Divisions of Nintendo

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This page is about the different divisions of Nintendo.

[edit] First-party

• HAL Laboratory — Responsible for the Kirby franchise, Super Smash Bros. series, the Eggerland series (also known as the Adventures of Lolo series), the development of the e-Reader, and co-produced the EarthBound/Mother series.
• Intelligent Systems — Established in 1986 by former members of Nintendo Research & Development 1 to develop games. Responsible for Metroid, Fire Emblem, Paper Mario, and Nintendo Wars franchises.
• Nintendo EAD Tokyo — Youngest group inside Nintendo; responsible for Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat and the upcoming Super Mario Galaxy for Wii.
• Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development (Originally "Nintendo Research & Development 4") — Largest division at Nintendo. Managed by Shigeru Miyamoto. Responsible for the Mario, Zelda, and F-Zero franchises.
• Nintendo Integrated Research & Development (Originally "Nintendo Research & Development 3") — Produced arcade games in the 1980s.
• Nintendo Licensing Division — Produces (and licenses) first-party games by independent developers.
• Nintendo Research & Development 1 — Responsible for games such as Metroid, Kid Icarus, and Super Mario Land.
• Nintendo Research & Development 2.
• Nintendo Software Technology Corporation — Redmond-based studio responsible for Metroid Prime: Hunters and Project H.A.M.M.E.R.
• The Pokémon Company - The division that licenses Pokémon games to different developers.
• Retro Studios — Austin-based studio wholly owned by Nintendo. Developer of the Metroid Prime games excluding Hunters.

[edit] Second-party

These second-party game companies have contracts with Nintendo to only make games for Nintendo and not its competitors. Nintendo may also own majority stock in these companies:

• AlphaDream — developer of Tomato Adventure (Japan only), Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, and Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time.
• Brownie Brown — Software developer consisting of former members of Squaresoft. Responsible for the Magical Vacation (Magical Starsign outside of Japan) series, and for supporting Shigesato Itoi and HAL with Mother 3 (Japan only).
• Camelot Software Planning - Developer of Nintendo's Mario Golf and Mario Tennis series as well as the original GBA RPG series, Golden Sun, and its sequel, Golden Sun: The Lost Age.
• Cing - One of Nintendo's newest Second Parties, they are responsible for Trace Memory. They are currently making Hotel Dusk: Room 215, and are considering a sequel to Trace Memory.
• Creatures, Inc. (formerly known as Ape, Inc.) - Collaborated with Game Freak and Nintendo to make the Pokémon series. Also made the Game Boy Camera and the EarthBound series.
• Fall Line - Salt Lake City based game developer formed by Disney and Nintendo. They will be making Disney games exclusive to Nintendo.
• Fuse Games — A British Pinball game company who made Mario Pinball Land and Metroid Prime Pinball.
• Game Freak — developer of the Pokémon video game series and Drill Dozer.
• Genius Sonority — Newly formed developer; responsible for Pokémon Colosseum, its sequel, Pokémon XD, and the Pokémon puzzle game: Pokémon Trozei.
• iQue — Responsible for Nintendo products in China, partially owned by Nintendo.
• NDCUBE — Developer of F-Zero: Maximum Velocity and various other Game Boy Advance and GameCube titles.
• NOISE - Developers of the Custom Robo franchise.
• skip Ltd. - Developers of Chibi-Robo series.

[edit] Devoted third-party companies

Nintendo has close ties with or owns minimal stock in these companies and has them make games with their franchises:

• Artoon — has made Yoshi Topsy-Turvy and Yoshi's Island DS.
• Atlus — Ported Cubivore to the GameCube from the Nintendo 64, is the developer of the Nintendo exclusive Trauma Center series, and supported the Virtual Boy.
• Bandai — Recently merged with Namco; Nintendo owns stock in both companies and rumors have stated that Nintendo may attempt a takeover bid for the company.
• Capcom — Nintendo and Sega partially own a secondary developer to Capcom called Flagship; they helped to make the GBC and GBA Zelda games and the GBA Kirby games. Capcom are the makers of games such as Mega Man and Resident Evil.
• Crossbeam Studios Entertainment - newer developers that are creating titles such as Orb, Thorn, and Darkness.
• Hudson Soft — Now belongs to Konami; its first collaborated game with Nintendo was Wario Blast: Featuring Bomberman, which featured Bomberman, Hudson's flagship character. Hudson Soft also has collaborated with Nintendo to make the wildly popular Mario Party series, though their involvement with the Mario franchise has dated back to Super Mario Bros. Special, which was released around the same time as the Lost Levels.
• Konami — Konami has made games based on Nintendo's franchises such as Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix. Nintendo had also arranged a collaboration with Konami and Silicon Knights, then a Nintendo second party, in the creation of Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes for the GameCube. Solid Snake, from the Metal Gear franchise, will also make an appearance in Super Smash Bros. Brawl as a special visiting character, and are developing the Wii exclusive Elebits.
• Midway Games — For the arcades, Midway has helped Nintendo with Killer Instinct and the Cruis'n games. Midway are the makers of the Rampage, Mortal Kombat and Spy Hunter series.
• Namco — Nintendo and Namco have collaborated on several games such as Pac-Man Vs. (by Miyamoto), Star Fox: Assault, Mario Superstar Baseball, and the Donkey Konga series; belongs to the Triforce arcade system. Namco also had Nintendo's permission to used Link from Nintendo's Legend of Zelda series as a playable exclusive character on the Nintendo GameCube version of Soul Calibur II alongside Todd McFarlane's Necrid. Rumors have circulated that Nintendo is planning a takeover bid of Namco, along with Bandi.
• NIBRIS - NIBRIS is an upstart Polish developer devoted only to the Wii and the Nintendo DS. Its upcoming titles include Sadness and Raid over the River.
• Panasonic — Not a game company, it does however help Nintendo with technology and also made the Q multimedia console.
• Rare — Although at one time under a 49% ownership with Nintendo, Rare is now owned by Microsoft. It is responsible for such titles as Donkey Kong Country/Land/64, GoldenEye 007, Banjo-Kazooie, Battletoads, Perfect Dark, Jet Force Gemini, Conker's Bad Fur Day, and Killer Instinct. The company has developed 5 titles for the Game Boy Advance while under Microsoft's roof. Rare will also be developing for the Nintendo DS. Rare's first DS project is an expansion/sequel to the well-known N64 game Diddy Kong Racing.
• Sega — Nintendo's former rival in the console market. Sega made F-Zero GX/AX and also belongs to the Triforce arcade system. They're responsible for games like the Sonic the Hedgehog series, the Phantasy Star series, and the Super Monkey Ball series. They have also ported Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2 from DreamCast to GameCube. They are supporting the Virtual Console (Wii) by having a "best of" selection of downloadable classics from the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive.
• Square Enix — Nintendo has published Square/Square Enix's Final Fantasy games on the NES, SNES, Game Boy Advance, and GameCube. Games that appeared on the GBA and GCN could also be registered on Nintendo's website (through a My Nintendo account). Square Enix has also recently announced that it will release two games for the Wii: Dragon Quest Swords and Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers. Nintendo has allowed Square-Enix to put Mario characters in the upcoming Itadaki Street
• TOSE — Responsible for the Game & Watch Gallery series and the Legend of Stafy series (Japan only).
• Treasure Co. Ltd — Treasure was formed by ex-Konami workers who promised they would never produce sequels of their franchises (but made a sequel to Gunstar Heroes and Radiant Silvergun (Ikaruga)). The company worked with Nintendo to make Wario World and Mischief Makers, and has also produced many Japan-only games, including Sin and Punishment. It has very close ties with both Nintendo and Sega.