[onilink88]

If Nintendo continue to make the same Mario & Zelda games and people continue to criticize Mario & Zelda for the stereotypical reasons then let them. The noise will always come.

Oh, so I initially misunderstood you, then? I was under the impression that you meant that the resources afforded to them by this restructuring that would allow them to create more new IPs would suddenly stunt the criticisms of them relying on their staple franchises.

[@MUWANdo]

You're right but this isn't what I'm hinting at though. Unless the West gets some compensation for the games not localized, the drought becomes a Western specific problem simply because in addition to no third party, there isn't a first party backing it either.

Which games are Nintendo not localising? They're taking longer than people would like, sure, but basically every game they announce/publish gets a worldwide release. I think they're more than pulling their weight in that regard.

The third-party library will probably come more from indies and other digital releases, IMO. I don't think any of the major western publishers care enough to make the sorts of high-budget titles we'd all like.

[hamauzu kaito]

The third-party library will probably come more from indies and other digital releases, IMO. I don't think any of the major western publishers care enough to make the sorts of high-budget titles we'd all like on WIIU.

Is this it?

[AlexSmash]

i like this news and i dunno why, but i just realised that we havent seen ONE big budget/ambitious title for the Wii U, made by Nintendo

i cant even imagine

[JordanN]

Which games are Nintendo not localising? They're taking longer than people would like, sure, but basically every game they announce/publish gets a worldwide release. I think they're more than pulling their weight in that regard. The third-party library will probably come more from indies and other digital releases, IMO. I don't think any of the major western publishers care enough to make the sorts of high-budget titles we'd all like.

I just double checked and the list is smaller than I thought. Only Project X Zone checks up (although published by Namco, the developer is Nintendo owned).

[@MUWANdo]

Is this it?

Kinda, yeah. Gamers expect a certain experience on consoles, even FAKE PRETEND NITNEDO CONSOLES!1!, so that's where all the big, high-concept western games will end up. The sorts of games just aren't seen as a priority for 3DS.

[Canis lupus]

+ Miyamoto's Departure Inspiring New IPs for the EAD Kyoto Division

YES! Finally.

[IrishNinja]

man, all of that sounds like fantastic news, lotta good moves being made there.

I'm excited to see what will happen

I trust Iwata. He's done good things for Nintendo.

my thoughts

I swear Shikamaru is Iwata and wants to read GAF's thoughts about his future plans

he's a rogue nintendo ninja, and you guys are gonna blow his cover!

Your sources are the articles from April right? Which is why you didn't link them. Why people keep listening to your speculation as news, let alone fact, is beyond me.

in numerous threads Shiki has pointed to inner workings of EAD teams and ive not seen any of it called out, dude is generally pretty trusted - if you've got some vendetta on the guy, why not at least link to something of his that was bullshit?

[yurinka]

Great news, let's hope this means they release soon new non-casual focused IPs! Nice to see Miyamoto with a small team, let's hope they give us some fresh new ideas. And well, with all these restructuring, let's hope they finally release a new F-Zero too for WiiU!

[@MUWANdo]

in numerous threads Shiki has pointed to inner workings of EAD teams and ive not seen any of it called out - if you've got some vendetta on the guy, why not at least link to something of his that was bullshit?

A lot of it reads like speculation based on public info that doesn't necessarily require the knowledge of the "inner workings" of Nintendo. His posts might be reasonable, they may even be well-informed, but that doesn't make them fact, and if you don't hammer this into peoples' brains then they'll latch onto every last post as "evidence" of [thing x that may or may not be even remotely plausible] until the end of time.

[abstract alien]

I don't even care about the new IPs. I'm just interested in the actual ideas behind the games themselves. So many new IPs nowadays are just a cost of paint over the same games, so it will be nice to get some change to that commonality.

[F#A#Oo]

I disagree with people who want Nintendo to get more western developers and more western developed games.

Retro is only as good as the backing Nintendo puts in it. Just check out they're history. If it wasn't for Nintendo, Retro would have been in the list of dead developers.

Nintendo has long learned that the true value of a company is the people in it and not the name on the door.

[bomma_man]

Fairly sure that NST is making DKCR2. Although it's based on nothing but intuition.

[Kouriozan]

This might be very interesting, can't wait to see what will happen after that.

[LeleSocho]

I would love new IPs but i would really hate them being eShop stuff, no matter how good they look they will always appear (and be) 3rd tier software

Anyway i love what Iwata is doing with Nintendo and his philosophy too bad they really fall on some really ultra dumb choices and most of the time they can't concretize stuff...
They really need to grow as a multinational corporation.

[IrishNinja]

A lot of it reads like speculation based on public info that doesn't necessarily require the knowledge of the "inner workings" of Nintendo. His posts might be reasonable, they may even be well-informed, but that doesn't make them fact, and if you don't hammer this into peoples' brains then they'll latch onto every last post as "evidence" of [thing x that may or may not be even remotely plausible] until the end of time.

fair enough. i'm personally grateful because even if this is all rooted in public knowledge, a lot of it tends to be stuff i don't come across online.

this is the kinda thing that will either pan out next year, or not. if it turns out to be bunk, i'll take Shiki's words with a grain of salt...but till then, again, i havent seen any of his many prior posts on the subject turn out to be garbage.
i get the importance of the distinction you're making, i just think he's got credit in the bank.

I would love new IPs but i would really hate them being eShop stuff, no matter how good they look they will always appear (and be) 3rd tier software

i used to feel this way too, but having really opened up to handheld gaming this year, i think it'd be a great fit for the kind've thing Miyamoto's been putting out in the last gen or so.

[More Fun To Compute]

Without Miyamoto there to cock block the Nintendo teams will be able to focus on their dreams of delivering high quality narrative driven games like Other M. No more gameplay orientated development oppression! Hooray for video games!

[Antioch]

I'm VERY interested to see what Sakurai will do at the head of the third EAD Tokyo team post-SSB.

I disagree with people who want Nintendo to get more western developers and more western developed games. Retro is only as good as the backing Nintendo puts in it. Just check out they're history. If it wasn't for Nintendo, Retro would have been in the list of dead developers. Nintendo has long learned that the true value of a company is the people in it and not the name on the door.

I agree. Besides, people here are forgetting the close ties Nintendo has to the likes of Next Level Games and Monster Games, so they have a notable Western development force as is.

Fairly sure that NST is making DKCR2. Although it's based on nothing but intuition.

I've also been thinking they're working on DK, though I think it might be on 3DS. We'll see I guess.

[GrotesqueBeauty]

This is the most interesting gaming news I've heard in a while. Even though Nintendo sometimes hedges towards the conservative side with their hardware I really appreciate Iwata's grand vision for the company. Imo Yamauchi picked a great successor. It'll be fascinating to see how this stuff pans out. I'm definitely curious to know what sort of talent they're absorbing.

[StreetsAhead]

I look forward to the racing games produced by Nintendo's new teams.

[Terrell]

My mind is thoroughly blown.

I think Iwata is looking at the young talent and realizes they don't have the opportunities that he, Miyamoto, Sakurai, etc. had of being there at the very beginnings of Nintendo's game console business to where they are today. He wants to build that same sort of talent base and find the next generation. He may also be looking to give design teams autonomy and notoriety by doing something similar to what Sega did with its teams. It'd be nice if the teams had proper names instead of a jumble of acronyms and numbers to attribute their work to, personally, but that's hoping for too much.

Tezuka is a good choice to replace Miyamoto as head of EAD.

And while people are talking about their excitement for new EAD IPs (which, honestly, who can blame them), I'm more excited about their established franchises taking more deviations from their set formulas.

[grimshawish]

Hows he going to fix their laziness though? I hope he'll remove the hammocks from the development centres at least. Geeze.

:p

All sounds good, everyone at the top seems to be wanting others to come through now which is really nice to see. One of the reasons I feel Nintendo is successful is because of how well they actually function as a company. They do adapt and they do work for the best interest of the company.

[ScreenSplitter]

Honestly, I think Miyamato's taking a more auxiliary role might be for the better... he seems very hesitant to branch out with games.

[Elios83]

Basically they're reorganizing to prepare the way for Miyamoto's departure from the company.
A good thing imo, Nintendo needs new IPs and new talented game directors.

[kenji]

how reliable are these info anyway?

[Tenki]

+ EAD Tokyo Expansion / Masahiro Sakurai Possibly Joining EAD Tokyo + Miyamoto's Departure Inspiring New IPs for the EAD Kyoto Division

[Nibel]

how reliable are these info anyway?

Let's just say that Shikamaru is probably the best Nintendo-related source on GAF and that the past has showed that he is 100% legit; also I think that he's verified by the mods

[test_account]

Excuse my ignorance, but what is the big deal of Sakurai moving somewhere else?

[Forkball]

Give Zelda to Sakurai.

DO IT.

[kenji]

Let's just say that Shikamaru is probably the best Nintendo-related source on GAF and that the past has showed that he is 100% legit; also I think that he's verified by the mods

ok, so maybe it's not random bullshit, good XD

[Mihael Mello Keehl]

Give Zelda to Sakurai. DO IT.

There would be voice actors for sure.

[Easy_D]

They make it sound as though they're going to develop for smartphones.

Most likely smaller eShop titles for Wii U/3DS like Pushmo/Pullblox and the like.

[entrement]

Shoulda done this well before WiiU launch

I'm guessing all their resources were going to WiiU. Now the launch is soon, they can do this

[GCX]

I don't really buy Sakurai joining EAD Tokyo. Why would he do it when he has his own studio built around him?

[Exterminieren]

I don't really buy Sakurai joining EAD Tokyo. Why would he do it when he has his own studio built around him?

He doesn't any more. Sora disbanded a few months back. Namco is working on SSB4.

[GCX]

He doesn't any more. Sora disbanded a few months back. Namco is working on SSB4.

Oh, weird I've missed that news about closing the studio.

[The Boat]

Next-gen Nintendo. Exciting stuff!

[Brera]

Miyamoto leaving EAD is the best thing ever. Even he realises he has a negative impact on the dept. Hell EAD Tokyo is the best they have right now and to an extent it's away from his daily gaze.

He can have a small team where he can experiment with small e-shop games or Pikmin or something.

[Spieler Eins]

Better late than never? Would have prefered to see the results when they are about to launch their new console instead of getting the worst outlook they've ever given us for a new gen (aka no high budget Nintendo games in the near future at all)

[test_account]

He doesn't any more. Sora disbanded a few months back. Namco is working on SSB4.

Sora Ltd. still excist, and they are working on the next Smash Bros game as far as i know. Project Sora is another developer i think, not the same as Sora Ltd.

[Erethian]

All sounds good, everyone at the top seems to be wanting others to come through now which is really nice to see. One of the reasons I feel Nintendo is successful is because of how well they actually function as a company. They do adapt and they do work for the best interest of the company.

This is all the more apparent when you look at how terrible the major Japanese publishers have been at not only retaining existing talent, but bringing through new talent.

[Vanille]

+ EAD Tokyo Expansion / Masahiro Sakurai Possibly Joining EAD Tokyo

Yuck. EAD Tokyo has such a good thing going on at the moment, they don't need Sakurai stepping in and messing up that synergy with his awful design philosophies.

[GCX]

Sora Ltd. still excist, and they are working on the next Smash Bros game as far as i know. Project Sora is another developer i think, not the same as Sora Ltd.

To be more precise, Sora Ltd. was built as an agency that would hire Sakurai as a freelance developer to different projects (Meteos, SSBB..), it's not really a development studio. Sora Ltd. owned 28% of Project Sora while Nintendo owned the remaining 72% and now Sora is doing co-operation with Namco Bandai on SSB4.

[test_account]

To be more precise, Sora Ltd. was built as an agency that would hire Sakurai as a freelance developer to different projects (Meteos, SSBB..), it's not really a development studio. Sora Ltd. owned 28% of Project Sora while Nintendo owned the remaining 72% and now Sora is doing co-operation with Namco Bandai on SSB4.

Yep. I mostly wanted to say that Sakurai still has a developement team :) That is one reason why i wonder why it matters much if he goes to EAD Tokyo.

[Sadist]

Sounds pretty amazing all around.

Would Sakurai be in charge of a hypothetical EAD Tokyo 3?

[Currygan]

everything sounds brilliant. Miyamoto already got his heirs so it's probably for the best

[Thunder Monkey]

I wonder what titles this era of Nintendo will bring us?

Got some big shoes to fill. Even if a good chunk of people have been there forever. Teams being shifted, managers, designers can significantly alter the output of any studio.

[TrueBlue]

Yuck. EAD Tokyo has such a good thing going on at the moment, they don't need Sakurai stepping in and messing up that synergy with his awful design philosophies.

I don't even

[ElFly]

How old is Tezuka anyway?

[F#A#Oo]

How old is Tezuka anyway?

In his 50's no?