• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Nintendo First-Party Thread: The Teams, The Games, The Future

Y

Yoshi88

Member
I just hope the NES Mini was a test for NERD, and a successful one it seems, to get them to work full-time on a complete VC revamp. Imagine all of the VC platforms would come in the coherent quality of the NES Mini emulator together with unifying all of VC under your Nintendo ID.

They are a goddam tech-savy and competent team it seems. I hop Nintendo puts them to good use.
 
N

Ninja Dom

Member
Just a very slight correction, Ninja. Parity-Bit developed Nintendo Pocket Football Club.

Good thread!!

You can tell just how much Nintendo is dedicated to mobile by putting Hideki Konno in charge of the entire department.

So what is Miyamoto's day to day role now?

EDIT: With the rumour that Miyamoto was spotted at Universal Studios in America, do we think that his duties now expand beyond just the games.

Also, what are the chances of seeing a Mario movie, CG style?
 
T

The First Guardian

Member
Yoshi88 said:
I just hope the NES Mini was a test for NERD, and a successful one it seems, to get them to work full-time on a complete VC revamp. Imagine all of the VC platforms would come in the coherent quality of the NES Mini emulator together with unifying all of VC under your Nintendo ID.

They are a goddam tech-savy and competent team it seems. I hop Nintendo puts them to good use.
Click to expand...
This has to happen ASAP.
 
TheMoon

TheMoon

Member
Ninja Dom said:
So what is Miyamoto's day to day role now?

EDIT: With the rumour that Miyamoto was spotted at Universal Studios in America, do we think that his duties now expand beyond just the games.

Also, what are the chances of seeing a Mario movie, CG style?
Click to expand...

As Creative Fellow, he has his hands in everything so the theme park stuff is obviously part of that. He's always had a knack for these outside the box things (3DS Louvre Guide, etc). There's nothing really to speculate there.
 
L

LordKano

Member
I wanted to look at which studios didn't released a game in a long time to pinpoint what games are the most likely to be announced at the 13th January event and released in the upcoming year. I didn't include the few games we already know about (Mario Kart / Zelda / Splatoon / 3D Mario)

- Production Group No. 4. : Pikmin 4 is still in development according to Miyamoto, and supposedly near completion. Mario Maker was rumored to be a possible port to Switch too, but it may have been canned in profit of the 3DS port.

- Retro Studios : DKCTF was their last game and is almost three years old now.

- HAL Laboratory : Kirby is mostly a yearly serie, so even though Planet Robobot released recently there could be already another one in development and not that far off.

That's not that much actually. All the others studio released a game in the last two years and are accustomed to three-years development, judging by their past releases. Did I missed any studios ?
 
N

NekoGeo

Member
What about Q-Games? Can they be considered as 1.5 party, as they developed Starfox Command, Starfox 64 3D and some DSiware titles?
 
B

Benzychenz

Member
LordKano said:
That's not that much actually. All the others studio released a game in the last two years and are accustomed to three-years development, judging by their past releases. Did I missed any studios ?
Click to expand...
Yeah they've had quite a few recent releases (especially Intelligent Systems with both Fire Emblem Fates and Paper Mario Color Splash this year), but even then, Zelda + Mario + Retro by itself is a pretty amazing lineup.
 
L

LordKano

Member
By the way, shouldn't Koei Tecmo have a spot on the list since they co-own Fatal Frame/Project Zero with Nintendo ?
 
S

Shiggy

Member
NekoGeo said:
What about Q-Games? Can they be considered as 1.5 party, as they developed Starfox Command, Starfox 64 3D and some DSiware titles?
Click to expand...

With Star Fox 64 3D in 2011 being their last Nintendo-published title, it seems as if they have different priorities these days.


By the way, shouldn't Koei Tecmo have a spot on the list since they co-own Fatal Frame/Project Zero with Nintendo ?
Click to expand...

Koei Tecmo fully owns the IP. Nintendo only published two (three) games in the series and has rights to those titles.
 
K

Kouriozan

Member
TreasureHunterG said:
Please, Nintendo, allow these guys to work on bigger, ambitious projects rather than smaller, niche or spin off titles. There are talented people in there able to handle it.

Nintendo needs to make a sequel to The Last Story with Mistwalker.
Click to expand...

Don't forget Golden Sun 4, they can't abandon this IP right after that cliffhanger!
 
B

Boney

Banned
I really really wanna see how the new structure pays off, who's going to be directing and producing and if more Splatoon like initiatives could be easier to green light.
 
S

shingi70

Banned
I want a Mario tennis game using the console graphics but including the RPG mode from the past handheld games. I feel in the wake of ambiio figures and cards Custom Robo is another series that could come back.
 
A

AntMurda

Member
@MUWANdo said:
I'm not entirely sure they did, actually--they were upfront about their involvement with the previous games but they've been rather quiet about this one.
Click to expand...

This is a weird situation. Arika does not list the game on their homepage, and I believe the CEO mentioned on Twitter he wasn't involved.

I think Nintendo may have like romhacked the older Arika game into an eshop release.
 
TDLink

TDLink

Member
SpokkX said:
Nintendo only has 700 game developers inhouse???
Click to expand...

I think he was only counting people in the EPD (First section of the list above Other 1st party/1.5 party studios) even though like Intelligent Systems is literally in the same building.
 
JB2448

JB2448

Member
TDLink said:
I think he was only counting people in the EPD (First section of the list above Other 1st party/1.5 party studios) even though like Intelligent Systems is literally in the same building.
Click to expand...

Intelligent Systems has its own building now (albeit on Nintendo's campus).
Shikamaru Ninja said:
Nintendo / Namco-Bandai / Sora - Super Smash Bros. for Switch (rumor)
Click to expand...
If only because I see you've made this mistake in your Kyoto Report thread too, it's actually Bandai Namco now. I'm sure you know, but it's just a record that should be corrected.

Also, does SRD Co., Ltd. factor into any of the categories you've listed?
 
M

MomoQca

Member
Don't forget that rumor by ShockingAlberto about Monolith Soft's next project--it's supposedly as ambitious as Xenoblade Chronicles X.

And to add fuel to the fire (my personal speculation), there is a decent chance it'll be shown at the Switch presentation on January 12th. Soraya Saga, wife of Takahashi, has a history of giving hints every time MS project is shown at an event. She does this in the form of retweeting the official announcement on Twitter.
 
The Giant

The Giant

Banned
TDLink said:
I think he was only counting people in the EPD (First section of the list above Other 1st party/1.5 party studios) even though like Intelligent Systems is literally in the same building.
Click to expand...

Nintendo built Intelligent Systems their own building in 2013. So IS no longer has their studio inside NIntendo HQ.
 
TDLink

TDLink

Member
The Giant said:
Nintendo built Intelligent Systems their own building in 2013. So IS no longer has their studio inside NIntendo HQ.
Click to expand...

Ok, regardless, if you add their employees and the other 1st party employees (Retro, Monolith, etc.) Nintendo has way more than 700 people.
 
S

Shikamaru Ninja

任天堂 の 忍者
Ninja Dom said:
Just a very slight correction, Ninja. Parity-Bit developed Nintendo Pocket Football Club.
Click to expand...

Parity-Bit is the creative lead, but Jamsworks definitely worked on the game according to their homepage. Jamsworks actually worked on a lot of small budget Nintendo games, so I found them relevant for inclusion.


LordKano said:
By the way, shouldn't Koei Tecmo have a spot on the list since they co-own Fatal Frame/Project Zero with Nintendo ?
Click to expand...

Nintendo has had this special relationship with Koei-Tecmo, Sega, and Bandai-Namco of course. I would list them under the games section if there are more collaborations on games rather than list them as developers.

Also, does SRD Co., Ltd. factor into any of the categories you've listed?
Click to expand...

Yes. I basically represented them next to the in-house staff numbers to be PC.
 
N

Not75Drops

Member
TreasureHunterG said:
Please, Nintendo, allow these guys to work on bigger, ambitious projects rather than smaller, niche or spin off titles. There are talented people in there able to handle it.

Nintendo needs to make a sequel to The Last Story with Mistwalker.
Click to expand...

I can't say for the rest, but in Genius Sonority's case, there's evidence to suggest that the company underwent a pretty major downsizing a few years ago. I don't see them working on a larger budget game like Colosseum/XD ever again, unless they collaborate with someone else.
 
JB2448

JB2448

Member
Here's a list of the companies from the OP that have official websites, with links:
Nintendo European Research & Development - Developed emulator for NES Mini and DS emulator for Wii U. Enabled Wii U to play digitally downloaded Wii games and developed New 3DS's better 3D
ND Cube - Developed Mario Party: Star Rush and Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival
Retro Studios - Developed Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze
Monolith Soft (and Monolith Soft Kyoto Studio) - Developed Xenoblade Chronicles X. Kyoto studio recently helped develop assets for Splatoon and Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer
1-Up Studio - Graphic Cooperation Studio
Mario Club - Debug Cooperation Studio

HAL Laboratory (and in English) - Developed Kirby: Planet Robobot and Picross 3D Round 2
Intelligent Systems (and in English, though not up to date) - Developed Stretchmo, Fire Emblem Fates and Paper Mario: Color Splash.
Creatures - Developed Great Detective Pikachu, works on Pokémon Trading Card Game
PUX Corporation (in English) - Developed software tools

AlphaDream - Developed Mario & Luigi series
Arzest (in English) - Developed Mini-Games for Streetpass Mii Plaza DLC and Mario & Sonic Olympics.
Camelot - Developed Mario Tennis, Mario Golf, and Golden Sun series
DeNA (in English) - Co-Developed My Nintendo, also involved in assisting Nintendo mobile games
Genius Sonority - Developed Pokemon Shuffle for 3DS and Mobile
Good-Feel (in English) - Developed Yoshi's Woolly World and Streetpass Mii Plaza DLC
Game Freak - Developing Pokémon Sun / Pokémon Moon
Grezzo (in English) - Developing Ever Oasis
Grounding (in English) - Developed Nintendoji and Sakura Samurai: Art of the Sword
Headstrong Games - Developed Disney Art Academy and Pokémon Art Academy
indieszero - Developed Realistic Escape Game and co-developed NES Remix
Jamsworks - Developed small budget games like Culdcept Revolt and Nintendo Pocket Football
Jupiter (in English) - Developed My Nintendo Picross and Quiz Travel Nikki
Next Level Games - Developed Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon and Metroid Prime: Federation Force
Prope - Developed Mini-Games for Streetpass Mii Plaza DLC
Skip - Co-directed Chibi-Robo: Zip Lash!
Spike Chunsoft - Developed Mini-Games for Streetpass Mii Plaza DLC and Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games (3DS)
syn Sophia - Developed Style Savvy series
Tantalus Media - Developed The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD
Valhalla Game Studios (in English) - Developed Devil's Third and developing Momotaro Dentetsu
Vanpool - Developed Chibi-Robo: Zip Lash! and Dillon's Rolling Western
Vitei - Co-developed games like Steel Diver series and Theta

Also, should Q-Games be included because of its frequent collaboration with Nintendo and having Dylan Cuthbert at the helm? Edit: Thanks for the responses.
 
TheMoon

TheMoon

Member
NekoGeo said:
What about Q-Games? Can they be considered as 1.5 party, as they developed Starfox Command, Starfox 64 3D and some DSiware titles?
Click to expand...

Nah, those days are long gone.

LordKano said:
By the way, shouldn't Koei Tecmo have a spot on the list since they co-own Fatal Frame/Project Zero with Nintendo ?
Click to expand...

Absolutely.

JB2448 said:
Also, does SRD Co., Ltd. factor into any of the categories you've listed?
Click to expand...

SRD is just a programming shop inside NCL. They're not really of much interest to any of these lists, I think.
 
K

kinaesthete

Member
It's been way too long to really consider them a "Nintendo 1.5" studio but could another collaboration with Treasure be in the works? They've been awfully quiet lately aside from the Ikaruga Steam port, and their last known project was Gaist Crusher God for Capcom released just over 2 years ago. I can't see Nintendo wanting a Sin & Punishment 3 but Treasure still fall into that category of mercenary Japanese developer whose typical output appeals to Nintendo's base.
 
Eolz

Eolz

Member
JB2448 said:
Also, should Q-Games be included because of its frequent collaboration with Nintendo and having Dylan Cuthbert at the helm?
Click to expand...

I'd argue that Q-games is a lot more playstation-centric developer before anything else. Most of their games are temporary exclusives before going to PC or multiplatform.
 
S

Shikamaru Ninja

任天堂 の 忍者
SpokkX said:
Nintendo only has 700 game developers inhouse???
Click to expand...

(Updated September 2016)

Nintendo Company Limited (Global) - 5,101 Total Employees (Down 19 from 6.16)
* Nintendo of Japan - 2,127 Employees (Up 118 from 6.16)
* * Nintendo of Japan (R&D) - 1800~ (total), 700~ (specifically game development)
* Nintendo of America - 1,257 Employees
* Nintendo of Europe - 868 Employees
* Nintendo of Australia - 75 Employees
* iQue - ? Employees
* Mario Club - 305 Employees
* ND Cube - ? Employees
* Nintendo European Research & Development - 30+ Employees
* Nintendo Network Service Database - ? Employees
* Nintendo Technology Development - 30+ Employees
* Nintendo Software Technology - 50+ Employees
* Retro Studios - 70+ Employees
* Monolith Soft - 109 Employees
* 1-Up Studio - 30 Employees
* NES Merchandising - ? Employees

Major Affiliate
* The Pokemon Company - 400 Employees (Management mainly)
* HAL Laboratory - 153 Employees
* Intelligent Systems - 142 Employees
* SRD - 107 Employees
* Creatures - 84 Employees
* Genius Sonority - 22 Employees
* Pux - ? Employees
* Warpstar - ? Employees

Nintendo of Japan, HAL, and Intelligent Systems have all increased their staff numbers since the headcount done earlier this year.
 
S

Shikamaru Ninja

任天堂 の 忍者
JB2448 said:
Also, should Q-Games be included because of its frequent collaboration with Nintendo and having Dylan Cuthbert at the helm?
Click to expand...

Nintendo and Q-Games haven't done work together since 2012. There is no sign of anything coming up either in the near future. I mean, I didn't even list Monster Games considering that they probably are going to be absent from first-party work.
 
F

Firemind

Member
TheDinoman said:
Yeah, disband them after two successful Fire Emblem releases (that you just didn't happen to like apparently). Great business plan.
Click to expand...
Great long term business plan to let one studio churn out the same game after another. Intelligent Systems used to have an incredibly diverse portfolio. Shame they have devolved into factory-like production studios like EAD Tokyo 1&2 and Retro Studios.
 
L

LordKano

Member
Firemind said:
Great long term business plan to let one studio churn out the same game after another. Intelligent Systems used to have an incredibly diverse portfolio. Shame they have devolved into factory-like production studios like EAD Tokyo 1&2 and Retro Studios.
Click to expand...

Over the last five years they released two Fire Emblem, three Pushmo, two Paper Mario, one Wario game and a new IP as Codename STEAM. I certainly wouldn't say it's not diversified.
 
A

AntMurda

Member
Firemind said:
Great long term business plan to let one studio churn out the same game after another. Intelligent Systems used to have an incredibly diverse portfolio. Shame they have devolved into factory-like production studios like EAD Tokyo 1&2 and Retro Studios.
Click to expand...

There was a point where they were assistants to Nintendo. They had smaller involvement in a lot of projects. Now they handle bigger properties, and they are outsourcing a lot if you check paper mario and fire emblem credits.
 
F

Firemind

Member
LordKano said:
Over the last five years they released two Fire Emblem, three Pushmo, two Paper Mario, one Wario game and a new IP as Codename STEAM. I certainly wouldn't say it's not diversified.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I don't know who greenlit Codename STEAM. Even Metroid Dread would have sold more.
 
TDLink

TDLink

Member
Yeah what are you on about. IS has made a ton of different kinds of games in different franchises recently. They aren't just churning out FE games. And Codename STEAM was a great game, regardless of sales.

They're actually way more diversified now compared to back when they only made Advance Wars and Fire Emblem games, both of which are the same genre.
 
F

Firemind

Member
They helped develop Super Metroid, Metroid Fusion, Mario Kart, Tetris Attack/Panel de Pon, Paper Mario RPGs and various different WarioWare games as well as Fire Emblem and Advance Wars in the past. Certainly more diverse than what they're doing right now.
 
TDLink

TDLink

Member
The 90s were a long ass time ago, you can't compare today to 20 years ago. Nintendo is a bigger company with more studios now, and each studio is much bigger. IS now focuses on their franchises, sure, but they have a wider range of "their franchises". The bigger games like Mario Kart and Zelda still get development support from different Nintendo studios. Retro and Monolithsoft, for example.
 
N

NinjaCoachZ

Member
Toad.T said:
Tose (Starfy) and Noise (Custom Robo) are mostly dead, right?
Click to expand...

It's not a Nintendo game, but Tose just developed World of Final Fantasy. I myself was wondering how SE were able to devote the time and resources to two HD FF games in the same year, but with Tose being in charge of the grunt work it now makes more sense. Pretty big scoop for them.
 
S

Shikamaru Ninja

任天堂 の 忍者
NinjaCoachZ said:
It's not a Nintendo game, but Tose just developed World of Final Fantasy. I myself was wondering how SE were able to devote the time and resources to two HD FF games in the same year, but with Tose being in charge of the grunt work it now makes more sense. Pretty big scoop for them.
Click to expand...

Like I mentioned above, Tose worked on Fire Emblem Fates and Paper Mario: Color Splash.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Rumor : Possible info on next Mario Kart and 3D Mario game
33
3K
ADiTAR replied
Nintendo 3DS And Wii U Online Servers Are Taken Down For Good
Hardware Platform
7
693
RagnarokIV replied
Nintendo hires former PlayStation exec to head up AAA third-party games
2
388
Ozriel replied
The Game Awards 2023 Nominees will be announced on November 13th
2 3 4 5 6
258
12K
Pelta88 replied
  • Poll
Should Nippon Ichi Software Partner With OR Be Acquired By NINTENDO?
Opinion Rumor Business
48
2K
StereoVsn replied
Top Bottom