List of Nintendo developers
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is a list of current and former first-party, second-party, and devoted third-party game developers for Nintendo systems.
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[edit] First-party
A first party developer is a subsidiary of Nintendo and one in which Nintendo has a controlling interest in (51% or more ownership).
[edit] Current first-party
- Brownie Brown — Software developer consisting of former members of Squaresoft. Responsible for Magical Vacation and Magical Starsign, and for supporting Shigesato Itoi and HAL with Mother 3.
- Intelligent Systems — Established in 1986 by former members of Nintendo Research & Development 1 to develop games. Responsible for Metroid, Fire Emblem, Wario Ware, Card Hero series and Famicom Wars franchises.
- Monolith Soft — Founded in 1999 by a former member of Square Co., Nintendo bought a majority stake on April 27, 2007 from Namco Bandai. Developer of the Xenosaga series, as well as Namco x Capcom, and the Baten Kaitos series. Currently developing the upcoming Wii title Disaster: Day of Crisis and the DS titles Soma Bringer along with Eternal Frontier: Super Robot Wars Original Generation.
- Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development (Originally "Nintendo Research & Development 4") — Largest division at Nintendo. Managed by Shigeru Miyamoto. Responsible for the Mario, Star Fox, Zelda, Animal Crossing, Wii Series, and other franchises.
- Nintendo Software Technology Corporation — Redmond-based studio responsible for Metroid Prime Hunters, among others.
- Nintendo Software Planning and Development — Development division inside Nintendo. SPD was created during a corporate restructuring in 2004 and primarily assists other first party teams and manages overseas production of first party franchises.
- Retro Studios — Austin-based studio fully owned by Nintendo. Developer of the Metroid Prime games excluding Hunters and Pinball.
[edit] Defunct first-party
- NDCUBE — Developer of F-Zero: Maximum Velocity, Tube Slider, and various other Game Boy Advance and GameCube titles. The studio went into hiatus due to the corporate restructuring of Nintendo
- Nintendo Research & Development 1 (Merged into Nintendo EAD) — Responsible for games such as Metroid, Kid Icarus, and Super Mario Land.
- Nintendo Research & Development 2 (Merged into Nintendo EAD) — Responsible for the Super Mario Advance games on the Game Boy Advance and peripherals for Nintendo.
- Nintendo Integrated Research and Development (Nintendo IRD) — Responsible for the Punch-Out!! series and the StarTropics series of games, as well as Teleroboxer, though focused primarily on hardware research and design.
[edit] Second-party
A second-party developer is one that creates games exclusively for Nintendo systems through a contract agreement. Nintendo may or may not own a percentage of the studio, but not enough to give it a controlling interest.
[edit] Current second-party
- AlphaDream — Developer of Tomato Adventure (Japan only) and the Mario & Luigi games.
- Ambrella — Developer of Hey You, Pikachu!, Pokémon Channel, and Pokémon Dash.
- Game Freak — Developer of the Pokémon video game series and Drill Dozer.
- Genius Sonority — Developer of Pokémon Colosseum, its sequel, Pokémon XD, and the Pokémon puzzle game: Pokémon Trozei.
- HAL Laboratory — Developer of 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.
- Noise — Developer of the Custom Robo franchise.
[edit] Defunct second-party
- Clever Trick — Developer of Echo Delta.
- Param — Developer of Doshin the Giant.
- Saru Brunei — Developer of the GameCube title Cubivore: Survival of the Fittest
[edit] Former second-party
- Factor 5 — Known for Star Wars: Rogue Squadron series. Currently developing an unnamed game for the Wii.
- Rare — Although at one time under a 49% ownership by Nintendo, Rare is now owned by Microsoft. It was responsible for such titles as Donkey Kong Country/Land/64, GoldenEye 007, Banjo-Kazooie, Battletoads, Blast Corps, Perfect Dark, Jet Force Gemini, StarFox Adventures, Conker's Bad Fur Day, and Killer Instinct. It has, however, developed games for Nintendo handhelds after Microsoft's ownership, including Diddy Kong Racing DS. Currently developing Viva Pinata DS, a handheld version of the Xbox 360 game.
- Silicon Knights — Developed Eternal Darkness and co-developed with Konami on the remake of Metal Gear Solid, Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes.
[edit] Third-party
A third party developer is one that is not tied to any specific system. Those listed here have expressed explicit support for Nintendo systems, with some developers creating games exclusively for Nintendo systems.
[edit] Current Exclusive to Nintendo systems
- 5TH Cell - Developer of Drawn to Life series for Nintendo DS and Wii.
- Camelot Software Planning — Developer of Nintendo's Mario Golf and Mario Tennis series as well as the Golden Sun franchise. Recently developed We Love Golf for the Wii, published by Capcom.
- EA Salt Lake — Formerly known as Headgate Studios, it was bought by Electronic Arts and is now creating games exclusively for the Wii and Nintendo DS.
- Fall Line — Salt Lake City based game developer formed by Disney to create games exclusive to Nintendo systems.
- Firebrand Games — Develops racing games, such as Codemasters' Race Driver: Create and Race for the Nintendo DS. It is developing for the Wii as well.
- Fuse Games — A British Pinball game company who made Mario Pinball Land and Metroid Prime Pinball.
- Jet Black Games — Created by former developers at EA Canada, it have announced that it will license and develop games exclusively for Nintendo's hardware.
- Jupiter — Developer of the Nintendo DS game Spectrobes, the Pokemon Pinball series, and Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories among other titles.
- Kuju Entertainment London — Developer of the Battalion Wars series of games; the London studio is exclusive to Nintendo.
- Shin'en — Developer of the Nanostray games for the DS and Wii.
- skip Ltd. — Developer of the Chibi-Robo series, the bit Generations series (Japan only), and GiFTPiA (Japan only).
[edit] Not Exclusive
- Artoon — Created Yoshi Topsy-Turvy and Yoshi's Island DS.
- Atlus — Developer of the Nintendo exclusive Trauma Center series , Etrian Odyssey series along with a number of other games.
- Big John Games - Developer of original IP's Plushees DS and Spitfire Heroes DS.
- Capcom — Has developed and published a number of games for Nintendo, including those from the esteemed Zelda (portable) franchise. Developing/Developed the Wii exclusives Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles , Sengoku Basara 2: heroes , Monster Hunter Tri: 3, and Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure.
- Cing — Developer of the Nintendo DS games Trace Memory and Hotel Dusk: Room 215 and the forthcoming Ousama Monogatari
- Dimps- Developer of Dragon Ball Z: Budokai and Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 2 for GameCube
- Grasshopper Manufacture — Led by Goichi Suda, is responsible for Killer 7 for the Nintendo GameCube, Contact for the Nintendo DS, and No More Heroes for the Wii.
- Hudson Soft — Now belongs to Konami; its first collaborated game with Nintendo was Wario Blast: Featuring Bomberman. Hudson Soft also develops the Mario Party series, though its involvement with the Mario franchise has dated back to Super Mario Bros. Special, which was released around the same time as The Lost Levels.
- iNiS — Developer of the rhythm games Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan and its Western adaptation Elite Beat Agents.
- Konami — Created the Nintendo GameCube exclusive DDR: Mario Mix and the Wii exclusive Elebits. Recently developed Dewy's Adventure and DDR: Hottest Party for the Wii, along with other projects, such as Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes.
- Mitchell Corporation — Developer of Polarium and Magnetica titles for the Nintendo DS.
- Namco Bandai — NBGI had published many anime titles on Nintendo platforms like One Piece,Gundam, Dragon Ball Z, etc, along with the Soul Calibur Legends and Tales of Symphonia . Nintendo and Namco have collaborated on several games such as Pac-Man Vs., Star Fox: Assault, Mario Superstar Baseball, and the Donkey Konga series; belongs to the Triforce arcade system.
- Next Level Games — Creator of the Mario Strikers and Mario Strikers Charged titles.
- Nexon - Developer of MapleStory DS, based on the MMORPG, MapleStory.
- Paon — A Japanese development studio responsible for the games featuring Donkey Kong, following the sale of Rare to Microsoft.
- Sega — Nintendo's former rival in the console market, Sega has since brought a number of its popular franchises to Nintendo systems, including the Sonic the Hedgehog series, the Phantasy Star series, and the Super Monkey Ball series. It also created Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games, the first game in which the respective mascots for Nintendo and Sega have appeared in an official game together.
- Sora Ltd. - Founded by former HAL Laboratory employee Masahiro Sakurai, Sora developed Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Wii.
- Spike - Developed the Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi series for the Wii.
- Square Enix — Nintendo has in the past published Square Enix's games for the Western market, including the popular Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest series of games. The popular RPG publisher has licensed Nintendo's characters in the past, developing Super Mario RPG on the SNES and Mario Hoops 3-on-3 and Itadaki Street for the DS. The company is currently developing Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers for the Wii and the highly anticipated Dragon Quest IX for the Nintendo DS.
- Treasure Co. Ltd — Founded by ex-Konami workers, the studio has previously worked with Nintendo to make Wario World and Mischief Makers. The studio is most notable among gamers for the Nintendo 64 formerly Japan-only (now on Virtual Console) game Sin and Punishment.
- WayForward Technologies — Develops games for the Game Boy and Nintendo DS systems. Recently developed Looney Tunes: Duck Amuck and Contra 4 for the Nintendo DS.
- Limelight Software Ltd - Developer for handheld market since 1990 including Nintendo DS, Pocket PC and Smartphone [1] [2]
[edit] Defunct
- Flagship — Nintendo, Capcom, and Sega, founded the joint venture Flagship to develop games and assist in the development of games. As of June 1, 2007 Flagship was closed [1]. Working with Nintendo's game designer Shigeru Miyamoto, it had developed The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages and Seasons, The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap, Kirby and the Amazing Mirror and Kirby Squeak Squad.
[edit] References
N-Sider: Nintendo Revolution FAQ
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