Nintendo Entertainment Planning & Development Division,[a] 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 after merging their Entertainment Analysis & Development and Software Planning & Development divisions in September 2015.
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Exterior of the Nintendo Development Center in Kyoto
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Native name | 任天堂企画制作本部 |
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Romanized name | Nintendō Kikaku Seisaku Honbu |
Company type | Division |
Industry | Video games |
Predecessors |
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Founded | September 16, 2015; 8 years ago (2015-09-16) |
Headquarters |
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Japan
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Number of locations | 2 (Kyoto and Tokyo) |
Key people |
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Brands |
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Parent | Nintendo |
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 intellectual properties, alongside producing and supervising development for external studios.
Shinya Takahashi, former general manager of Nintendo SPD,[4] has the same title in EPD, with Yoshiaki Koizumi, Katsuya Eguchi, Eiji Aonuma, and Hisashi Nogami as deputy general managers, and, Kensuke Tanabe, Yoshio Sakamoto and Takashi Tezuka as senior officers. The others had been in such positions since the division's formation, and Aonuma, Tanabe, and Nogami were promoted into higher positions within the division in 2019.[3][5] By 2023, Takayuki Shimamura was named deputy general manager, Aonuma and Koji Kondo were named senior officers.[6][7][8]
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. There are currently 10 production groups in Nintendo EPD, and the known groups in the department are: