commonly abbreviated as Nintendo SPD, was a Japanese research, planning and development division owned by

Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto. It develops, publishes, and releases both video games and video game consoles. The history of Nintendo began when craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi ...

and housed inside the Nintendo Development Center in

Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...

, 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 merger of the

Nintendo R&D1 (commonly abbreviated as Nintendo R&D1 and formerly known as before splitting in 1978) 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 ...

and

Nintendo R&D2 commonly abbreviated as Nintendo R&D2, was a Japanese team within Nintendo that developed software and peripherals. While usually occupied in system operating software and technical support, the team would come back to early development in the 1 ...

departments. The group had the task of independently developing innovative games, assisting other development teams on projects, and managing overseas production of first-party franchises. Both SPD and SDD departments were divided into four separate groups, which worked concurrently on different projects.Cassidy, Kevin
NCL Team Structure work in progress
June 7, 2006. Retrieved October 26, 2007. In September 2015, Nintendo SPD merged with Nintendo's other software development division,

Entertainment Analysis & Development commonly abbreviated as Nintendo EAD and formerly known as Nintendo Research & Development No.4 Department (abbreviated as Nintendo R&D4), was the largest software development division within the Japanese video game company Nintendo. It was pr ...

(EAD), becoming

Nintendo Entertainment Planning & Development 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 ...

History

In 2004, then-Nintendo president

Satoru Iwata Satoru Iwata (; December6, 1959July11, 2015) was a Japanese businessman, video game programmer and producer. Beginning in 2002, he was the fourth president of Nintendo, as well as the chief executive officer (CEO) of Nintendo of America from ...

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 the

(EAD) division, and its general manager

Shigeru Miyamoto is a Japanese video game designer, video game producer, producer and Creative director#Video games, game director at Nintendo, where he has served as one of its representative directors as an executive since 2002. Widely regarded as one o ...

, to focus on internal development. Although that was the division's primary focus, it also went on to develop some video games titles internally. 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. 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. On September 16, 2015, the division was merged with Nintendo's internal software development division, Entertainment Analysis & Development, becoming

(EPD). As Shigeru Miyamoto retired as general manager of the EAD division and went on to become a ''Creative 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.

Structure

The General Manager of the ''Nintendo Software Planning & Development Division'' was

Shinya Takahashi 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 ...

, assisted by both Keizo Kato, the Assistant Manager and

Kensuke Tanabe is a Japanese video game producer and designer working for Nintendo, where he currently is Senior Officer at Nintendo EPD. After he had graduated from the Visual Concept Planning Department of Osaka University of Arts, he decided to enter the ...

, the Executive Officer. The division was split into two different departments: the ''Software Planning & Development Department'', which was split into four separate groups and supervised by Deputy Manager

Yoshio Sakamoto (born July 23, 1959) is a Japanese video game designer, director, and producer. He has worked at Nintendo since 1982. He has directed several games in the ''Metroid'' series. He is one of the most prominent members of Nintendo's former Resear ...

; and the ''Software 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.

Software Planning & Development Department

Production Group No. 1

The Production 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 with

second-party developer A video game developer is a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large business with em ...

s. The group manager and main producer was Nintendo-veteran

. The group is responsible for developing and producing games in the ''

WarioWare is a video game series, a spin-off of the ''Mario'' franchise. It comprises various video games created by Nintendo, starring the character Wario. The series began with '' Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3'', the first game to feature Wario as a p ...

'', ''

Rhythm Heaven ''Rhythm Heaven'', known as ''Rhythm Tengoku Gold'' in Japan, ''Rhythm Paradise'' in Europe, and ''Rhythm World'' in Korea, is a Rhythm game, rhythm video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS. It is the second game in the ...

'', '' Card Hero'', '' Tomodachi'' and the mainline ''

Metroid is an action-adventure game franchise created by Nintendo. The player controls the bounty hunter Samus Aran, who protects the galaxy from Space Pirates and other malevolent forces and their attempts to harness the power of the parasitic M ...

'' series.

=Notes

Production Group No. 2

The Production Group No. 2 was led by manager and

video game producer A video game producer is the top person in charge of overseeing development of a video game. History The earliest documented use of the term ''producer'' in games was by Trip Hawkins, who established the position when he founded Electronic Art ...

Hitoshi Yamagami. The group was primarily responsible for co-producing and supervising video games published by Nintendo and developed by

third-party developer A video game developer is a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large business with em ...

s from

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. They're responsible for producing and supervising games in the ''

Pokémon is a Japanese media franchise consisting of List of Pokémon video games, video games, Pokémon (TV series), animated series and List of Pokémon films, films, Pokémon Trading Card Game, a trading card game, and other related media. The fran ...

'', ''

F-Zero is a series of racing games published by Nintendo, developed by Nintendo EAD and other third-party companies. The first game was released for the Super Famicom in Japan in 1990. Its success prompted Nintendo to create sequels on subsequent co ...

'', '' Legendary Starfy'', ''

Fire Emblem is a Video games in Japan, Japanese fantasy tactical role-playing game franchise developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo. First produced and published for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1990, the series currently con ...

'', '' Dr. Mario'', ''

Endless Ocean ''Endless Ocean'' (known as ''Forever Blue'' in Japanese) is a scuba diving adventure game developed by Arika and published by Nintendo for the Wii. It is considered a spiritual successor to '' Everblue'', another scuba diving adventure game seri ...

'', ''

Fossil Fighters ''Fossil Fighters'' is a role-playing video game series published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS and Nintendo 3DS consoles. Its gameplay revolves around digging up and extracting dinosaur fossils, reviving them into supernatural "vivosaurs" and e ...

'', ''

Style Savvy ''Style Savvy'', known as ''Nintendo presents: Style Boutique'' in the PAL region and as in Japan, is a fashion video game developed by Syn Sophia and published by Nintendo. It was released for the Nintendo DS on October 23, 2008 in Japan, on Oc ...

'' and ''

Xenoblade Chronicles ''Xenoblade Chronicles'' is a series of action role-playing games developed by Monolith Soft and published by Nintendo. The series began with the original '' Xenoblade Chronicles'' game, published for the Wii in 2010 in Japan, and released in ...

'' series. In addition to co-producing games, the group also supervised the development of ''

Drill Dozer ''Drill Dozer'' is a platform video game developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy Advance. The game was released in 2005 in Japan, and in 2006 in North America. It was not released in Europe until it was released for th ...

'', developed by

Game Freak is a Japanese video game developer, best known as the primary developer and co-owners of the ''Pokémon (video game series), Pokémon'' series of role-playing video games. History Predating the video game company, ''Game Freak'' was a self- ...

=Notes

Production Group No. 3

The Production Group No. 3 was led by producer

and responsible for overseeing the development of titles from the ''

Metroid Prime ''Metroid Prime'' is a 2002 action-adventure game developed by Retro Studios and published by Nintendo for the GameCube. ''Metroid Prime'' is the fifth main '' Metroid'' game and the first to use 3D computer graphics and a first-person perspec ...

'', ''

Battalion Wars ''Battalion Wars'', released as in Japan, is a 2005 real-time tactics game developed by Kuju London and published by Nintendo for the GameCube. The player controls a vast array of units ranging from infantry, armoured divisions and aircraft, c ...

'', ''

Super Mario Strikers ''Super Mario Strikers'', known in Europe and Australia as ''Mario Smash Football'', is a 2005 Sports video game, sports video game developed by Next Level Games and published by Nintendo for the GameCube. The game's developers had worked on ''N ...

'', ''

Mario vs. Donkey Kong is a 2004 puzzle-platform game developed by Nintendo Software Technology and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy Advance. The game is the spiritual successor to ''Donkey Kong'', which was released in 1994 for the Game Boy. The gameplay revol ...

'', ''

Excite Excitation, excite, exciting, or excitement may refer to: * Excitation (magnetic), provided with an electrical generator or alternator * ''Exite'', a series of racing video games published by Nintendo starting with '' Excitebike'' * Excite (web por ...

'', ''

Paper Mario ''Paper Mario'' is a video game series and part of the ''Mario'' franchise, developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo. It combines elements from the role-playing, action-adventure, and puzzle genres. Players control a ...

'', '' Fluidity'', and ''

Donkey Kong Country ''Donkey Kong Country'', known in Japan as is a 1994 platform game developed by Rare (company), Rare and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). It is a Reboot (fiction), reboot of Nintendo's ''Donkey Kong'' ...

'' series.

=Notes

Production Group No. 4

The Production Group No. 4 was led by Hiroshi Sato and Toshiharu Izuno and responsible for overseeing the development of titles from the ''

Mario Party is a series of party video games created by Hudson Soft and owned by Nintendo. It features List of Mario franchise characters, characters from the Mario (franchise), ''Mario'' franchise in which up to four local players or Artificial inte ...

'', ''

Mario Sports There have been numerous sports games featuring ''Mario'' characters, based, among others, on tennis, golf, baseball, soccer, and various sports featured in the Olympic Games. The ''Mario Kart'' and ''F1'' series are not included in this list. ...

'', ''

Mario & Luigi ''Mario & Luigi'' (also known as ''Mario & Luigi RPG'' in Japanese regions) is a series of role-playing video games published by Nintendo and originally developed by AlphaDream prior to their bankruptcy. The series is a spin-off from Nintendo's t ...

'', ''

Yoshi Yoshi is a fictional dinosaur who appears in video games published by Nintendo. Yoshi debuted in '' Super Mario World'' (1990) on the SNES as Mario and Luigi's sidekick. Throughout the mainline '' Super Mario'' series, Yoshi typically serves ...

'', ''

Donkey Kong is a video game series and media franchise created by the Japanese game designer Shigeru Miyamoto for Nintendo. It follows the adventures of Donkey Kong (character), Donkey Kong, a large, powerful gorilla, and other members of the List of Don ...

'', and ''

Wii Party ''Wii Party'' is a 2010 party video game developed by NDcube and published by Nintendo for the Wii video game console. The game heavily borrows game play elements from the ''Mario Party'' series, another Nintendo franchise. It is also the firs ...

'' series.

=Notes

= * Co-production with

Eighting stylized as 8ing, is a Japanese video game developer and video game publisher, publisher. It was formerly known as It is known for its Shoot 'em up#Scrolling shooters, shoot 'em ups and its licensed fighting games. History Raizing and Eigh ...

. * Co-production with

NDcube formerly known as Nd Cube and later NDcube, is a Japanese video game developer and a subsidiary of Nintendo headquartered in Tokyo with an additional office in Sapporo. They are best known as the developers of the ''Mario Party'' series since ...

. * Co-production with

Cing (styled CiNG) was an independent video game developer based out of Fukuoka, Japan. The company, a small development house employing only 29 people, was founded in April 1999, and was run by Takuya Miyagawa, who served as President and CEO. Miyag ...

. * Co-production with

Hudson Hudson may refer to: People * Hudson (given name) * Hudson (surname) * Hudson (footballer, born 1986), Hudson Fernando Tobias de Carvalho, Brazilian football right-back * Hudson (footballer, born 1988), Hudson Rodrigues dos Santos, Brazilian f ...

. * Co-production with

INiS The International Nuclear Information System (INIS) hosts one of the world's largest collections of published information on the peaceful uses of nuclear science and technology. History One of the founding purposes of the International Atomic Ene ...

. * Co-production with

Camelot Camelot is a legendary castle and Royal court, court associated with King Arthur. Absent in the early Arthurian material, Camelot first appeared in 12th-century French romances and, since the Lancelot-Grail cycle, eventually came to be described ...

. * Co-production with

Paon is a Japanese video game developer. The company was founded in August 2004 as DP Inc. and merged with Paon Corporation, Ltd. in March 2015 to form Paon DP. Paon Corporation was founded on January 20, 1999. Through a partnership with Nintendo, ...

. * Co-production with AlphaDream. * Co-production with

Project Sora is a Japanese video game director and game designer best known as the creator of the ''Kirby'' and '' Super Smash Bros.'' series. Apart from his work on those series, he also led the design of ''Meteos'' in 2005 and directed '' Kid Icarus: Up ...

and

Sora Ltd. is a Japanese video game director and game designer best known as the creator of the '' Kirby'' and '' Super Smash Bros.'' series. Apart from his work on those series, he also led the design of '' Meteos'' in 2005 and directed '' Kid Icarus: ...

* Co-production with

Bandai Namco Studios is a Japanese video game development, video game developer headquartered in Kōtō, Tokyo and founded in 2012, with studios in Singapore and Malaysia. Bandai Namco Studios is a subsidiary of Bandai Namco Entertainment (formerly Bandai Namco Games ...

and

* Co-production with

Good-Feel (stylized as GoödFeël) is a Japanese video game developer. Good-Feel started in Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, in 2005 and opened a production facility in Tokyo in the same year. Their main focus had been educational games for the Nintendo DS, whic ...

. * Co-production with

Arzest is a Japanese video game development company that develops games for video game consoles. It was formed on June 25, 2010 by key members of Artoon, which was also founded by Executive Vice President Naoto Ohshima, best known as the character des ...

. * Co-production with

Artoon Artoon Co., Ltd. (株式会社アートゥーン Kabushiki-Gaisha Ātūn) was a Japanese video game developer established in 1999. It became a subsidiary of AQ Interactive in May 2004 and became a wholly owned subsidiary in June 2005. The team w ...

. * Co-production with

Namco Bandai Games is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game video game publisher, publisher, and the video game branch of the wider Bandai Namco Holdings group. Founded in 2006 as it is the successor to Namco's home and arcade video game ...

Software Development & Design Department

Deputy Manager: Masaru Nishita
''Nintendo Software Development & Design'' was an experimental software development team assembled by Nintendo Co., Ltd. president

. The team was originally assembled as a ''System Service Task Force'' that would develop all the unique internal system software for the

Nintendo DS The is a foldable handheld game console produced by Nintendo, released globally across 2004 and 2005. The DS, an initialism for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld games: two LCD screens worki ...

and

Nintendo Wii The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America, and in December 2006 for most other regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major home game console, ...

. The team was responsible for all the additional

Wii Channels The Wii system software is a set of updatable firmware versions and a software frontend on the Wii, a home video game console. Updates, which could be downloaded over the Internet or read from a Nintendo optical discs#Wii Optical Disc, game dis ...

,Nintendo
Iwata Asks: Wii Channels
/ref> the

Nintendo DSi system software The Nintendo DSi system software is a discontinued set of updatable firmware versions and operating system for the Nintendo DSi handheld video game console and its XL variant). Updates, which are downloaded via the system's Internet connection, ...

and more recently, the

Nintendo 3DS system software The Nintendo 3DS system software is an updatable operating system used for the Nintendo 3DS handheld system. The Nintendo Switch system software is believed to have evolved from the Nintendo 3DS operating system. Firmware The Nintendo 3DS fir ...

. 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 of Koichi Kawamoto, who was the original programmer of ''

'', and

, who was a longtime designer at

Nintendo EAD commonly abbreviated as Nintendo EAD and formerly known as Nintendo Research & Development No.4 Department (abbreviated as Nintendo R&D4), was the largest software development division within the Japanese video game company Nintendo. It was pr ...

. The department was also responsible for developing several subsequent

WiiWare WiiWare was a digital media entertainment service operated by Nintendo that allowed the download of games and applications developed for the Wii video game console. These games and applications could only be purchased and downloaded from the W ...

and

DSiWare This is a list of games and applications, collectively known as DSiWare, for the Nintendo DSi handheld game console, available for download via the DSi Shop and unplayable on earlier DS models. An update released for the Nintendo 3DS in June 20 ...

software.

Software Development Group

Manager/producer: Kiyoshi Mizuki
Software Development Group was responsible for developing software from the ''

Jam with the Band ''Jam with the Band'', known in Japan as is a music video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS handheld game console. It is the sequel to the Japan-exclusive '' Daigasso! Band Brothers'', which was released at the DS' la ...

'' and ''

Brain Age ''Brain Age'', known as ''Dr Kawashima's Brain Training'' in PAL regions, is a series of video games developed and published by Nintendo, based on the work of Ryuta Kawashima. Games The ''Brain Age'' games, known as ''Brain Training'' in Japan ...

'' series, among additional ''

Touch! Generations is a brand created by Nintendo to denote games on the Nintendo DS and Wii that are intended to appeal to a broader audience (mainly adults and the elderly) than the traditional gamer. Nintendo originally introduced the brand in Japan in April 2 ...

'' titles with partner developers. * Co-production with

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nintendo Software Planning And Development 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