trailer. Wakai and Kataoka are near-locks for BotW 2.

Going through this list, it feels like the newer composers are popping up a lot more frequently.

Updated the HAL Producers/Project Managers and their last known projects based on Forgotten Land and Dream Buffet.


HAL Producers:
  • Tadashi Kamitake - Kirby and the Forgotten Land (2022), Kirby’s Dream Buffet (2022)
  • Hiroyuki Hayashi - Kirby Battle Royale (2017)
  • Yasuhiro Mukae - BOXBOY + BOXGIRL! (2019)
  • Yoshiya Taniguchi - Part Time UFO (Switch) (2020)
  • Nobuyuki Okada - Kirby 30th Anniversary Music Fest. (2022)
HAL Project Managers:
  • Yoshihiro Nagata - Kirby and the Forgotten Land (2022), Kirby’s Dream Buffet (2022, credited as “Line Producer”)
  • Ayaka Seno - Kirby and the Forgotten Land (2022)
  • Tetsuya Mochizuki - Kirby and the Forgotten Land (2022)
  • Atsuko Yamashita - Kirby and the Forgotten Land (2022)
  • Yoshiki Suzuki - Kirby Fighters 2 (2020)
  • Isao Takahashi - Kirby Fighters 2 (2020) (also Assistant Producer on BOXBOY! series)
  • Kazuyuki Nakamura - BOXYBOY + BOXGIRL! (2019), Kirby’s Dream Buffet (2022)
  • Kaori Ishizaka - Kirby’s Dream Buffet (2022)
  • Kojiro Ooki - Part Time UFO (Switch) (2020)
  • Eitaro Nakamura (?) - Part Time UFO (Mobile) (2018)
  • Teruyuki Gunji (?) - Picross 3D (2015), Pasocom Mini (2017)
(quoting two example posts, how many more are there, N75?)

speaking of "should be in the OP" - since @N75 is compiling and updating lists like this, wouldn't it be cool if we had the posts threadmarked (cc @astrogamer ) so we could easily look them up, maybe even with a reference in the OP itself? otherwise probably nobody besides N75 knows where they are :D
 
Nintendo's development teams are so interesting but a bit confusing, it's a shame not too many people seem to fully understand this since I see all the time people who don't understand why are there so many Kirby or Fire Emblem games instead of [insert Nintendo IP that doesn't get as many games as those 2], which I guess means they think "Nintendo" makes all the games.
 
(quoting two example posts, how many more are there, N75?)

speaking of "should be in the OP" - since @N75 is compiling and updating lists like this, wouldn't it be cool if we had the posts threadmarked (cc @astrogamer ) so we could easily look them up, maybe even with a reference in the OP itself? otherwise probably nobody besides N75 knows where they are :D
There's a key staff list of external groups (EPD 1/2/6), but it's incomplete and as of now obviously outdated. The updated composers list was the one you quoted a few days ago.
 
Nintendo's development teams are so interesting but a bit confusing, it's a shame not too many people seem to fully understand this since I see all the time people who don't understand why are there so many Kirby or Fire Emblem games instead of [insert Nintendo IP that doesn't get as many games as those 2], which I guess means they think "Nintendo" makes all the games.
it's worse when you have veteran games press folks still talking like "nintendo makes pokémon" or "wild that monolith is making nintendo exclusives" or "nintendo makes smash". like, I don't expect people to know or have all the EPD groups in their head or know who exactly makes what, but the rough outline of the org chart has been on wikipedia for like a decade too, so fairly easily accessible to casually interested folks. stuff like that always rubs me the wrong way when they then talk about western devs by name because they know them from their twitter feed or had a beer with them at GDC the year before. can't be arsed to look up a basic overview of how the most storied and important development houses in the industry is operating lol.

micro rant over :D
 
I have compiled and summarized all the interviews from the #AskTheDeveloper series published by Nintendo to date:

Game​
Group​
Nintendo Representative​
Co-Developer​
AskTheDeveloper#1Game Builder GarageEPD#4Naoki Masuda (Director)
Kosuke Teshima (subdirector)
-
AskTheDeveloper#2Nintendo Switch OLEDTechnology DivisionKo Shiota (Director)
Toru Yamashita (Deputy General Manager)
-
AskTheDeveloper#3Big Brain AcademyEPD#4Kenta Kubo (Director)-
AskTheDeveloper#4Kirby and the Forgotten LandEPD#2Kei Ninomiya (Associate Producer)HAL Laboratory
AskTheDeveloper#5Nintendo Switch SportsEPD#4Takayuki Shimamura (Producer)
Yoshikazu Yamashita (Director)
Shinji Okane (Program Director)
Junji Morii (Art Director)
Natsuko Yokoyama (Sound Director)
-
AskTheDeveloper#6Xenoblade Chronicles 3EPD#2Genki Yokota (Producer & Director)MONOLITH SOFT.
AskTheDeveloper#7Splatoon 3EPD#5 & EPD#7Hisashi Nogami (Producer)
Seita Inoue (Director & Art Director) EPD#5
Shintaro Sato (Director) EPD#5
Toru Minegishi (Sound Director) EPD#7
-
AskTheDeveloper#8Fire Emblem EngageEPD#2Genki Yokota (Producer)
Kenta Nakanishi (Director)
INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS

Developer_banners_1920x1080-3

WN_ATD_vol2_OLED

1920x1080_ATD_BBA

1920x1080_Ncom_Ask_the_Developers_Kirby-and-the-Forgotten-Land

1920x1080_ATD_NSS

1920x1080_ATD_XB3_WN

2250x1266_ATD_Splatoon-3

2250x1266_ATD-FEE_WN-V2
 
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Nintendo's development teams are so interesting but a bit confusing, it's a shame not too many people seem to fully understand this since I see all the time people who don't understand why are there so many Kirby or Fire Emblem games instead of [insert Nintendo IP that doesn't get as many games as those 2], which I guess means they think "Nintendo" makes all the games.
EPD isn't nearly as straight forward of a first party developer structure as something like PlayStation Studios, largely because of its focus on internal development. That, and Nintendo doesn't really market its divisions a whole lot, focusing instead on just the "Nintendo" brand.
 
Here's a prediction based on flimsy evidence: Toshiharu Izuno moved from EPD 2 to EPD 5 and is the producer on a new project.

Izuno was last credited as a producer for Bowser's Inside Story DX in late 2018. After this, he has been listed under "Special Thanks" for both New Horizons and Splatoon 3, two series that he had no involvement in beforehand. Now there haven’t been many releases since then where Izuno would naturally be a producer, but there is a major one; Mario Golf Super Rush. Seriously, look through his production history. He’s been credited on almost every Camelot release published by Nintendo.

We know that by E3 2019, Nogami had been promoted to a Deputy General Manager and Aya Kyoguku took his place as the manager for EPD 5. But why isn't she credited in Splatoon 3? Maybe because EPD 5 is also broadening out like EPD 2 and having certain producers attached to certain titles, with Nogami possibly overseeing them all. Sort of like Toyakazu Nonaka does for EPD 2.

Then we have Yusuke Amano. Despite being a director on the first two titles, he was not involved in the development of Splatoon 3. His latest credit was a Planning Supervisor role for New Horizons. There has been speculation that he and a number of other Splatoon planners are working on the next 2D Mario, which is very possible. However, I think Amano's absence mirrors what happened to Tsubasa Sakaguchi and there was confidence within Nintendo for him to create a new franchise.

If only I could make convoluted stories for the other missing EPD 2 leads....
 
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Here's a prediction based on flimsy evidence: Toshiharu Izuno moved from EPD 2 to EPD 5 sometime and is the producer on a new project.

Izuno was last credited as a producer for Bowser's Inside Story DX in late 2018. After this, he has been listed under "Special Thanks" for both New Horizons and Splatoon 3, two series that he had no involvement in beforehand.

We know that by E3 2019, Nogami had been promoted to a Deputy General Manager and Aya Kyoguku took his place as the manager for EPD 5. But why isn't she credited in Splatoon 3? Maybe because EPD 5 is also broadening out like EPD 2 and having certain producers attached to certain titles, with Nogami possibly overseeing them all. Sort of like Toyakazu Nonaka does for EPD 2.

Then we have Yusuke Amano. Despite being a director on the first two titles, he was involved in the development of Splatoon 3. There has been speculation that he and a number of other Splatoon planners are working on the next 2D Mario, which is very possible. However, I think Amano's absence mirrors what happened to Tsubasa Sakaguchi and there was confidence within Nintendo for him to create a new franchise.

If only I could make convoluted stories for the other missing EPD 2 leads....
I mean sooner or later they HAVE to make these sorts of moves, they were talking about this during the Garage days that gave us Splatoon in the first place where they were trying to foster The New Guard and giving them the room and carte blanche to make stuff certainly seems like a good way to achieve that while also maybe using that opportunity to spice up previously "stale" franchises (flashback to Tezuka roughly saying the next 2D Mario needed something fresh - I can't find the interview, I think it was the 2019 SMM2 PR cycle).

Your post randomly made me look up Katsuya Eguchi's (EPD GM) recent credits again and it seems kinda weird that they go as broad as being project management for origami king and warioware, producer for xenobladeDE/3 and general producer for his old "home" IPs Splatoon and AC. Project Management and Producer feels more involved than the "default" General Producer you'd get for games from "your" group but they clearly have made things much more complicated than it used to be.
 
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it's worse when you have veteran games press folks still talking like "nintendo makes pokémon" or "wild that monolith is making nintendo exclusives" or "nintendo makes smash". like, I don't expect people to know or have all the EPD groups in their head or know who exactly makes what, but the rough outline of the org chart has been on wikipedia for like a decade too, so fairly easily accessible to casually interested folks. stuff like that always rubs me the wrong way when they then talk about western devs by name because they know them from their twitter feed or had a beer with them at GDC the year before. can't be arsed to look up a basic overview of how the most storied and important development houses in the industry is operating lol.

micro rant over :D
There's also the fact that a lot of Nintendo fans don't really know what EPD does as a division. They only know "it makes Nintendo games". True, but that completely undersells the real extent of its operations, because it makes ALL Nintendo games worldwide. This is why I roll my eyes whenever the "EPD rarely makes games" argument comes up because when people talk about Nintendo first party as a whole, they seem to not realize that EPD IS Nintendo first party as a whole. It covers both internal development such as Mario, Zelda and Splatoon, and External IPs like Kirby, Fire Emblem, and Xenoblade.

A large part of the reason EPD is shrouded in mystery is because Nintendo doesn't promote or document it's divisions the same way Sony or Microsoft do. Whenever Nintendo promotes a new first party game, it's always "a new game from Nintendo" or "New game from (insert studio name) and Nintendo" rather than "New from EPD!" or something. Any Nintendo development staff interviewed also simply says they're "from Nintendo" rather than "from EPD".

Meanwhile, Sony promotes the first party developer, PlayStation Studios, as a separate brand from Sony Interactive Entertainment the publisher, and has a dedicated website documenting it's various teams, and regularly announces management changes and acquisitions to the public.

Not saying any of this is a bad thing, just saying Nintendo has historically known to be a very tightly integrated and secretive company, with it's divisions and development teams simply being referred to collectively as just "Nintendo". They do sometimes specify which team developers belong to, such as in the "Ask the Developer" interviews or Iwata Asks, and they obviously have subsidiaries and partners they promote like MonolithSoft and Intelligent Systems, but Nintendo prefers to market the company brand and the individual creators that work for it, rather than fancy studio or division names like with PlayStation.
 
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it's worse when you have veteran games press folks still talking like "nintendo makes pokémon" or "wild that monolith is making nintendo exclusives" or "nintendo makes smash". like, I don't expect people to know or have all the EPD groups in their head or know who exactly makes what, but the rough outline of the org chart has been on wikipedia for like a decade too, so fairly easily accessible to casually interested folks. stuff like that always rubs me the wrong way when they then talk about western devs by name because they know them from their twitter feed or had a beer with them at GDC the year before. can't be arsed to look up a basic overview of how the most storied and important development houses in the industry is operating lol.

micro rant over :D
i 100% blame nintendo for this, they want people to not know next level games is a thing and just imagine nintendo is one entity.

like, the only studios that escaped this are retro and monolith lol. Sony is doing all they can to promote each individual studio while nintendo feels like they are trying to hide who actually did this and that lol.
 
i 100% blame nintendo for this, they want people to not know next level games is a thing and just imagine nintendo is one entity.

like, the only studios that escaped this are retro and monolith lol.
They do promote Next Level Games when they get a chance though. Same with other studios as well like Platinum, IS, HAL, and Game Freak. It really depends on how much marketing power and talent the studio has to Nintendo. Some obscure no-name developer is obviously not going to be as heavily marketed as someone like MonolithSoft or Intelligent Systems.
 
They do promote Next Level Games when they get a chance though. Same with other studios as well like Platinum, IS, HAL, and Game Freak. It really depends on how much clout and talent the studio has to Nintendo. Some obscure no-name developer is obviously not going to be as heavily marketed as someone like MonolithSoft or Intelligent Systems.
I think it would be tremendous for recognition to slap the studio's name on the boxart.
 
I think it would be tremendous for recognition to slap the studio's name on the boxart.
Like I said, Nintendo prefers to market individual talent over just fancy studio names. Nintendo doesn't even put its own name on the box art of their games anymore, so I'm not sure how effective that strategy would be either.
 
Like I said, Nintendo prefers to market individual talent over just fancy studio names. Nintendo doesn't even put its own name on the box art of their games anymore, so I'm not sure how effective that strategy would be either.
oh yeah i never noticed how they removed their name off the boxart. Pretty bizarre.

It would be very effective i imagine, an easy way to tell which studio was behind the game, but since nintendo themselves is not putting their name on the boxart i guess that's fine.
 
opacity micro mesh sdk is out

an important bit
A: OMMs are supported on any RTX GPU. Ada Lovelace GPUs have native hardware that accelerate the performance.

if they're allowing non lovelace gpus, then performance must still be much better than the regular route
 
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oh yeah i never noticed how they removed their name off the boxart. Pretty bizarre.

It would be very effective i imagine, an easy way to tell which studio was behind the game, but since nintendo themselves is not putting their name on the boxart i guess that's fine.
I mean, it would be interesting if they were to spin-off/rebrand EPD as "Nintendo Studios" or something similar to how Sony rebranded Worldwide Studios as PlayStation Studios. If Nintendo is expanding into a multi-media company, having a heavily marketed, branded division specifically for game development could be a benefit. That way, there would be "Nintendo Pictures", "Nintendo Systems", "Nintendo Studios", etc. all making up the united "Nintendo Group" as they call it.
 
I mean, it would be interesting if they were to spin-off/rebrand EPD as "Nintendo Studios" or something similar to how Sony rebranded Worldwide Studios as PlayStation Studios. If Nintendo is expanding into a multi-media company, having a heavily marketed, branded division specifically for game development could be a benefit. That way, there would be "Nintendo Pictures", "Nintendo Systems", "Nintendo Studios", etc. all making up the united "Nintendo Group" as they call it.

The Nintendo Studios name is already taken for their film efforts; that's what everything related to the Mario Movie is registered under.

Don't think we're likely to see any major restructure + rebranding to EPD anytime soon though, at least before the second Kyoto development building opens (2027); that seems like an opportune time for it if they have any interest.
 
Not sure if this has been pondered before, but what if Final Fantasy IX is being remade by Mistwalker and Sakaguchi is helming the project because he wants to remake it using the diorama method they used for Fantasian.
 
I mean, it would be interesting if they were to spin-off/rebrand EPD as "Nintendo Studios" or something similar to how Sony rebranded Worldwide Studios as PlayStation Studios. If Nintendo is expanding into a multi-media company, having a heavily marketed, branded division specifically for game development could be a benefit. That way, there would be "Nintendo Pictures", "Nintendo Systems", "Nintendo Studios", etc. all making up the united "Nintendo Group" as they call it.
nintendo has sworn up and down that game development is and will remain their primary business

I would love to stop reading insistence that nintendo is going to dramatically steer away from games when they're spending a billion dollars on expanding
 
nintendo has sworn up and down that game development is and will remain their primary business

I would love to stop reading insistence that nintendo is going to dramatically steer away from games when they're spending a billion dollars on expanding
Expanding? I thought that was Pikmin 4's development budget.
 
nintendo has sworn up and down that game development is and will remain their primary business

I would love to stop reading insistence that nintendo is going to dramatically steer away from games when they're spending a billion dollars on expanding
to be honest, they might change their minds if the visual content buck is substantially above their expectations.

Nintendo is known for being a very conservative company, especially with how much money they make.
 
to be honest, they might change their minds if the visual content buck is substantially above their expectations.

Nintendo is known for being a very conservative company, especially with how much money they make.
yeahhh but I don't want to think about it

why spend all day reading about how nintendo might pivot away from what I like, y'know?
 
honestly im just shocked you acknowledged it, i was ready for the opposite.
I'm aware and accepting of the fact that there are a lot of directions nintendo could take, but I'd much rather focus on things a little more grounded in the way they are now and they've said they will be

epd group/producer movement, retro's ominous expansion, the nlg chads making mario look better than anyone else, these areas of speculation and discussion interest me

nintendo going third party, becoming an "IP company" or whatever, or any restructuring in such a way that undercuts the current game-creative leadership, not so much

it's probably a bit unfair for me to react this way just because I don't want it to happen, which is why I tend to appeal to the current word of the company. for now, I try to rest easy knowing that they've expressed interest and financial investment in doubling down on their current business
 
I'm aware and accepting of the fact that there are a lot of directions nintendo could take, but I'd much rather focus on things a little more grounded in the way they are now and they've said they will be

epd group/producer movement, retro's ominous expansion, the nlg chads making mario look better than anyone else, these areas of speculation and discussion interest me

nintendo going third party, becoming an "IP company" or whatever, or any restructuring in such a way that undercuts the current game-creative leadership, not so much

it's probably a bit unfair for me to react this way just because I don't want it to happen, which is why I tend to appeal to the current word of the company. for now, I try to rest easy knowing that they've expressed interest and financial investment in doubling down on their current business
I think if anything, breaking off EPD into a separate company could show that Nintendo wants its game development business to grow even bigger. Having a group with staff count in the thousands that can act semi-independently from NCL could lead to more games being made/released and more opprotunites for developers to present themselves to the public. And more importantly, it could lead to more characters or takes on IP that Nintendo could add to its roster and promote through other divisions.

I don't think it'd be like a Pokemon situation where every piece of the franchise has to move in sync with eachother, rather IP and game worlds could originate at "Nintendo Studios" then slowly be adopted by other parts of Nintendo. If Nintendo's aim is to "expand the reach of Nintendo IP" like they say, then creating a scenario where the company's divisions could act autonomously from the parent company would be a benefit for that goal.

In the end, this is all hypothetical, and who knows what Nintendo will actually do regarding game development going forward.
 
I think if anything, breaking off EPD into a separate company could show that Nintendo wants its game development business to grow even bigger. Having a group with staff count in the thousands that can act semi-independently from NCL could lead to more games being made/released and more opprotunites for developers to present themselves to the public. And more importantly, it could lead to more characters or takes on IP that Nintendo could add to its roster and promote through other divisions.
you realize that right now epd functionally is ncl, right?


the guy who directed wave race 64 is an executive officer

these legendary game creators now run the damn company

what would spinning the company off of itself mean for that?
 
i 100% blame nintendo for this, they want people to not know next level games is a thing and just imagine nintendo is one entity.

like, the only studios that escaped this are retro and monolith lol. Sony is doing all they can to promote each individual studio while nintendo feels like they are trying to hide who actually did this and that lol.
I strongly disagree, especially with the "don't want people to know" framing. Just because they're not hyping the studio brand up like they're Naught Dog or something doesn't mean they're trying to obscure who's making the games at all. And please note I was talking about games media folks here. There's no excuse for them not knowing this. Especially when these franchises have been running for decades under these same studios (Gamefreak, IS, HAL, Sora Ltd, NLG, Camelot, etc). That was my whole point, it's very easy to roughly look up how things are laid out (internal development vs external co-development/production).

The thing with comparing them to other companies is that none are set up like this. If we bring up Sony again, they have geographically separated studios with distinct histories and identities. EPD is "Nintendo" and as we know they're just spread out into Production Groups that pick their lower level staff from a big EPD pool and there really are no "studios" internally other than those that, similar to the Sony situation, preexisted their acquisition and are also obviously located elsewhere. Openly branding them as EPD or something "Nintendo Studios" doesn't really change anything as they're already "Nintendo".

The logos come up in the game, the copyright notice tends to mention who's involved, to me this is on people just not caring to have a proper look and, again, on media folks not giving a fuck because they have too much else on their plates.
Not sure if this has been pondered before, but what if Final Fantasy IX is being remade by Mistwalker and Sakaguchi is helming the project because he wants to remake it using the diorama method they used for Fantasian.
Mistwalker is making mobile games. This is what Sakaguchi and the company is and will be. It's time to let go of Sakaguchi secretly maybe making a console game for [insert current hype console here]. Those days are over. Also not sure what this has to do with Nintendo First Party development as both Mistwalker and even specifically FFIX have nothing to do with Nintendo in the slightest. The Last Story was 12 years ago.
 
I strongly disagree, especially with the "don't want people to know" framing. Just because they're not hyping the studio brand up like they're Naught Dog or something doesn't mean they're trying to obscure who's making the games at all. And please note I was talking about games media folks here. There's no excuse for them not knowing this. Especially when these franchises have been running for decades under these same studios (Gamefreak, IS, HAL, Sora Ltd, NLG, Camelot, etc). That was my whole point, it's very easy to roughly look up how things are laid out (internal development vs external co-development/production).
Even when Nintendo highlights an external studio like MonolithSoft, or IS. It's always on specific, individual producers and directors in charge of specific series like Takahashi with Xenoblade, or the Fire Emblem leads at IS. This is different from Sony, who focuses more on promoting the broader studio cultures and the studio heads, and less so on the people making the specific games.

The point being Nintendo has never particularly cared for collective groups with fancy names, rather the individual people making the games themselves. This is why they've historically been averse to studio acquisitions, because all you're really buying is a building and a name, not the actual creative talent that makes the studio.

The thing with comparing them to other companies is that none are set up like this. If we bring up Sony again, they have geographically separated studios with distinct histories and identities. EPD is "Nintendo" and as we know they're just spread out into Production Groups that pick their lower level staff from a big EPD pool and there really are no "studios" internally other than those that, similar to the Sony situation, preexisted their acquisition and are also obviously located elsewhere. Openly branding them as EPD or something "Nintendo Studios" doesn't really change anything as they're already "Nintendo".
Nintendo is certainly unique among the big three in this regard, being closer to something like Square Enix and Capcom rather than SIE in terms of development structure. Having a focus on individual creators rather than large, branded studios tends to be much more common among Japanese developers than western ones. Nintendo has always prefered to market "Miyamoto", "Aounuma", "Nogami", "Sakurai", "Takahashi" and "Sakamoto" rather than "EPD Group 5".
 
The point being Nintendo has never particularly cared for collective groups with fancy names, rather the individual people making the games themselves. This is why they've historically been averse to studio acquisitions, because all you're really buying is a building and a name, not the actual creative talent that makes the studio.
This is why EPD Osaka will be headed up by Hideki Kamiya, Takahisa Taura and Etsunobu Ebisu.
 
to be honest, they might change their minds if the visual content buck is substantially above their expectations.

Nintendo is known for being a very conservative company, especially with how much money they make.
I think that what many people in the West call "conservative" basically comes from the fact that although Nintendo is a big corporation, they are an independent player. They're all on their own. If Stadia screws up, daddy Google is there. If Xbox screws up, mom Microsoft is there. If Nintendo screws up, they screw up. That's why I find it hard to be hostile to Nintendo's diversification projects, but taking its time and being cautious is not being "conservative", it's preserving its culture and know-how, which are Nintendo's main assets.
 
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Credits for Pocket Card Jockey Ride On; the brunt of development was outsourced on this one, so probably not the only Gear Project title on the way in the near future.

 
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It's more of an active composer list. Mahito Yokota for example was also involved with Mario Odyssey and Smash Ultimate, despite not actually composing/arranging anything.

A sound staff list might be a good idea. There are still people at Nintendo that used to compose music (Taro Bando, Ryoji Yoshitomi) but are credited for sound design/effects nowadays. I'm guessing Nintendo made a hard split at some point, separating the people specifically hired for composing from everyone else.
I know they aren't directly credited for music composition, but I've heard a few Metroid/VGM fans come out and say they believe both Kenji Yamamoto and Minako Hamano composed some of the music for Metroid Dread. Note that Hamano is the only Nintendo sound staff to be regularly credited for "Sound Coordination" in the first place. It may be a more active development position/title unlike "Sound Supervisor".
 
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Interesting tidbits about Gear Project and this remake (that’s the terminology used in the interview, so that’s what they consider it to be) from Masao Taya and Masafumi Saito. Recommend reading the whole thing, rather than me just dropping an out of context dot point summary.




Pokémon’s increasing demand for resources being the main reason for Gear Project releases slowing down makes sense; but it sounds like they want to resolve that eventually.
 
Quoted by: N75
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