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Nintendo Entertainment Planning & Development (commonly abbreviated as Nintendo EPD) is Nintendo's new software division formed in September 2015 that consolidates the Nintendo Entertainment Analysis & Development with Nintendo Software Planning & Development into a single division. It is lead by Shinya Takahashi, former General Manager of SPD, with Katsuya Eguchi and Yoshiaki Koizumi as his Deputy General Managers, running the Kyoto and Tokyo groups respectively.
History[]
Nintendo was starting to consolidate its software development for a while prior to new division. In 2013, Nintendo moved all of its Kyoto staff into a single building. With the new president in 2015, there was sweeping reorganization that affected both software and hardware with Nintendo Integrated Research & Development turning into Nintendo Platform Technology Development and Nintendo EAD with Nintendo SPD uniting to form this division. The lack of internally developed games gives vagueness to structure of the new division but, it looks structured similarly to former divisions.
Important Members[]
Hierarchy[]
Currently, it is unclear how the leadership is fully set up in the division, but most of the leadership of the two earlier divisions seem to remain. Shigeru Miyamoto acts as creative fellow but, he no longer responsible for all of Nintendo's game development with his role being absorbed by Shinya Takahashi. Instead, he leads specific projects, not all which is directly tied to gaming. Katsuya Eguchi and Yoshiaki Koizumi are under Takahashi and supervise more directly at their respective sites. Beneath them are deputy general managers. Some deputy general managers like Kensuke Tanabe, Takashi Tezuka, and Eiji Aonuma are considered senior executive officers and have larger jurisdiction. Hisashi Nogami and Yoshiaki Koizumi are considered deputy managers due to having involvement in multiple teams. Koichi Hayashida, Aya Kyogoku, and Kouichi Kawamoto are known group managers in charge of specific production groups. The known groups and their respective group managers are as followed:
Number | Formerly | Development type | Manager | Works |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | SPD2 | External | Unknown (since 2020) | Second-party developed games (2015-2020) |
2 | SPD4 | External | Unknown (since 2019) | Most Mario spinoffs, Super Smash Bros series (2015-2020)
Second-party developed games (2020-present) |
3 | EAD3 | Internal | Makoto Miyanaga | The Legend of Zelda series |
4 | EAD5 SDD |
Internal | Kouichi Kawamoto | Experimental and casual-oriented games |
5 | EAD2 | Internal | Aya Kyogoku | Animal Crossing series, Splatoon series |
6 | SPD3 | External | Unknown | Metroid Prime series, Paper Mario series, WarioWare series, Luigi's Mansion series |
7 | SPD1 | Internal/External | Katsuya Yamano | 2D Metroid series |
8 | EAD Tokyo | Internal | Koichi Hayashida | 3D Super Mario series |
9 | EAD1 | Internal | Kosuke Yabuki | Mario Kart series, ARMS |
10 | EAD4 | Internal | Hiroyuki Kimura | 2D Super Mario Bros. series, Super Mario Maker series, Pikmin series |
11 | N/A | Internal/External | Hideki Konno | Mobile games |