Nintendo Software Planning & Development Division

Nintendo's logotype, used during most of the division's existence
Exterior of the Nintendo headquarters inKyoto, Japan, which housed the division until 2014
Native name	任天堂企画開発本部
Romanized name	Nintendō Kikaku Kaihatsu Honbu
Company type	Division
Industry	Video games
Genre	Video game development
Predecessor	Nintendo R&D1 Nintendo R&D2
Founded	2004; 22 years ago (2004) in Kyoto, Japan
Founder	Satoru Iwata
Defunct	September 16, 2015; 10 years ago (2015-09-16)
Fate	Merged withNintendo Entertainment Analysis & Development
Successor	Nintendo Entertainment Planning & Development
Headquarters	Kyoto , Japan
Key people	Satoru Iwata(Former general manager) Shinya Takahashi(General manager) Yoshio Sakamoto Kensuke Tanabe
Parent	Nintendo
Divisions	Software Planning & Development Software Development & Design

Nintendo Software Planning & Development Division,^[a] commonly abbreviated asNintendo SPD, was a Japanese research, planning and development division owned byNintendo and housed inside the Nintendo Development Center inKyoto, Japan. The division had two departments:Software Planning & Development Department, which primarily co-produced games with external developers; andSoftware Development & Design Department, which primarily developed experimental and system software. The division was created during a corporate restructuring in 2004, with the merger of theNintendo R&D1 andNintendo R&D2 departments.

The group had the task of independently developing innovative games, assisting other development teams on projects, and managing overseas production offirst-party franchises.^[1] Both SPD and SDD departments were divided into four separate groups, which worked concurrently on different projects.^[2]

In September 2015, Nintendo SPD merged with Nintendo's other software development division,Entertainment Analysis & Development (EAD), becomingNintendo Entertainment Planning & Development.^[3][4]

In 2004, then-Nintendo presidentSatoru Iwata created the Software Planning & Development division, appointing himself as its general manager. The goal of the newly created division would be to focus on co-producing and supervising external second-party video game development, with the goal of relieving theEntertainment Analysis & Development (EAD) division, and its general managerShigeru Miyamoto, to focus on internal development. Although that was the division's primary focus, it also went on to develop some video games titles internally.^[5][6]

On June 27, 2013, deputy general manager Shinya Takahashi replaced Satoru Iwata as general manager of the division, gaining a seat in Nintendo's board of directors in the process.^[7] A year later, on June 18, 2014, all of Nintendo's internal research and development divisions, including the SPD division, were moved from the Nintendo's headquarters in Kyoto to the newly built Nintendo Development Center, just 300 meters from the old building. By centralizing all of its developers in the new building, Nintendo hoped they would deeply interact with each other, regardless of which division and field they were working on, creating a synergy between hardware and software development.^[8][9]

On September 16, 2015, the division was merged with Nintendo's internal software development division, Entertainment Analysis & Development, becomingNintendo Entertainment Planning & Development (EPD). As Shigeru Miyamoto retired as general manager of the EAD division and went on to become aCreative Fellow, former SPD general manager Shinya Takahashi took his place as general manager of the newly created EPD division, thus supervising all video games developed at Nintendo. The new division accumulated all of its predecessors roles as both developing video games internally and co-producing them with external developers.^[3][4]

The General Manager of theNintendo Software Planning & Development Division wasShinya Takahashi, assisted by both Keizo Kato, the Assistant Manager andKensuke Tanabe, the Executive Officer. The division was split into two different departments: theSoftware Planning & Development Department, which was split into four separate groups and supervised by Deputy ManagerYoshio Sakamoto; and theSoftware Development & Design Department, which was split into three separate groups and supervised by Deputy Manager Masaru Nishita. All of the groups worked concurrently on different projects.^[2]

TheProduction Group No. 1's primary focus was the development and production of video game software and software applications for Nintendo home and handheld consoles, as well as software for peripherals developed for said consoles, both internally and in cooperation withsecond-party developers. The group manager and main producer was Nintendo-veteranYoshio Sakamoto. The group is responsible for developing and producing games in theWarioWare,Rhythm Heaven,Card Hero,Tomodachi and the mainlineMetroid series.^[10]

TheProduction Group No. 2 was led by manager andvideo game producer Hitoshi Yamagami. The group was primarily responsible for co-producing and supervising video games published by Nintendo and developed bythird-party developers fromJapan.^[35] They're responsible for producing and supervising games in thePokémon,F-Zero,Legendary Starfy,Fire Emblem,Dr. Mario,Endless Ocean,Fossil Fighters,Style Savvy andXenoblade Chronicles series.

In addition to co-producing games, the group also supervised the development ofDrill Dozer, developed byGame Freak.

TheProduction Group No. 3 was led by producerKensuke Tanabe and responsible for overseeing the development of titles from theMetroid Prime,Battalion Wars,Super Mario Strikers,Mario vs. Donkey Kong,Excite,Paper Mario,Fluidity, andDonkey Kong Country series.^[93]

TheProduction Group No. 4 was led by Hiroshi Sato and Toshiharu Izuno and responsible for overseeing the development of titles from theMario Party,Mario Sports,Mario & Luigi,Yoshi,Donkey Kong, andWii Party series.^[95]

• ¹ Co-production withEighting.
• ² Co-production withNDcube.
• ³ Co-production withCing.
• ⁴ Co-production withHudson.
• ⁵ Co-production withINiS.
• ⁶ Co-production withCamelot.
• ⁷ Co-production withPaon.
• ⁸ Co-production withAlphaDream.
• ⁹ Co-production withProject Sora andSora Ltd.
• ¹⁰ Co-production withBandai Namco Studios andSora Ltd.
• ¹¹ Co-production withGood-Feel.
• ¹² Co-production withArzest.
• ¹³ Co-production withArtoon.
• ¹⁴ Co-production withNamco Bandai Games.

Deputy Manager: Masaru Nishita
Nintendo Software Development & Design was an experimental software development team assembled byNintendo Co., Ltd. presidentSatoru Iwata.^[96] The team was originally assembled as aSystem Service Task Force that would develop all the unique internal system software for theNintendo DS andNintendo Wii.^[97] The team was responsible for all the additionalWii Channels,^[98] theNintendo DSi system software and more recently, theNintendo 3DS system software. Nintendo SDD also went on to develop several innovative retail games. The philosophy behind development was to think out of the box and create unique software in a timely manner with smaller development resources. The development staff was composed ofKoichi Kawamoto, who was the original programmer ofWarioWare, andShinya Takahashi, who was a longtime designer atNintendo EAD. The department was also responsible for developing several subsequentWiiWare andDSiWare software.

Manager/producer: Kiyoshi Mizuki
Software Development Group was responsible for developing software from theJam with the Band andBrain Age series, among additionalTouch! Generations titles with partner developers.

• ¹ Co-production withNamco Bandai Games.

• Defunct Nintendo divisions and subsidiaries
• Japanese companies established in 2003
• Video game companies established in 2003
• Video game companies disestablished in 2015
• Defunct video game companies of Japan
• Japanese companies disestablished in 2015

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