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Satoru Iwata: Nintendo 2013 R&D Preview [Large Scale Restructure, New Miyamoto Team]

mantidor

Member
1200 devs sounds a bit excessive, even including previous staff, isn't Nintendo a company with 5000 employees globally?
 

F#A#Oo

Banned
1200 devs sounds a bit excessive, even including previous staff, isn't Nintendo a company with 5000 employees globally?

Well according to one of the links in the previous page the new building will house 1,500 people.

So Shikamaru's information is 300 down from the reported number.
 
Shikamaru never said any of the stuff in the OP was 100% going to happen. That's why it says "expected" changes. He definitely knows at least a few people in EAD based on previous knowledge he's given.
 
I think that Nintendo will give Retro free reign for at least one game (more so if said game turns out to be a success), aimed at capturing the "hardcores" in the NA and EU market.
 

chris3116

Member
If it's all true what Shikamaru said, Iwata will comment this thing very soon. If Miyamoto is going to be released of his function of EAD general manager by the end of December 2012, Iwata will announce this at the next investors meeting.

As for the restruction, it will be made at the beginning of the next fiscal year. The restruction seems to be very big and I don't think the company wants a panic mode for the shareholders this fiscal year.
 

donny2112

Member
The difference with Shikamaru Ninja's speculation vs. other speculation is that his is guided from the confidential information he has that can't be made public (see facebook post earlier). Could someone have made the OP with the publicly available information? Sure. Could they have made completely different points with the publicly available information and be vastly off-the-mark from reality? Sure. Even if Shikamaru Ninja's OP uses data from open sources, it's the conclusions based on those open sources that should be paid attention to, since those conclusions are most probably guided by insider information that he can't directly share. ;)

Gotta learn how to read between the lines, people. :p
 

Shikamaru Ninja

任天堂 の 忍者
Shikamaru never said any of the stuff in the OP was 100% going to happen. That's why it says "expected" changes. He definitely knows at least a few people in EAD based on previous knowledge he's given.

Clearly I'm just writing speculative conjecture here. Not even a Nintendo employee could confidently tell you what the company was going to do six or twelve months from now. There are some presumptuous replies that I'm not sure really understood the notion I was getting at. I'm not claiming anything is factual events that will take place in the future, just again conjecture on my end. All of it based on previous occurrences and hours on end of wasting my life investigating useless information! The building could catch fire and the restructure ma be canceled, Miyamoto may subject himself to life extension and continue his R&D position for another 10 years, Sakurai may join Namco after SSB4. All in the realm of possibility.

I have several friends in the industry of Nintendo (America and Japan). But my communication revolves mainly on asking their contributions to revealing past works, for my work in progress Kyoto Report Database. If you want to know who designed NES Pinball, Nesters Funky Bowling, or Famicom Grand Prix, I contributed these things after researching and checking in with the creators who sometimes reply or sometimes don't remember!
 

gaheris

Member
Clearly I'm just writing speculative conjecture here. Not even a Nintendo employee could confidently tell you what the company was going to do six or twelve months from now. There are some presumptuous replies that I'm not sure really understood the notion I was getting at. I'm not claiming anything is factual events that will take place in the future, just again conjecture on my end. All of it based on previous occurrences and hours on end of wasting my life investigating useless information! The building could catch fire and the restructure ma be canceled, Miyamoto may subject himself to life extension and continue his R&D position for another 10 years, Sakurai may join Namco after SSB4. All in the realm of possibility.

I have several friends in the industry of Nintendo (America and Japan). But my communication revolves mainly on asking their contributions to revealing past works, for my work in progress Kyoto Report Database. If you want to know who designed NES Pinball, Nesters Funky Bowling, or Famicom Grand Prix, I contributed these things after researching and checking in with the creators who sometimes reply or sometimes don't remember!

In the Shikamaru Ninja we trust (well at least I do).
 

IntelliHeath

As in "Heathcliff"
Clearly I'm just writing speculative conjecture here. Not even a Nintendo employee could confidently tell you what the company was going to do six or twelve months from now. There are some presumptuous replies that I'm not sure really understood the notion I was getting at. I'm not claiming anything is factual events that will take place in the future, just again conjecture on my end. All of it based on previous occurrences and hours on end of wasting my life investigating useless information! The building could catch fire and the restructure ma be canceled, Miyamoto may subject himself to life extension and continue his R&D position for another 10 years, Sakurai may join Namco after SSB4. All in the realm of possibility.

I have several friends in the industry of Nintendo (America and Japan). But my communication revolves mainly on asking their contributions to revealing past works, for my work in progress Kyoto Report Database. If you want to know who designed NES Pinball, Nesters Funky Bowling, or Famicom Grand Prix, I contributed these things after researching and checking in with the creators who sometimes reply or sometimes don't remember!

I know that you are making point of not predicting the future. One thing that you mention is something that I hope not happening anytime soon.

I don't want to see Sakurai joining Namco-Bandai. I prefer him to stay in Nintendo's hands, because that's where he would shined the best.
 

Gummb

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about Rayman Legends Wii U.
But it's not 2013 yet.

It is almost December 2012 though, which means they are far along in the process. It will be a while before we actually see the fruit of this labor, I think.
 

MDX

Member
maybe this?

By December 2012, Iwata hopes to put place a new mysterious restructure of R&D which revolves around a new Kyoto R&D building hoping to exlusively house over 1200 developers. Previously, Nintendo has its R&D split between its main Central Building and its old Kyoto Research Institute Building. It is very unclear how the third R&D building will change the dynamic in Kyoto, but Iwata has mentioned wanting to support expansion as well as efficiency.

Additionally, Nintendo has continued to expand R&D operations in its Tokyo sector. Tokyo being the largest city of Japan by far, has created a window where several veteran developers from Square, SEGA, Koei, Epoch, and Konami can easily transition to join the EAD Tokyo development section.

But alongside all the expansion in Kyoto and Tokyo, comes the biggest news that Shigeru Miyamoto is expected to leave the EAD Division most likely by December 2012.
 
They're gearing up for Wii U Play and Wii U Music, obviously.

And one R&D group dedicated to the long awaited vitality sensor of course.
 

@MUWANdo

Banned
Why did this thread get bumped? There's no "FYI" here and nothing to corroborate most of the stuff listed in the OP--in other words, nothing's changed,
 

IrishNinja

Member
yeah thanks for that useless FYI bump, guy

Additionally, Nintendo has continued to expand R&D operations in its Tokyo sector. Tokyo being the largest city of Japan by far, has created a window where several veteran developers from Square, SEGA, Koei, Epoch, and Konami can easily transition to join the EAD Tokyo development section.

sounds like new homes for Yu Suzuki, Sakaguchi & Yoshitaka Murayama!
man, that'd be awesome though
 
If Miyamoto is stepping down as head by the end of next month it would make sense that he would see out the end of the Wii U launch across all regions.
 

Preble

Member
Well I hope they already have a team working on Mario Kart Wii U. I really can't wait to see what the do with the Gamepad and the graphic could look crazy.
 

chris3116

Member
Sorry for the bump but I don't know where to ask this.

Shikamaru Ninja, I have a question for you because you seem to have contacts. Is this supposed restructure still going to happen at the next fiscal year? Or it's still a rumor or it's completely debunked to be false. I was thinking about this restructure that Nintendo didn't announce anything on both Wii U and 3DS for awhile.
 
I was thinking about this restructure that Nintendo didn't announce anything on both Wii U and 3DS for awhile.
Actually, that's been the new normal for Nintendo for many years now, since sometime during the Wii era. Now they don't announce games until they're, like, half a year away from projected completion. (With some exceptions; Kid Icarus Uprising was meant to be a launch title, but didn't come out for nearly a year.)
 

Roo

Member
Actually, that's been the new normal for Nintendo for many years now, since sometime during the Wii era. Now they don't announce games until they're, like, half a year away from projected completion. (With some exceptions; Kid Icarus Uprising was meant to be a launch title, but didn't come out for nearly a year.)

Luigi's Mansion Dark Moon would love to talk to you...
 
I can't even remember when that was announced. Haven't been paying much attention to it. Just file it under "some exceptions", I guess?
 
Satoru Iwata is the one who needs to step down, really. His "play it safe, play it cheap" strategy has reached saturation level for quite a time and it's damaging Nintendo's credibility among gamers.

Wii's heavenly sales falled apart because of his change of target audience toward casuals and completely ignoring the core audience. 3DS being priced at 250 and it's consequently price drop made Nintendo suffer losses and end, for the first time in the company's history, in an annual loss. Wii U is doing badly, it's already selling at a loss and the coming support for it isn't exciting at all.

If Iwata don't leave Nintendo and company don't take a significant change of structure and direction, I can say Nintendo's future is in serious risk.
 

Metallix87

Member
Satoru Iwata is the one who needs to step down, really. His "play it safe, play it cheap" strategy has reached saturation level for quite a time and it's damaging Nintendo's credibility among gamers.

I'd hardly call what Iwata does "playing it safe". Playing it safe would be releasing a product very similar to the competition.
 

Berg

Member
Actually, that's been the new normal for Nintendo for many years now, since sometime during the Wii era. Now they don't announce games until they're, like, half a year away from projected completion. (With some exceptions; Kid Icarus Uprising was meant to be a launch title, but didn't come out for nearly a year.)

Miyamoto showed concept art for skyward sword e3 2009...released november 2011.
I remember that wait.
 
What's wrong with the online structure?

Not_sure_if_serious.jpg
 
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