Nintendo To Merge Handheld and Console Development Teams

JonB

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Sep 16, 2012
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Nintendo To Merge Handheld and Console Development Teams



Nintendo's move was prompted by increased competition from tablet and smartphone gaming.

Japanese news sources report that Nintendo will rapidly integrate their console and mobile gaming divisions into a single business unit by February 16th. The aim of the merged divisions is, naturally, to develop next generation hardware that according to Nikkei "will turn heads." The new unit will operate out of a $340 million facility to be constructed near Nintendo's Kyoto HQ by the end of 2013. The report intimates that Nintendo is making the move due to increased competition from tablet and smartphone gaming. By uniting the divisions, Nintendo is hoping to improve interoperability of its mobile games and consoles. Having both teams in the same building, under the same management, will also allow them greater latitude to cross-pollinate ideas. The initial united team will consist of 130 console and 150 handheld engineers.

Given the increasing similarity of Nintendo's console to a tablet, and Nintendo's willingness to experiment with new forms of hardware, it will be interesting to see what comes out of more unified mobile and console development at Nintendo. Whether this move was a long time coming, or is a response by Nintendo to the perceived success of the Wii U launch [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/121462-Wii-U-Sells-30-Million-More-Than-Wii-at-Launch], remains to be seen.

Source: Engadget [http://www.inside-games.jp/article/2013/01/16/62972.html]


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weirdee

Swamp Weather Balloon Gas
Apr 11, 2011
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I hope there's some corporate darwinism destined for those who were responsible for certain mistakes during the past year...
 

TheProfessor234

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Aug 20, 2010
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If it means better games, I'm all for it.

What I would really like is something that relates between a handheld and a console. Way back when with Metroid Fusion and Metroid Prime, if you beat both games and connected them through the Gamecube, you could unlock the armors to use in the other game.

Do things like that. That was cool.
 

Mr.Mattress

Level 2 Lumberjack
Jul 17, 2009
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Huh, this'll be neat to see what comes out of it. I'm not expecting them to do anything for years though (Other then maybe a WiiU with larger RAM). But here's hoping the handheld after the 3DS is a new Gameboy! I miss the Gameboy line...

EDIT: Oh my gosh, I just learned something... In a 2011 interview, (Shigeru) Miyamoto made mention that Nintendo should be structured to operated without him before he leaves the company. [http://wiiudaily.com/2013/01/nintendo-merge-handheld-console/]

Shigeru Miyamoto is gonna leave Nintendo Soon!!
 

iniudan

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Apr 27, 2011
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weirdguy said:
I hope there's some corporate darwinism destined for those who were responsible for certain mistakes during the past year...
Nintendo has one bad year in their whole history, that go back to 19th century and since they're Japanese, most of those working there are there since their 20s, lot of upper management are most likely people with over 25 years of experience of how the company work, not really something you can replace easily, without destroying a whole lot of thing along the way, since that said upper management are basically people there are there since Game & Watch and Famicom day.
 

weirdee

Swamp Weather Balloon Gas
Apr 11, 2011
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iniudan said:
weirdguy said:
I hope there's some corporate darwinism destined for those who were responsible for certain mistakes during the past year...
Nintendo has one bad year in their whole history, that go back to 19th century and since they're Japanese, most of those working there are there since their 20s, lot of upper management are most likely people with over 25 years of experience of how the company work, not really something you can replace easily, without destroying a whole lot of thing along the way, since that said upper management are basically people there are there since Game & Watch and Famicom day.
I was actually referring to the people responsible for sticker star
 

Revnak_v1legacy

Fixed by "Monday"
Mar 28, 2010
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weirdguy said:
iniudan said:
weirdguy said:
I hope there's some corporate darwinism destined for those who were responsible for certain mistakes during the past year...
Nintendo has one bad year in their whole history, that go back to 19th century and since they're Japanese, most of those working there are there since their 20s, lot of upper management are most likely people with over 25 years of experience of how the company work, not really something you can replace easily, without destroying a whole lot of thing along the way, since that said upper management are basically people there are there since Game & Watch and Famicom day.
I was actually referring to the people responsible for sticker star
That was Intelligent Systems. They are a studio Nintendo owns, like Hal. They also make Fire Emblem, among other games, the latest of which was extremely successful though has yet to be released outside of Japan.
 

xPixelatedx

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Jan 19, 2011
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...Ok. So, does this mean I will one day be able to play my wii virtual console games on my 3DS? Because if not, GTFO. Seriously, there is not a single good reason to separate the two virtual consoles. Combine them already.
 

Strazdas

Robots will replace your job
May 28, 2011
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Well. its nintendo. im at a loss of words to describe how i feel now. hopefully this spike will finally break the wheel, for it seems their horses are made out of stardust.
 

Olas

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Dec 24, 2011
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This seems like a good idea and a natural direction to take, There's essentially no distinction between consoles and handhelds anymore in terms of gameplay capability anyway.