Divisions of Nintendo

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This page is about the different divisions of Nintendo.

[edit] First-party

• 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).
• 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 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. Currently working on the forthcoming Super Mario Galaxy for Wii.
• 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. In 2005 it was merged with Nintendo EAD along with R&D 1 in a reorganization effort throughout the company.
• 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 and Pinball.

[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.
• Ambrella - Developers of Hey You, Pikachu!, Pokémon Channel, and Pokémon Dash.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Nexon Corporation - An MMO developer that was the creator of Maple Story and War Rock, NEXON recently announced that it has partnered with Nintendo, and will be bringing some of it's MMOs to Nintendo consoles.
• 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: Survival of the Fittest 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.
• Crossbeam Studios Entertainment - newer developers that are creating titles such as Orb, Thorn, and Darkness.
• Fall Line - Salt Lake City based game developer formed by Disney and Nintendo. They will be making Disney games exclusive to Nintendo. Their first titles are the Meet the Robinsons and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End for the Wii.
• Flagship — Nintendo, as well as Capcom and Sega, fund Flagship to develop games or assist in the development of games. Some of their notable efforts include developing The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages and Seasons for the Game Boy Color (with supervision from Shigeru Miyamoto), The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap for the Game Boy Advance, and Kirby and the Amazing Mirror, also for the Game Boy Advance.
• 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 have created Wii exclusives Elebits and Dewey's Adventure.
• 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 Bandai.
• 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, Diddy Kong Racing DS, is an expansion/sequel to the well-known Nintendo 64 game.
• 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. It has also published Enix's Dragon Warrior for NES, and the Soul Blazer Trilogy for SNES in the West. 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. They will also be releasing Dragon Quest IX on The Nintendo DS. Nintendo has allowed Square-Enix to place 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. 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.
• id software - Company well known for the Quake and Doom series. Games such as Doom 64 have been released for the Nintendo 64.