Nintendo Research & Engineering Department

Nintendo's logotype, used until 2016
Exterior of the Nintendo Central Office inKyoto, where the division was housed for most of its existence
Native name	任天堂開発技術部
Romanized name	Nintendō Kaihatsu Gijutsu Bu
Company type	Division department
Industry	Video games
Genre	Handheld game console development
Predecessors	Nintendo R&D1
Founded	1996; 29 years ago (1996)
Founder	Hiroshi Yamauchi
Defunct	February 16, 2013 (2013-02-16)
Fate	Merged withNintendo Integrated Research & Development
Successor	Nintendo Integrated Research & Development
Headquarters	Kyoto , Japan
Number of locations	1 (2012)
Key people	Satoru Okada(General manager)
Number of employees	150 (2012)
Parent	Nintendo Manufacturing Division

Nintendo Research & Engineering Department,^[a] commonly abbreviated asNintendo RED, was a division ofNintendo responsible for the development ofhandheld game consoles and its associated peripherals. It was founded in 1996 and disbanded in 2012. The department was under Nintendo's manufacturing division, and was led bySatoru Okada. The department was created in 1996 followingNintendo Research & Development 1's (R&D1) general manager andGame & Watch andGame Boy creator,Gunpei Yokoi's departure from Nintendo. Most of the department's team originate from R&D1's hardware engineers.

The department went on to create some of Nintendo's best-selling handheld game consoles such as theGame Boy Color,Game Boy Advance,Nintendo DS andNintendo 3DS. Following the retirement of Okada in early 2012, the department was merged into theNintendo Integrated Research & Development division, effectively merging Nintendo's handheld and home game console development teams.

In 1996, following the commercial failure of Nintendo's firstvirtual reality headset, theVirtual Boy, general manager of theNintendo Research & Development 1 department (R&D1),Gunpei Yokoi, responsible for the console's development, resigned from Nintendo. This left Nintendo's historichandheld game console and game development department without leadership. As such, then Nintendo presidentHiroshi Yamauchi spun-off the hardware development team into a new development department, calledNintendo Research & Engineering, appointingSatoru Okada as general manager. The software development team, however, remained at the R&D1 department. This new department would be responsible for continuing theGame Boy's legacy with the development of successor systems.^[1]

Despite the Game Boy and its revisions having a monochrome display,Nintendo R&D1, the departments predecessor, had already experimented withcolor displays from as early as 1992. However, the project was eventually cancelled due to concerns of it being too big, having a drastically decreased battery life (to approximately 1 hour) as LCD color displays required a back-light at the time, and too expensive to manufacture.^[2][3][4] However, in October 1997, Okada noticed thatcolor displays were now cheaper and didn't require a back-light. And so, after 5 years of failed prototypes, theGame Boy Color was born. As the team used already existing prototypes as a starting point, development only took approximately 10 months, in contrast to the 2–3 years it usually takes to develop a new system. Despite wishing to design a new system from scratch, Okada and Nintendo decided to keep the Game Boy Color compatible with its already existing library of more than 1600 games.^[4]

Shortly after Nintendo released the Game Boy Color, the team experimented withtouchscreen displays for the first time. Masato Kuwahara lead the project to develop an attachment for the Game Boy Color, which would attach to the system's display and give it touchscreen capabilities. AlthoughNintendo EAD general manager and video game designerShigeru Miyamoto liked the concept, it was eventually cancelled as it wasn't well received by the rest of Nintendo's management due to making the system's screen too dark, as it didn't have a back light.^[2][3]

After being approximately two years in development, the department launched the Game Boy Color's successor, theGame Boy Advance, in 2001.^[5] The development team's first step in designing the new system was determining itscentral processing unit (CPU) anddisplay resolution, which would eventually determine the handheld's size. The CPU itself took more than one year to design, mainly due to feature requests from both Nintendo and external developers, which required certain functions be implemented directly in the processing unit. One such request was the addition of shoulder buttons (L andR), originally introduced in theSuper Nintendo Entertainment System. Regardless, only one major CPU redesign occurred during the course the handheld's development As for the display'saspect ratio, in order to facilitate bringingports to the system's library fromhome consoles, the team decided on implementing awidescreen, a common feature oftelevisions at the time. In terms of its external design, the team made a drastic change from the Game Boy Advance's predecessors, opting for an horizontal-oriented system instead. Although the team tested a vertical orientation, it was scrapped as it would make the unit too big. Despite using similar materials as its predecessor, the system is and feels much lighter and smaller due to its more optimized internal layout, such as the position of its batteries in the system's center.^[6]

Masato Kuwahara tested a touchscreen attachment the team had developed for the Game Boy Color on the Game Boy Advance SP, however it suffered the same fate as its predecessor.^[3]

Shortly after launching the Game Boy Advance SP, the department started working on a new system in the Game Boy family, code-namedIris. Although the project was progressing with no issues, it was suddenly cancelled. Then-Nintendo presidentSatoru Iwata was approached by his predecessor,Hiroshi Yamauchi, who requested he implement two screens on Nintendo's next handheld, in the same fashion as the dual-screenGame & Watch. Despite the team and Iwata himself hating the idea, Iwata demanded that the project would go forward. In a 2017 interview, Okada confessed he now believed that pushing for a direct successor for the Game Boy Advance was wrong and was glad Iwata followed with Yamauchi's input.^[7]

In late 2006, the department started development on the third system in the Nintendo DS family. The project was directed by Masato Kuwahara and would later be known as theNintendo DSi. Despite initially struggling to decide on how to innovate with the restriction of making the system a revision of the Nintendo DS instead of a full-blown successor, by February 2007, the system's technical specifications were set.^[8]

While developing theNintendo DSi XL, the department was also working on a successor to the Nintendo DS family, theNintendo 3DS.^[9]

In January 2012, the department's general manager, Satoru Okada retired.^[10] Shortly after, on February 16, the department was merged with theIntegrated Research & Development division, effectively combining Nintendo's portable and home video game console development teams. According to then Nintendo presidentSatoru Iwata the aim of the merge was to develop a commonsoftware architecture for Nintendo's future consoles, such as theiroperating system, in order to facilitate developing games and apps for various consoles, thus eliminating software "droughts".^[11][12][13]

• Nintendo divisions and subsidiaries
• Video game companies established in 1996
• Video game companies disestablished in 2012
• Defunct video game companies of Japan
• Japanese companies established in 1996
• 2012 disestablishments in Japan

• Articles containing Japanese-language text
• CS1 Japanese-language sources (ja)
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use mdy dates from June 2025