Nintendo Co., Ltd. is a Japanese multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto. It develops, publishes and releases both video games and video game consoles.
Nintendo Entertainment Analysis & Development Division, commonly abbreviated as Nintendo EAD and formerly known as Nintendo Research & Development No.4 Department, was the largest software development division within the Japanese video game company Nintendo. It was preceded by the Creative Department, a team of designers with backgrounds in art responsible for many different tasks, to which Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka originally belonged. 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 the Donkey Kong, Mario, The Legend of Zelda, F-Zero, Star Fox, Animal Crossing, Pikmin, and Wii series.
Nintendo Research & Development No. 1 Department was a division of Nintendo, and is its oldest development team. Its creation coincided with Nintendo's entry into the video game industry, and the original R&D1 was headed by Gunpei Yokoi. The developer has created several notable Nintendo series such as Donkey Kong, Mario, and Metroid.
Nintendo Integrated Research & Development Division, commonly abbreviated as Nintendo IRD, was a Japanese developments division that handled everything related to producing Nintendo's console hardware and associated peripherals. Originally established in the 1970s with engineer Genyo Takeda acting as manager, Nintendo Research & Development No. 3 Department and part of the Manufacturing Division, the department was responsible for various hardware technologies and even developed several arcade and console titles. In 2000, as technology evolved into the 3D era, Takeda's group spun-off and established itself as a division into Integrated Research & Development Division, and began spending longer periods of time researching and testing the various and rapidly evolving hardware that would power Nintendo's next generation of consoles.
Yoshiaki Koizumi is a Japanese video game designer, director, producer, and business executive. He is a senior executive officer at Nintendo and a deputy general manager at Nintendo EPD, where he is known for his work within their Mario and The Legend of Zelda series, and as the General Producer of the Nintendo Switch. In 2009, he was chosen by IGN as one of the top 100 game creators of all time. Koizumi is also on the board of directors of Nintendo Pictures.
Nintendo Software Planning & Development Division, commonly abbreviated as Nintendo SPD, was a Japanese research, planning and development division owned by Nintendo and housed inside the Nintendo Development Center in Kyoto, Japan. The division had two departments: Software Planning & Development Department, which primarily co-produced games with external developers; and Software Development & Design Department, which primarily developed experimental and system software. The division was created during a corporate restructuring in 2004, with the abolition of the Nintendo R&D1 and Nintendo R&D2 departments.
The Japanese multinational consumer electronics company Nintendo has developed seven home video game consoles and multiple portable consoles for use with external media, as well as dedicated consoles and other hardware for their consoles. As of September 30, 2021, in addition to Nintendo Switch, Nintendo has sold over 863.07 million hardware units.
Nintendo System Development Division, commonly abbreviated as Nintendo SDD and formerly known as Nintendo Network Business & Development (NBD), Nintendo Network Service Development (NSD), and Nintendo Special Planning & Development (SPD), was a Japanese division located in the Nintendo Research Institute in Kyoto, Japan, until it moved to the Nintendo Development Center, also in Kyoto. The division consisted of a single development team that focused on software and peripheral development. SDD was composed of two development departments with different duties: the Network Development & Operations Department, which handled Nintendo Network service programming, in cooperation with Nintendo Network Service Database, and the Environment Development Department, which developed Software Development Kits (SDKs), among other technologies.
Nintendo Research & Engineering Department, commonly abbreviated as Nintendo RED, was a Japanese hardware development department responsible for developing all of Nintendo's major handheld game consoles, and its associated peripherals, from its inception in 1996 all the way to 2012, when it was disbanded. The department was under Nintendo's manufacturing division, and was led by Satoru Okada. The department was created in 1996 following Nintendo Research & Development 1's (R&D1) general manager and Game & Watch and Game Boy creator, Gunpei Yokoi's departure from Nintendo. Most of the department's team originate from R&D1's hardware engineers.
The Nintendo 3DS is a foldable handheld game console produced by Nintendo. Announced in March 2010 as the successor to the Nintendo DS, the console was released originally on February 26, 2011 and went through various revisions in its lifetime, produced until 2020. The system features backward compatibility with the Nintendo DS's library of video games. As an eighth-generation console, its primary competitor was Sony's PlayStation Vita.
The eighth generation of video game consoles began in 2012, and consists of four home video game consoles: the Wii U released in 2012, the PlayStation 4 family in 2013, the Xbox One family in 2013, and the Nintendo Switch family in 2017.
The Nintendo 2DS is a handheld game console produced by Nintendo. Announced in August 2013, the device was released in North America, Europe and Australia on October 12, 2013. The Nintendo 2DS is an entry-level version of the Nintendo 3DS which maintains otherwise identical hardware, similar functionality, and compatibility with software designed for the Nintendo DS and 3DS. However, the 2DS is differentiated by a new slate form factor rather than the clamshell design used by its precursors and by lacking the Nintendo 3DS's signature autostereoscopic 3D display. The 2DS was sold concurrently with existing 3DS models as an incentive to expand the market for Nintendo 3DS games; former Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aimé stated that the 2DS was primarily targeted towards younger players, whom Nintendo had previously advised not to use the 3D functionality on the 3DS due to potential eye health concerns. The Nintendo 2DS's successor, the New Nintendo 2DS XL, was launched in 2017.
Phil Spencer is an American business executive and the CEO of Microsoft Gaming. Starting his career at Microsoft as an intern in 1988, Spencer has worked in various sectors within the company, including developing Microsoft's first CD-ROM-based titles. He joined the Xbox team in 2001.
The New Nintendo 3DS is a clamshell design dual-screen handheld game console produced by Nintendo, originally released on October 11, 2014 in Japan and rolled out to all major global markets by September 25, 2015. It is the fourth system in the Nintendo 3DS family of handheld consoles, following the original Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo 3DS XL, and Nintendo 2DS; notably it is the first with hardware improvements. Like the original 3DS, the New Nintendo 3DS also has a larger variant, the New Nintendo 3DS XL.
The Nintendo Switch is a video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. Released in the middle of the eighth generation of home consoles, the Switch succeeded the Wii U and competed with Microsoft's Xbox One and Sony's PlayStation 4; it also competes with the ninth generation consoles, Sony's PlayStation 5 and Microsoft's Xbox Series X/S.
Nintendo Entertainment Planning & Development Division, 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.
The New Nintendo 2DS XL is a foldable dual-screen handheld game console produced by Nintendo. It is the sixth and final system in the Nintendo 3DS family of handheld consoles, and was released in Australia and New Zealand on 15 June 2017, in Japan and South Korea on 13 July 2017, and in North America and Europe on 28 July 2017. The model was discontinued in Japan, Europe, Australia and other regions by 31 March 2020 along with all other Nintendo 3DS models. It was discontinued in North America on 16 September 2020.
Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is an upcoming action-adventure game developed by Retro Studios and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. It was announced at E3 2017, and was reportedly initially developed by Bandai Namco Studios. In January 2019, Nintendo announced that development had restarted under Retro Studios, the developer of the previous Metroid Prime games. Kensuke Tanabe, who worked on all of the previous Prime games, returned as a producer. The game is scheduled for release in 2025.
