Nintendo Entertainment Planning & Development

Overview

native name	任天堂企画制作本部
native name lang	ja
romanized name	Nintendō Kikaku Seisaku Honbu
type	Division
industry	Video games
predecessors	Nintendo EAD Nintendo SPD
founded	September 16, 2015
hq location city	Kyoto
hq location country	Japan
num locations	2 (Kyoto and Tokyo)
key people	Executive General Manager Shinya Takahashi Senior General Manager Yoshiaki Koizumi Deputy General Managers Katsuya Eguchi Hisashi Nogami Takayuki Shimamura Senior Officers Takashi Tezuka Yoshio Sakamoto Kensuke Tanabe Eiji Aonuma Koji Kondo
brands	Animal Crossing Big Brain Academy Brain Age Donkey Kong The Legend of Zelda Mario Kart Metroid Pikmin Rhythm Heaven Splatoon Star Fox Super Mario Tomodachi Life
parent	Nintendo
divisions	Co-Production Group Production Group No. 3 Production Group No. 4 Production Group No. 5 Production Group No. 6 Production Group No. 7 Production Group No. 8 Production Group No. 9 Production Group No. 10 Smart Device Production Group Programming Management Group Design Management Group Sound Management Group

Nintendo Entertainment Planning & Development Division, (任天堂企画制作本部) abbreviated Nintendo EPD, is the largest division within the Japanese video game company Nintendo. The division focuses on developing and producing video games, mobile apps, and other related entertainment software for the company. Nintendo EPD was established in September 2015 after merging their Entertainment Analysis & Development and Software Planning & Development divisions.

History

The division was created on September 16, 2015, after the consolidation of two of Nintendo's former software divisions, Entertainment Analysis & Development (EAD) and Software Planning & Development (SPD), as part of a company-wide organizational restructure under Nintendo's newly appointed president, Tatsumi Kimishima.[1][2][3]

The division assumed both of its predecessors' roles, focusing on the development of games and software for Nintendo platforms and mobile devices; it also manages and licenses the company's various

Structure

Mainly located in Kyoto, the Nintendo division works similarly to its two predecessors before the merger and is divided into many groups. It has ten production groups responsible for development or production of games, each of them having their own managers, producers and project leads working on specific series and focus, with them using the pool of talents in the division for each project. In the overall division, the general manager, deputy general managers, and senior officers oversee different aspects in those production groups.

The division also houses the Programming Management, Design Management, and Sound Management groups.[11][12][13]

There are currently 9 game production groups within Nintendo EPD:

Co-Production Group, previously known as Production Group No. 2 until 2023, produces most of the games developed by external studios and published by Nintendo,[14] such as the Mario Tennis, Kirby, Xenoblade Chronicles, Fire Emblem, Pokemon, and Mario & Luigi series. It consists of staff from a former Production Group No. 1 that was merged into the group in 2020, and from a former Production Group No. 7 that was merged into the group in 2023.[15][5][16][17][18][19][20][21]

Production Group No. 3 develops the main The Legend of Zelda series.[22][23]

Production Group No. 4 develops casual and experimental games such as Miitopia, 1-2-Switch, Nintendo Labo, Ring Fit Adventure, Jump Rope Challenge, Game Builder Garage, Big Brain Academy: Brain vs. Brain, Nintendo Switch Sports, Everybody 1-2-Switch! and Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream.[24][25][26][27][20][28] The division also co-developed Alarmo with Nintendo TDD.[29]

Production Group No. 5, with group manager Aya Kyogoku, develops the Animal Crossing and Splatoon series, and Drag x Drive.[30][31][32][13]

Production Group No. 6 oversee and produce games developed by external studios and published by Nintendo, such as the Paper Mario, Metroid Prime and Luigi's Mansion series.[33]

Production Group No. 8, also known as Nintendo EPD Tokyo, develops the 3D Super Mario games and 3D Donkey Kong games.[5][34][35][36]

Production Group No. 9, develops the Mario Kart series and Arms.[5][37]

Production Group No. 10 develops 2D Super Mario games (including Super Mario Maker) and the Pikmin series.[26][38][39]

Smart Device Production Group, develops smartphone games alongside other EPD groups as well as produce games by external studios.[15][40]

Nintendo Entertainment Planning & Development

History

Structure

Games developed

References