Estudios de Nintendo - Juegos en desarrollo (Oct. 07)

Here's a roundup of what Nintendo's doing internally. A lot of the info is from Shikamaru Ninja (thanks), and is what we know up to date.

With Super Mario Galaxy and Link's Crossbow Training now completed (both by EAD) Nintendo's internal development looks something like this, with gaps from some big teams:

Nintendo's Teams

EAD Software Development Group No. 1 - Hideki Konno
- Wii Fit (nearing completion)

- Mario Kart Wii


EAD Software Development Group No. 2 - Katsuya Eguchi
- Animal Crossing Wii
- Wii Music

- Wii Motor Sports


EAD Software Development Group No. 3 - Eiji Aonuma
- ?

EAD Software Development Group No. 4 - Hiroyuki Kimura
- ?

EAD Software Development Group No. 5 - Takao Shimizu
- ?

Software Planning and Development Division No. 1 - Yoshio Sakamoto
- Card Hero DS


Software Planning and Development Division No. 2 - Hitoshi Yamagami
- Dr. Mario Wii


Software Planning and Development Division No. 3 - Kensuke Tanabe
- Various collaborations internal and external

Software Planning and Development Division No. 4 - Shinya Takakashi
- DS Letter Training


Intelligent Systems
- Card Hero DS
- Advance Wars: Days of Ruin

- Fire Emblem DS


Game Freak
- ?

HAL Laboratory Inc.
- Super Smash Bros. Brawl
- Kirby Wii (GC pic)

- Kirby Super Star Deluxe


Genius Sonority - Manabu Yamana
- DS Literature Collection


Brownie Brown
- ?

Monolith Soft - Hirohide Sugiura
- Disaster: Day of Crisis

- Soma Bringer


Retro Studios - Michael Kelbaugh
- ?

Nintendo Software Technology Corp. - Shigeki Yamashiro
- ?

Nintendo Studio (All-Star Smash Group - EAD/HAL Labs/Sora + another team)
- Super Smash Bros. Brawl



Collaborations with 3rd Parties:

Namco Bandai - Mario Baseball Stadium

Ambrella - Pokémon Ranch

Mitchell - Puzloop Wii

Mindware - WiiWare title

Paon - Eternal Chronicle

Hudson - Mario Party DS

Sega - Mario and Sonic at the Olympics DS and Wii


This is the confirmed stuff. EAD's likely to be developing NSMB 2 and in preliminary work with Zelda Wii and other franchise titles. Pikmin Wii has been hinted at, so has Starfox Wii and Yoshi's Island Wii (possibly from Artoon), but this still leaves a lot of room for other titles.

The SMG team initially wanted to handle a small game after DK Jungle Beat, but Miyamoto asked them to make a flagship Mario game for Wii, so will they return to a smaller game or develop another big game, or both? We know the SMG team was around 30 people for much of its development and increased to 50 in the latter stages, so multiple projects from the studio is possible.

Sakamoto's SPD team is probably developing multiple projects, I'd say 2, we know about Card Hero DS but there is room for something else. Maybe a Wii version of Rhythm Tengoku, Metroid Dread (lol) or something new?

What will happen to the Smash Bros. team once the game is completed? It's likely Sakurai will leave to pursue Sora, but this leaves a strong team in Tokyo. Will they return to where they came from (EAD, Hal, and an unknown studio), or will they stay united as a new team? Developing Smash Bros. for DS would be a good move, and since it's a potentially huge game which hasn't been developed yet, could be possible.

What about Retro? They've expanded to 70 people, so multiple game development is possible, and we know they're probably making a hardcore game for Wii from comments they've made.

Game Freak has also expanded and has over 50 staff. They're likely developing a Pokémon Emerald type expansion for Diamond/Pearl, but this does leave room for something else.

What's NST doing? They're a fairly big team able to develop at least 2 games at once and we haven't heard anything since Project H.A.M.M.E.R. was cancelled.

Also, Brownie Brown has two teams and we don't know what they're working. Maybe the GC game for Wii, Gofuku, they announced long ago?

There's clearly room for many titles we don't know about, but I don't think we're going to hear about them until next year, maybe not until E3 08.