[Tim the Wiz]

Iwata wanted Sakurai to join EAD Tokyo back for Brawl. But Sakurai thought he could run a studio without direct Nintendo management. He was wrong. With Project Sora closing, it seems all but evident that Sakurai should go back to Iwata's original plan to form the third main section of EAD Tokyo alongside Producer Shimizu and Producer Koizumi.

How can anyone doubt Iwata at this point? I'm honestly excited about that match-up of talent.

I doubt he can be a regular game director ever again. His job as a Senior Directing Manager (corporate) is the most important and highest paying thing he has ever done. It eats up most of his time. All this new division would do, is probably have his ideas closer to the end product since they are simpler games. But they would still be directed by someone else.

Yup. Miyamoto exec-producing a series of modestly-scaled new IPs is pretty close to the ideal of what he could be doing these days, given the requirements of being a corporate icon.

Only thing that could top this restructure is the speculated-upon Retro expansion and Platinum acquisition - although I think parts of the internet would boil over if the latter were to actually happen.

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.

?

EAD Ninja has always proven a credible source on internal Nintendo happenings, and much more insightful than the vast swathe of games 'journalism'.

[GCX]

How old is Tezuka anyway?

52 next month, eight years younger than Miyamoto.

[Ithil]

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.

There's always one.

[gaheris]

I wonder how this change will impact leadership within Nintendo. Shigeru Miyamoto is a living legend and no matter his position within the company his influence looms large and dominant, I wonder if this will make him take a larger role on the Board of Directors as well as focus on a smaller team within Nintendo. Thing is I feel he would retain a co-gm arrangement and then transition to the lead of a new team later on. I bet Shigeru Miyamoto will be doing some employee kidnapping, not just for game testing but development and that the internal line for that team will be every young gun at Nintendo. LOL!

[ElFly]

In his 50's no?

I always assumed he'd be around the same age as Miyamoto.

52 next month, eight years younger than Miyamoto.

Oh.

[Mato]

Finally some true forward thinking by Nintendo. Good for them and us.

[SatelliteOfLove]

+ New Division lead by Miyamoto with younger staff focused on smaller scale games

This is a good thing.

[Cwarrior]

=

2013 Expected Iwata Changes + Major shift in Kyoto development sources involving 3 R&D buildings + Shigeru Miyamoto stepping down as EAD General Manager + Takash Tezuka becoming new EAD General Manager + New Groups / New Producers announced for EAD Kyoto / SPD Kyoto + EAD Tokyo Expansion / Masahiro Sakurai Possibly Joining EAD Tokyo + New Division lead by Miyamoto with younger staff focused on smaller scale games + Miyamoto's Departure Inspiring New IPs for the EAD Kyoto Division Source: Guardian UK. Nikkei. Wired.

I like what am hearing hope to see the fruits as soon as possible, cause seriously Nintendo desperately need new big i.p not those odd small ds games that never see the light of day in the west or tiny dsiware games. They really need to grow a pair and start having the courage to back big project that aren't mario or zelda or some well established franchise.

As much I as love mario & zelda I would much rather not see any of those games the entire wiiu gen if it would mean the development teams get breath and stretch there imaginations to work on new ips (backed by nintendo marketing team).

[disco]

Nintendo are too rational and intelligent to focus on their own 'celebrity designers'. It's the fans and press that make them into icons. Internally I assume they are extremely modest about their work; it's the Japanese way after all. Iwata knows that these people have great vision but he knows they're only human (Wii Music) and thus transfer and expansion really is necessary. The products Nintendo comes out with are designed by teams over long periods; there are many checks and balances to go through which propel the process. This is Nintendo's strategy and always has been. The demands of HD development and at the same time combating iOS forces Nintendo to be more fluid than it has ever been; tiny teams and much larger teams all creating products that are spot on. It's not the 1990s anymore - one small step and you'll lose a billion dollars... As everyone has been saying for months, panic Nintendo is best Nintendo. I don't think they'll ever sit back again (I say this and then you look at the 3DS out of Japan and well...). Still! I personally think out of Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft, they really have the most focussed and intensive vision as otherwise; what else do they have? Without the industry, Nintendo is no more.

[Jackano]

Awesome pieces of news Shikamaru!

It has been ten years since Iwata is here, they made a new building, it makes sense Iwata want a new restructuration now. Nintendo changing is quiet exciting, we will see in three years from now (E3 2015 new titles will be interesting).

I gain a little more hope for the second phase, I want them to expand outside Japan (more Rare/Retro types studios in US and Europe). What are the odds?

[gaheris]

Awesome pieces of news Shikamaru! It has been ten years since Iwata is here, they made a new building, it makes sense Iwata want a new restructuration now. Nintendo changing is quiet exciting, we will see in three years from now (E3 2015 new titles will be interesting). I gain a little more hope for the second phase, I want them to expand outside Japan (more Rare/Retro types studios in US and Europe). What are the odds?

I am doubtful of a large expansion in the US and Europe if only because they have been burned by that in the past. I can see them adding another team at Retro or a strengthening of their partnerships with western developers. They know that talent moves like water and it is hard to keep people at a company so I can see them having major reservations with what has happened before.

[GCX]

I gain a little more hope for the second phase, I want them to expand outside Japan (more Rare/Retro types studios in US and Europe). What are the odds?

I'd say Nintendo still has more interest in doing collaboration projects with 3rd parties like Luigi's Mansion 2, Bayonetta 2, Punch-Out, Excite series, etc. than expanding the number of their 1st party studios. It's a lot less risky business wise.

[Diddy Kong]

Hype x 1000000000

[TunaLover]

It looks like Nintendo has big plans for japanese game development, I´d wish they created new studios like Retro in the west, right now seems to be its big weakness.
Very informative as usual ShikimaruNinja

[DeuceGamer]

Would love some new Nintendo IP's to go along with their new console :)

[F#A#Oo]

I wonder how much of this change is borne from the contempt that developers, publishers and certain gamer's have towards them, especially in the west.

[AuthenticM]

Change is good.

[massoluk]

Glad to see Miyamoto and Nintendo really emphasize on grooming new talents by the looks of it.

[Wyndstryker]

1200 developers...

If we do stupidly basic math, if a AAA team only needs say 300 developers, thats 4 AAA games you can crank out at once.

Mind you that's just a basic view on it without thinking on the details.

Either or, it'll be interesting to see how this will go.

[Htown]

I'll believe new IPs when I see them (not including smaller titles), but this kind of change seems better than no change.

Nintendo comes out with new IPs all the time. Fuck are you on about?

[GCX]

If we do stupidly basic math, if a AAA team only needs say 300 developers thats 4 AAA games you can crank out at once.

wat

There's only a few Nintendo games that had over 100 person team working on them (Twilight Princess and maybe Skyward Sword).

[lunchwithyuzo]

1200 staff just at NCL?! Doesn't that make Nintendo the largest 1st party developer now?

[Currygan]

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.

lol, go away

[gumby_trucker]

Everything sounds good to me though. Iwata is the single best thing to ever happen to Nintendo, Yamauchi made a very wise decision.

QFT

They need more Western studios.

Its about control and philosophy. Western developers are constantly switching Studios and Nintendo has a talent Pool structure that is very different from the single teams in the west. Retro helping to finish Mario kart 7 is an example of this.

I agree with this answer. Earlier today I was thinking about the whole corporate loyalty trend in Japan, and some of the benefits it brings to the consumer. Nintendo is what it is because of the many talented people working together within it, and their willingness to do so consistently for decades.

The self-sacrifice of their individual agendas is one of the things that make Nintendo as a whole possible. In the west, this selfless attitude is uncommon, so even though there are many talented individuals in the industry, the turnover rate is usually so high you seldom get the opportunities to make the most of their talent.

The funny thing is in recent years many of Japan's bigger companies have attempted to imitate the more shortsighted western way of management, putting less emphasis on nurturing talent than they should, unsurprisingly causing similar backlash in the form of "selfish" talent abandoning the corporate structure.

So it really does make a strong case for Nintendo's insight into building and maintaining a strong company.

It's a longterm investment. The Yen could drop noticeably in the next few years. And to me, it seems like Nintendo (Iwata) hasn't figured out a good longterm strategy for western development yet.

This is the bottom line in my opinion. Once they figure out how to make it work in the west, and once they feel their Japanese divisions are strong and stable enough, they will expand. In the mean time it's also possible the west will come to realize some of the creative benefits of having a more 'familial' corporate structure.

[alfredofroylan]

I'd love to see more western studios and a bigger presence in Europe and USA but these changes sound good for Nintendo.

[MDX]

wat There's only a few Nintendo games that had over 100 person team working on them (Twilight Princess and maybe Skyward Sword).

SD development.
They are preparing for HD and beyond.

[F#A#Oo]

Nintendo comes out with new IPs all the time. Fuck are you on about?

Not in the west because they're not putting in localization efforts...stuff like Starfy, Chibi Robo, Custom Robo, Drill Dozer. Wii Music should have been a Daigasso band brothers game if you ask me...Captain Rainbow and Soma Bringer never made it out of JP.

They're a little too cautious...

[GCX]

SD development. They are preparing for HD and beyond.

I know HD development needs more manpower but it doesn't magically require Nintendo to triple their team sizes. That's crazy talk.

[BY2K]

Masahiro Sakurai Possibly Joining EAD Tokyo

[v1oz]

1200 staff just at NCL?! Doesn't that make Nintendo the largest 1st party developer now?

I'm sure Sony and Microsoft are bigger than that.

[Shikamaru Ninja]

1200 staff just at NCL?! Doesn't that make Nintendo the largest 1st party developer now?

Keep in mind the building was designed with housing 1200 developers. The only thing we know is that Iwata wanted to address the efficiency of development which he thought was being affected by the Kyoto developers being split by two buildings. It is unclear as to what exactly going to happen. Is all the R&D going to vacate the Central HQ and Kyoto Research Institute? Or is he just amalgamating certain developers alongside new ones.

It's also hard to give an exact number of how many Nintendo developers there are. Especially if you count all the hardware guys.

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

Right. But I mean there is an absolute possibility that Sakurai continues being rogue.

[Game Analyst]

They are preparing for HD and beyond.

That is the same thing I thought of when reading about all of Iwata's changes.

[the androgyne]

EAD Ninja has always proven a credible source on internal Nintendo happenings, and much more insightful than the vast swathe of games 'journalism'.

Educated guesswork based on happened not happening.

If you think you know which articles he's citing then could you post 'em, please?

Andriasang article from February 2009 sourcing Nikkei news of a new Nintendo R&D building and another from July 2011 stating it was for 1500 people

Wired's attention seeking article claiming Miyamato was stepping down, from December 2011

Guardian's article from April 2012 clarifying Wired's mis-representation

[Snowden's Secret]

+ Expanse of Retro Studios to peruse greater in Western design philosophies.

*vomits*

Yay, linear set-piece experiences!

*dies*

[lunchwithyuzo]

I'm sure Sony and Microsoft are bigger than that.

Largest SCE group is Japan Studio (~400 staff) and largest Microsoft studio is RARE (~300 staff) for comparison.

Keep in mind the building was designed with housing 1200 developers. The only thing we know is that Iwata wanted to address the efficiency of development which he thought was being affected by the Kyoto developers being split by two buildings. It is unclear as to what exactly going to happen. Is all the R&D going to vacate the Central HQ and Kyoto Research Institute? Or is he just amalgamating certain developers alongside new ones. It's also hard to give an exact number of how many Nintendo developers there are. Especially if you count all the hardware guys.

Yeah, I'm also realizing this 1200 figure would also include Intelligent Systems and SRD, right?

[Drugula's Wrath XXX]

Eh, I'll believe it when I see results.

[Kai Dracon]

This is great news, and I believe it was hinted at last year or something with news that Nintendo was building new R&D structures for some kind of future expansion. I do seem to remember this was explicitly stated somewhere.

Some of the reactions are a tad overblown though, as if this is the first "good thing" Nintendo has done in 20 years. There really is a pervasive myth about Nintendo being terminally stupid, no matter how much success they have, software they sell, and money they make in reality.

I would venture a guess that their expansion is in large part predicated on the awareness that they need to provide more platform content themselves. Nintendo, through internal teams and subsidiaries, cranked out a huge amount of software for the DS, and IMO helped the DS really bully its way through to huge success. There was just so much on it, with such variety, even if you took away everything 3rd party.

By comparison the Wii suffered frequent droughts, in spite of the fact that Nintendo really front loaded its early lifespan with a long list of major first party games (something that often seems forgotten when criticism of the Wii begins).

As for the thing about IP, Nintendo has been making new IP for years and never stopped. Their only "problem" in that regard is their conservative, cautious nature. They rarely committed new IP to a AAA console project, keeping much of the new IP elsewhere. It is right to point out that Wonderful 101 is a new Nintendo IP - they own it, not Platinum. It's kind of a big deal, and I wouldn't be surprised to see it show up in Smash Bros 4. (That might be a hell of a bump for it.)

[MisterHero]

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.

Aside from the Sakurai-joining-EAD Tokyo thing, this excites me just as much.

I don't expect a lot of new games to be announced for 2013, but this should generate interesting work in the longterm.

[VICI0US]

Great news all around, Iwata is one damn savvy businessman.

Sakurai joining EAD would be amazing. He's one of the finest developers in the industry and his dislike of "sequelization", the reason he left nintendo initially, would definitely point towards the supposed influx of new IPs.

Tezuka is more than capable of filling Miyamoto's shoes at EAD and I'm eager to see what Miyamoto+smaller development teams could produce in terms of new, inventive e-shop/DD/lower budget retail games.

This definitely gets me hyped for the Wii-U and the next batch of major software announcements.

[Snowden's Secret]

Also, I hope Nintendo gives its smaller games big status. Nintendo released like 10 new IPs over the last year; let's see them follow that up with things that show they consider these "real games" and so should we, ie putting Dillon/a Pushmo stage in Smash Bros, sequels (like Crashmo weee), etc.

[ASIS]

I think all these changes should have been done last year. But still very very nice changes. I'm especially excited over three things:

1) the smaller Miyamoto projects.

2) The "new" IPs

3) The fact that 3rd parties were actually integrated in this new reconstruction. That's amazing!

I'm much more hopeful of the Wii U generation now honestly. I just hope Wiimote support wouldn't die out (I know I sound like a broken record :P).

[Azure J]

2013 Expected Iwata Changes + Major shift in Kyoto development sources involving 3 R&D buildings + Shigeru Miyamoto stepping down as EAD General Manager + Takash Tezuka becoming new EAD General Manager + New Groups / New Producers announced for EAD Kyoto / SPD Kyoto + EAD Tokyo Expansion / Masahiro Sakurai Possibly Joining EAD Tokyo + New Division lead by Miyamoto with younger staff focused on smaller scale games + Miyamoto's Departure Inspiring New IPs for the EAD Kyoto Division Source: Guardian UK. Nikkei. Wired.

There is nothing here that isn't making me excited but holy fuck @ the bolded. This is the new era.

[MrCunningham]

*vomits* Yay, linear set-piece experiences! *dies*

Don't a lot of Japanese games do this too? Or am I mistaken?

[Robso]

New IPs, yes!

[Hot Coldman]

That all sounds very promising.

Just make sure it happens.

(I'd rather Sakurai got his own permanent studio at Nintendo, as much as I'm not fond of him relying on 3rd parties and mass recruitment drives to get games made I'm not entirely sure EADT would benefit that much from his presence.)

[ASIS]

wat There's only a few Nintendo games that had over 100 person team working on them (Twilight Princess and maybe Skyward Sword).

They are doing HD games now though. They need more man power.

[Franchuzas87]

Really great news.

Now I hope Iwata also improves West-Nintendo someday. Expand Retro Studios and establish one or two new divisions to work in western genres like shooters and RPGs.

[onilink88]

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

Could you cite instances that demonstrate this?

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)

You just don't quit, do you?

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 wonder how much of this change is borne from the contempt that developers, publishers and certain gamer's have towards them, especially in the west.

No bearing whatsoever. And what contempt by devs/pubs?

As much I as love mario & zelda I would much rather not see any of those games the entire wiiu gen if it would mean the development teams get breath and stretch there imaginations to work on new ips (backed by nintendo marketing team).

In no conceivable scenario would that ever happen.

I would venture a guess that their expansion is in large part predicated on the awareness that they need to provide more platform content themselves. Nintendo, through internal teams and subsidiaries, cranked out a huge amount of software for the DS, and IMO helped the DS really bully its way through to huge success. There was just so much on it, with such variety, even if you took away everything 3rd party. By comparison the Wii suffered frequent droughts, in spite of the fact that Nintendo really front loaded its early lifespan with a long list of major first party games (something that often seems forgotten when criticism of the Wii begins).

At least someone understands.

[Meelow]

Awesome news!

Finally Nintendo is thinking of the further future.

[gamergirly]

Yeah basically. This is sounding like holy music to my ears about now. Puts the strain off certain big people in EAD and allows creative content. This will also allow them to put out games more frequently, eliminating drought like release schedules and different IPs. I've long felt that the "core" franchises like Mario and Zelda are starting to become a little strained. There's so much stress and pressure for those games to deliver and sell Nintendo hardware. TOO MUCH. Mario and Zelda games should get at least 3 to 4 years(4 years first the first respective console release) between releases IMO. Handheld I can see every 3 years.

I can see NOA following NCL footsteps too. Maybe Reggie put in his 2cents and they will expand Retro Studios to 1,000 employees or something like that so they can create 2 or 3 IPs in the next 5 years. NOA could create their own development studio outside of Retro to house Western influenced Nintendo games too. Less strain and will give us something more to look forward to than just Retro's games for Wii U/3DS.