|
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 Yoshio Sakamoto, Kensuke Tanabe and Takashi Tezuka are considered senior executive officers and have larger jurisdiction. Hisashi Nogami and Eiji Aonuma are considered deputy managers due to having involvement in multiple teams. Hitoshi Yamagami, Toshiharu Izuno, and Kouichi Kawamoto are known group managers in charge of specific production groups. The known groups and their respective group managers are as followed:
- Nintendo EPD Production Group No. 1 - Hitoshi Yamagami
- Nintendo EPD Production Group No. 2 - Toshiharu Izuno
- Nintendo EPD Production Group No. 3 - Makoto Miyanaga
- Nintendo EPD Production Group No. 4 - Kouichi Kawamoto
- Nintendo EPD Production Group No. 5 - Aya Kyogoku
- Nintendo EPD Production Group No. 6 - N/A
- Nintendo EPD Production Group No. 7 - Katsuya Yamano
- Nintendo EPD Production Group No. 8 - Koichi Hayashida
- Nintendo EPD Production Group No. 9 - Kosuke Yabuki
- Nintendo EPD Production Group No. 10 - Hiroyuki Kimura
- Nintendo EPD Production Group No. 11 (Smart Devices) - Hideki Konno
