 | |
 Exterior of the Nintendo Central Office inKyoto, where the division was housed for most of its existence | |
Native name | 任天堂情報開発本部 |
|---|---|
Romanized name | Nintendō Jōhō Kaihatsu Honbu |
| Formerly | Nintendo Research & Development No.4 Department |
| Company type | Division |
| Industry | Video games |
| Predecessors | |
| Founded | September 30, 1983; 42 years ago (1983-09-30) |
| Founder | Hiroshi Yamauchi |
| Defunct | September 16, 2015; 10 years ago (2015-09-16) |
| Fate | Merged withNintendo Software Planning & Development |
| Successor | Nintendo Entertainment Planning & Development |
| Headquarters | , Japan |
Number of locations | 2 (Kyoto andTokyo) |
Key people | |
| Services | Video game development |
| Parent | Nintendo |
Nintendo Entertainment Analysis & Development Division,[e] commonly abbreviated asNintendo EAD and formerly known asNintendo Research & Development No.4 Department[f] (abbreviated asNintendo R&D4), was the largest software development division within the Japanese video game companyNintendo. It was preceded by theCreative Department, a team of designers with backgrounds in art responsible for many different tasks, to whichShigeru Miyamoto andTakashi Tezuka originally belonged.[1][2] Both served as managers of the EARD studios and were credited in every game developed by the division, with varying degrees of involvement. Nintendo EAD was best known for its work on games in theDonkey Kong,Mario,The Legend of Zelda,F-Zero,Star Fox,Animal Crossing,Pikmin, andWii series.
Following a large company restructuring after the death of company presidentSatoru Iwata, the division merged with Nintendo'sSoftware Planning & Development division in September 2015, becomingNintendo Entertainment Planning & Development.
During the 1970s, when Nintendo was still predominantly a toy company, it decided to expand intointeractive entertainment and thevideo game industry. Several designers were hired to work under the Creative Department, which, at the time, was the only game development department within Nintendo. Among these new designers wereMakoto Kano, who went on to design variousGame & Watch games, andShigeru Miyamoto, who would create various Nintendo franchises. In 1972, the department was renamed to Research & Development Department; it had about 20 employees. The department was later consolidated into a division and separated into three groups,Nintendo R&D1,R&D2 andR&D3.
Circa 1983, Hiroshi Imanishi oversaw the creation of Research & Development No. 4 Department (commonly abbreviated to Nintendo R&D4), as a new development department dedicated to developing video games for home consoles, complementing the other three existing departments in theNintendo Manufacturing Division.[3][4][5] Imanishi appointed Hiroshi Ikeda, a former director atToei Animation, as general manager of the newly created department, and Miyamoto as its chief producer.[6] Also hired wereTakashi Tezuka and Kenji Miki, graphic designers, Minoru Maeda, a designer, andKoji Kondo,Akito Nakatsuka, andHirokazu Tanaka, all sound designers.
Ikeda's creative team had many ideas, but lacked the programming skills to put them into action.Mario Bros., one of the unit's first games, required assistance in this regard fromGunpei Yokoi and R&D1. Toshihiko Nakago was familiar with the chipset for theFamily Computer, Nintendo's contemporary home console, as he was originally hired to work withMasayuki Uemura'sNintendo R&D2 to developsoftware development kits for Nintendo consoles. When R&D2 and Systems Research and Development, Nakago's company, began porting R&D1-developed arcade games to the Famicom, Shigeru Miyamoto lured him and SRD to R&D4 to help developExcitebike.
Following the release ofExcitebike, R&D4 developed a Famicom port of thebeat 'em up arcade gameKung-Fu Master, calledSpartan X in Japan andKung Fu everywhere else. The game improved on features introduced inDonkey Kong, representing a key step in the life of theplatform game genre.[7][8] Their next game wasSuper Mario Bros., a self-developed sequel toMario Bros. The game standardized many aspects of theplatform genre, and went on to be a critical and commercial success. Developed concurrently, but released a year later, wasThe Legend of Zelda, an action adventure game. The phenomenal sales ofMario andZelda made Miyamoto a household name,[6] and allowed the department to expand.Hideki Konno,Katsuya Eguchi,Kensuke Tanabe, and Takao Shimizu were all hired at this time, and they would become producers themselves.
In 1989, one year before theSuper Famicom was released in Japan, the R&D4 department was spun-off and made its own division namedNintendo Entertainment Analysis & Development (commonly abbreviated asNintendo EAD).[9] The division was comprised into two departments: theSoftware Development Department, which focused on video game development and was led by Miyamoto, and the Technology Development Department, which focused on programming and developing tools and was led by Takao Sawano.[10] The technology department relied on R&D2 engineers who assisted SRD withsoftware libraries. Following the release ofF-Zero, the first video game fully programmed by EAD,[11] they collaborated withArgonaut Software to develop theSuper FX, a chip which, when placed in Super Famicom cartridges, enabled the use of 3D graphics. As 3D gaming became more prominent, so, too, did the department, programming several of Nintendo EAD's 3D games with SRD.
In 1997, Miyamoto explained that about twenty to thirty employees were devoted to each Nintendo EAD title during the course of its development,[12] and that SRD was a company within the division, formally Nintendo R&D2's software unit, and was composed of about 200 programmers.[12]
In June 2000, in an attempt to include software experts, Nintendo's board of directors invited Miyamoto to join; he also gained responsibility for all of Nintendo's software development, though he would produce further games with EAD.
In 2002, to acquire talent fromTokyo who were hesitant to move to Kyoto, Nintendo opened a branch of EAD, appointing Takao Shimizu as manager. Their first project wasDonkey Kong Jungle Beat, aGameCube game which made use of the DK Bongos introduced inDonkey Konga.
In 2004, as a result of a restructuring at Nintendo, several employees at R&D1 and R&D2 were reassigned to EAD, and the department was consolidated into a division, welcoming a new class of managers and producers.[13][unreliable source] Tezuka became deputy general manager, andEiji Aonuma, Konno, Shimizu,Tadashi Sugiyama, andKatsuya Eguchi became producers overseeing their own development teams. Keizo Ota and Yasunari Nishida were appointed project managers of their own groups in the Technology Development Department.
In 2013, Eguchi was promoted to Department Manager of both Software Development Departments in Kyoto and Tokyo. As such, he left his role as Group Manager ofSoftware Development Group No. 2, and was replaced byHisashi Nogami. On June 18, 2014, the EAD Kyoto branch was moved from the Nintendo Central Office to theNintendo Development Center in Kyoto. The building housed more than 1100 developers from all of Nintendo's internal research and development divisions, which included the Nintendo EAD,SPD,IRD andSDD divisions.
On September 16, 2015, during a restructuring overshadowed by the recent death of presidentSatoru Iwata, EAD merged withNintendo Software Planning & Development, formingEntertainment Planning & Development (EPD).[14]
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The Nintendo Entertainment Analysis & Development division was headed by Nintendo-veteranTakashi Tezuka who acted as general manager. The division was divided in two development departments: one in Kyoto, withKatsuya Eguchi acting as its deputy general manager; and one in Tokyo, withYoshiaki Koizumi acting as its deputy general manager.
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The Nintendo EAD KyotoSoftware Development Department was the largest and one of the oldest research and development departments within Nintendo, housing more than 700 video game developers. It was located inKyoto, Japan, formerly in theNintendo Central Office, but on June 28, 2014, it was relocated to the newNintendo Development Center, which housed all of Nintendo's internal research and development divisions.
The development department integrated Nintendo's most notable producers:Hideki Konno, producer of theNintendogs andMario Kart series;Katsuya Eguchi, producer of theWii andAnimal Crossing series;Eiji Aonuma, producer ofThe Legend of Zelda series;Hiroyuki Kimura, producerBig Brain Academy,Super Mario Bros., andPikmin series; andTadashi Sugiyama, producer of theWii Fit,Steel Diver andStar Fox series.
The department was managed by veteran Nintendo game designerKatsuya Eguchi. As such,Hisashi Nogami later succeeded him as the producer of theAnimal Crossing franchise and was responsible for the creation of theSplatoon series.
| Year | Title | Genre(s) | Platform(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Mario Artist: Paint Studio[codeveloped 9] | Graphics software | 64DD |
| 2000 | Mario Artist: Talent Studio | ||
| Mario Artist: Polygon Studio | |||
| Mario Artist: Communication Kit |
The Nintendo EADTokyo Software Development Department was created in 2002 with the goal of bringing in fresh new talent from the capital of Japan who wouldn't be willing to travel hundreds of miles away to Kyoto. It is located inTokyo, Japan, in the Nintendo Tokyo Office.
In 2003, twenty members of the Entertainment Analysis & Development Division in Kyoto volunteered to relocate to Nintendo's Tokyo Office to expand development resources. These twenty volunteers were primarily from theSuper Mario Sunshine team. Management saw it as a good opportunity to expand and recruit several developers who were more comfortable living in Tokyo than relocating to Kyoto.
Takao Shimizu (original manager and producer) andYoshiaki Koizumi (director) began hiring several recruits in Tokyo coming from several established companies like SEGA, Koei, and Square-Enix. Shimizu and Koizumi jointly spearheaded their first project,Donkey Kong Jungle Beat. This was followed in 2007 by the release of the critically and commercially acclaimedSuper Mario Galaxy. After the release ofSuper Mario Galaxy, Koizumi was promoted to manager and producer and officially opened Tokyo Software Development Group No. 2.
The Tokyo group had veteran game developerKatsuya Eguchi as its general manager, who also oversaw development operations for the Kyoto Software Development Department.
| Year | Title | Genre(s) | Platform(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | Donkey Kong Jungle Beat | Platform | GameCube |
| 2007 | Super Mario Galaxy | Platform | Wii |
| 2009 | Nintendo DS Guide: Ikspiari[codeveloped 10] | Tour guide | Nintendo DS |
| Nintendo DS Guide: Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art[codeveloped 10] | Tour guide | Nintendo DS | |
| Nintendo DS Guide: Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan[codeveloped 10] | Tour guide | Nintendo DS | |
| 2010 | Nintendo DS Guide: Make It Yourself![codeveloped 10] | Tour guide | Nintendo DSi (DSiWare) |
| 2011 | The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D[codeveloped 11] | Action-adventure | Nintendo 3DS |
| The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Anniversary Edition[codeveloped 11] | Action-adventure | Nintendo DSi (DSiWare) | |
| 2013 | Photos with Mario | Augmented reality | Nintendo 3DS |
| Wii U Panorama View | Panorama viewer | Wii U | |
| Nintendo 3DS Guide: Louvre[codeveloped 12][codeveloped 10] | Tour guide | Nintendo 3DS | |
| 2015 | The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D[codeveloped 11] | Action-adventure | Nintendo 3DS |
| Year | Title | Genre(s) | Platform(s) | Producer(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | New Play Control: Donkey Kong Jungle Beat | Platform | Wii | Yoshiaki Koizumi |
| Flipnote Studio | Animation | Nintendo DSi (DSiWare) | Yoshiaki Koizumi | |
| 2010 | Super Mario Galaxy 2 | Platform | Wii | Yoshiaki Koizumi Takashi Tezuka |
| 2011 | Super Mario 3D Land | Platform | Nintendo 3DS | Yoshiaki Koizumi |
| 2013 | Flipnote Studio 3D | Animation | Nintendo 3DS | Yoshiaki Koizumi |
| Super Mario 3D World | Platform | Wii U | Yoshiaki Koizumi | |
| NES Remix[codeveloped 12] | Compilation | Wii U | Yoshiaki Koizumi Masanobu Suzui(Indieszero) | |
| 2014 | NES Remix 2[codeveloped 12] | Compilation | Wii U | Yoshiaki Koizumi Masanobu Suzui(Indieszero) |
| Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker | Platform,puzzle | Wii U | Koichi Hayashida |
Iwata: How many years after you joined Nintendo did Ikeda-san become your boss? /Miyamoto: About 7 or 8 years, I think. About the time we were making Super Mario Bros. [...] He was the first manager of the Entertainment Analysis and Development Department.
In 1976, Miyamoto, then age twenty-four, was a recent art-college graduate, with a degree in industrial design and an enduring fascination with the Japanese comic strips called manga. [...] Yamauchi hired him to be an apprentice in the planning department.
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