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Most recent list of Nintendo's subsidiaries (June 29, 2015) + more

R

Rösti

Unconfirmed Member
This is in connection with Nintendo's 75th Annual General Meeting of Shareholders, which was held Friday, June 26.

A securities report (in Japanese) posted on June 29, 2015 mentions 27 consolidated subsidiaries and six affiliated companies. In 2014 the amount of consolidated subsidiaries was 29. Nintendo for example sold all shares (?) of SiRAS.com Inc, which is why it is not in this year's list:

It is to be noted that, by the sale of shares held, for SiRAS.com Inc., it has been removed from the scope of consolidation from the current fiscal year.

Another subsidiary/affiliated company no longer with Nintendo is Silicon Knights:

Silicon Knights Inc., due to the start of liquidation proceedings, has been excluded from the current fiscal year accounted for by the equity method.

Besides from a list of subsidiaries, the document contains much information on corporate governance. I haven't had the time to read it all, but overall it talks about the current state of Nintendo 3DS, Wii U and also provides some information on QoL (nothing we haven't heard before) and also acknowledges that they have promoted development of new products (NX isn't mentioned in the report, but I assume that is what they mean).

Anyway, onto the list of subsidiaries then, with a consolidation of changes first:


  • SiRAS.com Inc is, as mentioned, no longer a subsidiary
    [*]Capital of Nintendo RU LLC. increased from RUB104 to RUB336
    [*]Nintendo European Research and Development SAS is now a wholly owned subsidiary
    [*]Nintendo's ownership of Nd Cube Company, Ltd. increased from 96% to 97%
Subsidiaries

Name: Nintendo of America Inc
Region: United States of America
Capital (in thousands): $110,000
Corporate role: Sales/marketing
Ownership percentage: 100

Name: Nintendo of Canada Ltd.
Region: Canada
Capital (in thousands): Can$4,000
Corporate role: Sales/marketing
Ownership percentage: 100

Name: Nintendo of Europe GmbH
Region: Germany
Capital (in thousands): €30,000
Corporate role: Sales/marketing
Ownership percentage: 100

Name: Nintendo France S.A.R.L.
Region: France
Capital (in thousands): €10,000
Corporate role: Sales/marketing
Ownership percentage: 100

Name: Nintendo Benelux B.V
Region: Netherlands
Capital (in thousands): €6,800
Corporate role: Sales/marketing
Ownership percentage: 100

Name: Nintendo Iberica, S.A.
Region: Spain
Capital (in thousands): €3,000
Corporate role: Sales/marketing
Ownership percentage: 100

Name: Nintendo RU LLC.
Region: Russia
Capital (in millions): RUB336 (was RUB104 in 2014)
Corporate role: Sales/marketing
Ownership percentage: 100

Name: Nintendo Australia Pty. Ltd.
Region: Australia
Capital (in thousands): AUD8,500
Corporate role: Sales/marketing
Ownership percentage: 100

Name: Nintendo Taiwan Co. Ltd.
Region: Taiwan
Capital (in thousands): NT$5,000
Corporate role: Sales/marketing
Ownership percentage: 100

Name: Nintendo of Korea Co. Ltd.
Region: South Korea
Capital (in millions): ₩25,000
Corporate role: Sales/marketing
Ownership percentage: 100

Name: iQue, Ltd
Region: China
Capital (in thousands): $28,000
Corporate role: Sales/marketing
Ownership percentage: 100

Name: Nintendo Technology Development Inc.
Region: United States of America
Capital: The list states 1 US$, I assume they mean a million US$
Corporate role: Development
Ownership percentage: 100

Name: Nintendo Software Technology Corporation
Region: United States of America
Capital (in thousands): $20
Corporate role: Development
Ownership percentage: 100

Name: Retro Studios, Inc.
Region: United States of America
Capital (in thousands): $10,001
Corporate role: Development
Ownership percentage: 100

Name: Nintendo (Hong Kong) Co., Ltd.
Region: Hong Kong
Capital (in thousands): HK$49,300
Corporate role: Sale/marketing
Ownership percentage: 100

Name: Nintendo European Research and Development SAS
Region: France
Capital (in thousands): €300
Corporate role: Development
Ownership percentage: 100 (was 97% in 2014)

Name: Nd Cube Company, Ltd.
Region: Japan (Tokyo)
Capital: ¥483000000
Corporate role: Development
Ownership percentage: 97 (was 96 % in 2014)

Name: 1-UP Studio Co., Ltd.
Region: Japan (Tokyo)
Capital (in millions): ¥90
Corporate role: Development
Ownership percentage: 100

Name: Monolith Software, Ltd. (was Inc.)
Region: Japan (Tokyo)
Capital (in millions): ¥75
Corporate role: Development
Ownership percentage: 97

Name: Nintendo Network Service Database Inc.
Region: Japan (Tokyo)
Capital (in millions): ¥480
Corporate role: Other (network services)
Ownership percentage: 100

Name: Mario Club Co., Ltd.
Region: Kyoto
Capital (in millions): ¥450
Corporate role: Development (debugging)
Ownership percentage: 100
In addition to the above, there are five consolidated subsidiaries.

Affiliated companies

Name: Pokemon Co., Ltd.
Region: Tokyo
Capital (in millions): ¥365
Corporate role: Sales of Pokémon
Ownership percentage: 32

Name: Warp Star Co., Ltd.
Region: Tokyo
Capital (in millions): ¥10
Corporate role: Animation, IP/rights management
Ownership percentage: 50

Name: PUX Co., Ltd.
Region: Osaka
Capital (in millions): ¥45
Corporate role: Development of audio and video processing software
Ownership percentage: 27
In addition to the above, there is one company accounted for by the equity method affiliate. In 2014 there were two companies under this.

Also, the Internal Control Report-75th Period(2014.04.01-2015.03.31) is now available via EDINET. It's a standard document issued each year where Mr. Iwata and Mr. Kimishima account for the mentioned period and if there have been any irregularities (this period was fine).

An updated governance report was also issued: http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/management/governance.pdf
 

Cyd0nia

Banned
Thanks for this very interesting numbers :O

ONLY 32% of the Pokemon Co., Ltd wow that is so lower then I thought.

It's a misleading number. The ownership is complex and split between a few entities and Game Freak etc via a joint holding company, but it's pretty safe to say they have the IP tied up.
 

Plinko

Wildcard berths that can't beat teams without a winning record should have homefield advantage
So Nintendo has an affiliated animation company and doesn't produce animes from their franchises because...?

Didn't they do a Kirby cartoon a few years back?
 
I am dumb. Someone unpack the implications of this data? Preferably with some hyperbolic doomsaying or some such, as it's the spice of life?
 

wsippel

Banned
So Nintendo has an affiliated animation company and doesn't produce animes from their franchises because...?
Warp Star isn't really an actual animation company as far as I know, Warp Star just used to produce the Kirby TV show. They're a joint between Nintendo and HAL set up to manage the Kirby IP and that's pretty much it. They don't even have a website or anything. It's probably just one guy sitting in a basement office at HAL or Nintendo.
 
Name: Nintendo of Korea Co. Ltd.
Region: South Korea
Capital (in thousands): ₩25,000
Corporate role: Sales/marketing
Ownership percentage: 100

That's a pretty small amount of money. In fact that's $22,348.50 to be precise.

And does Nintendo of Canada share it's finances with NoA? If not, why does it receive so much more than the entirety of NoE?
 
Wow, great news for Nintendo of Russia! Didn't know Nintendo was doing good here. Home this year's currency crash won't affect them much.
 

Viliger

Member
Wow, great news for Nintendo of Russia! Didn't know Nintendo was doing good here. Home this year's currency crash won't affect them much.
It actually really isn't, at least to my knowledge. After ruble fell flat on its face, Nintendo understandably jacked up the prices, especially digital, which they are yet to lower sadly. Noone distributes Nintendo games and consoles, most of the retailers work with PS4 and Xbone. For example, you can't find brand new SM3DW in Russia, it just doesn't exist. It was sold out during Black Friday and saying that new ones will arrive in the end of July, almost 9 fucking months later. So it's really REALLY surprising that NOR gets this money, everyone expected them to close down later this year.
 
It actually really isn't, at least to my knowledge. After ruble fell flat on its face, Nintendo understandably jacked up the prices, especially digital, which they are yet to lower sadly. Noone distributes Nintendo games and consoles, most of the retailers work with PS4 and Xbone. For example, you can't find brand new SM3DW in Russia, it just doesn't exist. It was sold out during Black Friday and saying that new ones will arrive in the end of July, almost 9 fucking months later. So it's really REALLY surprising that NOR gets this money, everyone expected them to close down later this year.

Digital prices are Nintendo of Europe Gmbh jurisdiction, Nintendo RU has no power here - unless we count distribution of download codes on Yandex.Money too, and Nintendo RU tries to keep prices low here (but not too low to cannibalize other sales).

But, yeah, these news are really surprising. Even counting inflation, Nintendo RU's capital has doubled.
 
Did we ever figure out what NERD does or is doing?

It was initially known as ActImagine (later MobiClip) and it created the video compression format under the same name. It was very power-efficient and it was used in various Nintendo games and projects (and is used), from GBA Video to Fire Emblem: Awakening.

Oh, and after MobiClip was bought by Nintendo in 2011 and reorganized as NERD, they helped making Wii U Chat and Wii U Internet Browser.
 

jholmes

Member
Yes. As is Genius Sonority and a few others but they don't get listed here. Not sure why.

Nintendo has shares in several companies, small ones and much bigger ones -- as I recall they have a stake in both Bandai Namco and Kadokawa. I wish they'd just lay it all out at some point.

Wow, great news for Nintendo of Russia! Didn't know Nintendo was doing good here. Home this year's currency crash won't affect them much.

It might be more than the exchange rate changed the value of liquid capital held in a different currency.
 
It was initially known as ActImagine (later MobiClip) and it created the video compression format under the same name. It was very power-efficient and it was used in various Nintendo games and projects (and is used), from GBA Video to Fire Emblem: Awakening.

Oh, and after MobiClip was bought by Nintendo in 2011 and reorganized as NERD, they helped making Wii U Chat and Wii U Internet Browser.

And they made the GC->Wii U engine that Wind Waker HD uses didn't they?
 

Instro

Member
It was initially known as ActImagine (later MobiClip) and it created the video compression format under the same name. It was very power-efficient and it was used in various Nintendo games and projects (and is used), from GBA Video to Fire Emblem: Awakening.

Oh, and after MobiClip was bought by Nintendo in 2011 and reorganized as NERD, they helped making Wii U Chat and Wii U Internet Browser.

Sorry I meant post Mobiclip.
 

TheJoRu

Member
Oh, and after MobiClip was bought by Nintendo in 2011 and reorganized as NERD, they helped making Wii U Chat and Wii U Internet Browser.

giphy.gif
 
R

Rösti

Unconfirmed Member
Nintendo has shares in several companies, small ones and much bigger ones -- as I recall they have a stake in both Bandai Namco and Kadokawa. I wish they'd just lay it all out at some point.
Check pages 30 and 31 of the report for a list (likely not complete) of companies they have shares in.

Namco Bandai: 3,845,700 shares
Kadokawa: 612,200 shares
 

Shikamaru Ninja

任天堂 の 忍者
And they made the GC->Wii U engine that Wind Waker HD uses didn't they?

EAD developed that internally. Takuhiro Dohta, lead graphic programmer of Nintendo Land to be exact.

I'm not sure, but I know that a lot of the work on WWHD was outsourced to Hexadrive.

Not sure how you got that information. The HD textures were outsourced to Imagica-Digitalscape, two guys from HexaDrive acted as technical contacts on their behalf. Very little involvement from HexaDrive actually.

Yes. As is Genius Sonority and a few others but they don't get listed here. Not sure why.

They own a decent stake in Genius Sonority. Smaller stakes in Dena, Namco Bandai, and Kadokawa. I'm not sure if the Creature ownership of shares was ever made public.
 
Rösti;170344136 said:
Check pages 30 and 31 of the report for a list (likely not complete) of companies they have shares in.

Namco Bandai: 3,845,700 shares
Kadokawa: 612,200 shares

As percentage ownership of the companies, I assume that this is actually quite low?
 
Rösti;170344136 said:
Check pages 30 and 31 of the report for a list (likely not complete) of companies they have shares in.

Namco Bandai: 3,845,700 shares
Kadokawa: 612,200 shares

As Tigerbuns asked, what's the percentage? I remember when Kadokawa's shares there were actually Dwango's Nintendo was at like 1.5%?
 
R

Rösti

Unconfirmed Member
As percentage ownership of the companies, I assume that this is actually quite low?
For Bandai Namco that would be 1,7% of shares issued (220,000,000). For Kadokawa Dwango it would be 0,8% of shares issued (75,300,275). Number of shares authorized for Bandai Namco and Kadokawa Dwango are 1,000,000,000 and 260,000,000 shares respectively.
 

ash_ag

Member
I've heard that Creatures was created by Nintendo for Shigesato Itoi to make EarthBound Beginnings. Back when it was APE. I would assume Nintendo owns it, but I have no real idea.

Creatures and APE share many key people, but the former is simply a spiritual successor to the latter. Here's my understanding of it:

Here is a very old (and important) interview regarding Ishihara's involvement with Satoshi Tajiri and Game Freak. My understanding is that Ishihara worked very closely with Game Freak at the time Red and Green were being developed. He was in Shigesato Itoi's company Ape at the time, and it was decided that because Tajiri was too concerned with the game itself, Ishihara would manage the franchise outside that scope.

He eventually founded Creatures (Ape's successor, but not the same company) to do just that, and the result of that was the successful merchandising of the IP. Ishihara became the person to authorise or deny ideas the many developers and manufacturers would pitch, while Tajiri and Game Freak would continue to put their focus exclusively on the games. To this day, Creatures develops (as opposed to just managing) the Trading Card Game and several Pokémon toys and merchandise. So, it's not just a software company.

Also, take this with a grain of salt, but I'm pretty sure The Pokémon Company was initially established in 1998 for the exclusive purpose of managing the Pokémon Center stores. Some of their current responsibilities were more of a Creatures job until ~2000. In fact, the company's original name was Pokémon Center, Inc. They changed their scope to be a more general manager of the Pokémon license around 2000-2001, which is also when they changed their name and when Ishihara became the TPC president.

Ishihara's importance for the franchise's success is often understated. Tajiri/Ishihara's combination is not unlike Lennon/McCourtney or Jobs/Wozniak. If it wasn't for either of them, Pokémon simply wouldn't be what it is today.

Edit:

Might also be worth mentioning to say where Genius Sonority and Ambrella sit on this. The former is in the exclusive position of being the only software developer to be co-owned by Nintendo and The Pokémon Company (in addition to Manabu Yamana). The situation is a big weirder for Ambrella. Initially, a company named Marigul was co-funded by Nintendo and Recruit (the latter having majority stake). Then, Ambrella (and Noise) were co-funded by Nintendo and Marigul. Marigul was eventually liquified, but I'm not sure who took the remaining stake of Ambrella after that.
 

jholmes

Member
Rösti;170344136 said:
Check pages 30 and 31 of the report for a list (likely not complete) of companies they have shares in.

Namco Bandai: 3,845,700 shares
Kadokawa: 612,200 shares

Oh cool.

Nintendo has 91,252 shares in Square-Enix, which is a little less than .1%. Exert your ownership influence on them and get that Kingdom Hearts 3 port already! Their 63,734 shares in Konami is even less. Convince them pachislots are stupid!

They also have 13,162 shares in Koei Tecmo (basically nothing). Everything else is weird little stuff like advertising firms, paper companies and small electronics companies and the only major non-video game stuff the own is all banks and holding companies. They do have 10,000 shares in TV Tokyo Holdings, which I assume is related to the channel and isn't just another fund company, but who knows. It's not like they own much of it anyway.

Worth noting that as far as those lists go, unless I missed something, they neither acquired nor sold any stock in the fiscal year.
 

Ridley327

Member
Both are technically independent no?

I believe so, but they're so instrumental to Nintendo's operations that they may as well be first party studios the whole way through.

I know HAL started on the MSX2 and even used to publish their own games back in the day before entering into their partnership with Nintendo.
 

catmario

Member
Name: Nintendo of Korea Co. Ltd.
Region: South Korea
Capital (in thousands): ₩25,000
Corporate role: Sales/marketing
Ownership percentage: 100

Uh.... Is this correct? I'm just reading the source of this, but there is a tiny error for this.
The unit of NOK's capital is a million. So in correct information is....

Capital (in million): ₩25,000
 
Name: Nd Cube Company, Ltd.
Region: Japan (Tokyo)
Capital: ¥483000000
Corporate role: Development
Ownership percentage: 97 (was 96 % in 2014)

I find Nd Cube to be such a puzzling company. Created jointly by ad agency Dentsu and Nintendo, for the first several years, they just did portable F-Zero games and Tube Slider for the GameCube, which seems to me might have originally been developed as a GC F-Zero game of some sort and rejected for middling quality in favor of F-Zero GX with Sega. The logo is made up of Nintendo's various branding fonts, and when Konami dismantled Hudson, it seems like a lot of their development staff got replaced wholesale by Hudson/Mario Party series staff. There's a clear link with Dentsu in that Hiroshi Yamauchi's son Katsuhito works for Dentsu. I always kind of wondered if the company serves as some sort of path for Katsuhito to upper-level Nintendo leadership someday if NCL's board saw fit to tilt in that direction.

I've heard that Creatures was created by Nintendo for Shigesato Itoi to make EarthBound Beginnings. Back when it was APE. I would assume Nintendo owns it, but I have no real idea.

Speaking as a bit of an Earthbound fan, APE is a weird one too. As I understand it, Shigesato Itoi and Nintendo initially created APE together as a sort of publishing branch/partnership of Nintendo, since Itoi is among other things an author of many published books. I think maybe even before they started working on Mother 1 as a game developer (working hand in hand with HAL, of course), they were publishing official strategy guides and perhaps various publicity material as well for Nintendo. Pretty much any official strategy guide for a Nintendo-made NES, SNES, or Game Boy game that came out in Japan in the late '80s/early '90s has a little APE logo on it, Benimaru Itoh comics in it, and other such trademarks. Then they started getting into game development more, worked on the Earthbound/Mother series, made the Itoi bass fishing series, made the enjoyably oddball Super Famicom Monopoly games for Tomy, and I believe a few other oddball things before reconfiguring itself into Creatures and doing Pokemon, Game Boy Camera, the Picross series with Jupiter, etc.
 

VLQ

Member
I've heard that Creatures was created by Nintendo for Shigesato Itoi to make EarthBound Beginnings. Back when it was APE. I would assume Nintendo owns it, but I have no real idea.

Creatures and Ape are different companies
super-smash-bros-for-wii-u-wiiu-title-78019.png
 

JoeM86

Member
They own a decent stake in Genius Sonority. Smaller stakes in Dena, Namco Bandai, and Kadokawa. I'm not sure if the Creature ownership of shares was ever made public.

Yeah, 19.5% of Genius Sonority. Also, The Pokémon Company also owns 19.5% of it, with Nintendo owning 32% of The Pokémon Company. They own a company that owns a company that they own :p
 
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