Topic: Nintendo to unify console and handheld divisions in major organizational shift

[shingi_70]

http://www.theverge.com/2013/1/16/3881770/nintendo-to-unify-console-and-handheld-divisions-in-major

Nintendo's Wii U and 3DS consoles haven't performed badly so far, but there's a real sense that they may not match their predecessors' huge success. According to a Nikkei report, however, the company plans to merge both divisions into a single unit in a month's time, and will invest 30 billion yen (about $340 million) in a new Kyoto development facility to be opened by the end of the year. The structural shift is intended to speed up development by allowing the previously separate divisions to share knowledge and technology

From Gonintendo

- unifying console and portable divisions
- first organizational restructure in the company since 2004
- 130 employees from Nintendo's console development team will join 150 employees from its handheld division
- will be established February 16
- new development building is due for completion at the end of the year
- Nintendo hopes the move will encourage further connectivity between console and portable devices
- this includes the implementation of handheld devices as console controllers
- also includes the ability to continue playing their console game on their handheld when away from the couch

"In an effort to create more innovative and attractive products, Nintendo Co. will combine the development segments for its home video game consoles and handheld game devices.

The decision comes on the heels of recent releases of the Nintendo 3DS portable system in February 2011 and the Wii U home console last month. With more people using their smartphones and tablets for entertainment via the Internet, including games and videos, Nintendo aims to come up with next-generation game systems that will turn heads.

The two teams will eventually be integrated and the segment will be organized by function, such as circuits, mechanisms and design.

Game system development projects are becoming larger and taking longer to complete as the machines become more advanced. Nintendo apparently has its sights set on speeding up these projects by sharing development processes for consoles and handheld devices where possible and by reassigning personnel depending on the situation. It sees interactions between engineers as a potential hotbed of new ideas.

Such functions are already available with the Wii U, but Nintendo likely hopes to better streamline its products by tapping into such online services as Twitter and video sites."

Have to say while this was a kind time coming was hoping to see a major shift in development Studios Organization.

Also not sure how accurate but someone posted a site on neogaf called Kyoto reports talking about the different games the Nintendo outfit is working on.


http://kyoto-report.wikidot.com/nintendo-what-is-in-development-now

[BlackNMild2k1]

Kyoto report is done by Shikamaru Ninja (I think that's how you spell it). He's proven himself to be quite knowledgeable on lots of "Insider" Nintendo info.

[Ceric]

This is the perfect time for this to happen because the hardware divisions should be at their low time now.  I also believe the next Nintendo system the Handheld and Console will be pretty much one.

[alegoicoe]

Good, now we can have more cross platform games.

[ThePerm]

Another reason for it to happen is because the difference in power between what the 3ds and wii u can do is less. Theres no need to have 8 people making basically the same Yoshi character model. Or 10 people making basically the same brick texture.

[Ceric]

This is Hardware folks.

Not Software.  They already do things like share Mario Models and like.

[ThePerm]

so you're saying there is 280 people working on hardware at Nintendo? That seems to be a bit much for just hardware...im thinking this is a more company wide structure.

And you have to remember Nintendo for many years would hire engineers to work on software. Structurally Nintendo is going to be different than other companies because it has its roots from way back before higher numbers of specialized software programmers were a thing.

Nintendo several years back talked about how they were going to start sharing models, but it looks like a different Model for each game to me. So, obviously that wasn't working. I seriously don't understand what takes so long when making games anymore. If I were making games even from gamecube on then I would have more than enough resources to recycle to speed up development time. At some point the only thing about making a new game would be what new ability can the programmers add to my engine, and how can I change the game scenario. Everything elses would just be stages and props, and characters. If Nintendo makes 3 games on Wii U they shouldn't need to build many more  new resources from then on.

but thats just going on this version of the article.

[shingi_70]

Its for Hardware only.  That's why it says the console development team and Handheld development team are combining. Its cheaper and more efficient than having two separate divisions. It means the next Handheld and Console will be closer in design similar to the PS3/Vita.
Also if it were software development teams it would have been a bit more specific on it.