Nintendo Entertainment Planning & Development
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Nintendo Entertainment Planning & Development Division, abbreviated Nintendo EPD, is the largest division within the Japanese video game company Nintendo. The division focuses on developing and producing video games, mobile apps, and other related entertainment software for the company. Nintendo EPD was established in September 2015 after merging their Entertainment Analysis & Development and Software Planning & Development divisions.
History
The division was created on September 16, 2015, after the consolidation of two of Nintendo's former software divisions, Entertainment Analysis & Development (EAD) and Software Planning & Development (SPD), as part of a company-wide organizational restructure under Nintendo's newly appointed president, Tatsumi Kimishima.
The division assumed both of its predecessors' roles, focusing on the development of games and software for Nintendo platforms and mobile devices; it also manages and licenses the company's various intellectual properties, alongside producing and supervising development for external studios.
Shinya Takahashi, former general manager of Nintendo SPD, has the same title in EPD, with Yoshiaki Koizumi, Katsuya Eguchi, Eiji Aonuma, and Hisashi Nogami as deputy general managers, and Kensuke Tanabe, Yoshio Sakamoto, and Takashi Tezuka as senior officers. The others had been in such positions since the division's formation, Nogami was promoted in 2017, and Aonuma and Tanabe and were promoted into higher positions within the division in 2019. By 2023, Takahashi and Koizumi were promoted to more senior positions, with Takayuki Shimamura being named deputy general manager and Aonuma, and sound designer Koji Kondo named senior officers.
Structure
Mainly located in Kyoto, the Nintendo division works similarly to its two predecessors before the merger and is divided into many groups. It has ten production groups responsible for development or production of games, each of them having their own managers, producers and project leads working on specific series and focus, with them using the pool of talents in the division for each project. In the overall division, the general manager, deputy general managers, and senior officers oversee different aspects in those production groups.
The division also houses the Programming Management, Design Management, and Sound Management groups.
There are currently 10 production groups known within Nintendo EPD:
- Co-Production Group, previously known as Production Group No. 2 until 2023, produces most of the games developed by external studios and published by Nintendo, such as the Mario Tennis, Kirby, Xenoblade, Fire Emblem and Mario & Luigi series. It consists of staff from a former Production Group No. 1 that was merged into the group in 2020.
- Production Group No. 3 develops the main The Legend of Zelda series.
- Production Group No. 4 develops casual and experimental games such as Miitopia, 1-2-Switch, Nintendo Labo, Ring Fit Adventure, Jump Rope Challenge, Game Builder Garage, Big Brain Academy: Brain vs. Brain, Nintendo Switch Sports, Everybody 1-2-Switch! and Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream. It consists of staff from a former Production Group No. 7 that was merged into the group in 2023. The division also co-developed Alarmo with Nintendo TDD.
- Production Group No. 5, with group manager Aya Kyogoku, develops the Animal Crossing and Splatoon series, and Drag x Drive.
- Production Group No. 6 oversee and produce games developed by external studios and published by Nintendo, such as the Paper Mario, Metroid Prime and Luigi's Mansion series.
- Production Group No. 7 developed Miitomo and co-develops 2D Metroid games with MercurySteam and Famicom Detective Club games with MAGES.
- Production Group No. 8, also known as Nintendo EPD Tokyo, develops the 3D Super Mario games and 3D Donkey Kong games.
- Production Group No. 9 develops the Mario Kart series and Arms.
- Production Group No. 10 develops 2D Super Mario games (including Super Mario Maker) and the Pikmin series.
- Smart Device Production Group, develops smartphone games alongside other EPD groups as well as produce games by external studios.