Topic: RUMOR - Iwata planning huge restructuring of EAD, R&D

[tendoboy1984]

I read this on GoNintendo.

By December 2012, Iwata hopes to put in place a restructure of R&D
- this revolves around the new Kyoto R&D building
- building should house over 1200 developers
- Nintendo has continued to expand R&D operations in its Tokyo sector
- several veteran developers from Square, SEGA, Tecmo Koei, Epoch, and Konami can easily transition to join the EAD Tokyo development section
- Shigeru Miyamoto is expected to leave the EAD Division most likely by December 2012
- Miyamoto has vocalized his intent of stepping aside as General Manager of EAD
- he may create a third development sector where he would work with younger developers
- Miyamoto would focus on smaller resources, and work faster to develop games

2013 Expected Changes
- Major shift in Kyoto development sources involving 3 R&D buildings
- Shigeru Miyamoto stepping down as EAD General Manager
- Takashi Tezuka becoming new EAD General Manager (he is in charge of the Super Mario series)
- New groups / New producers announced for EAD Kyoto / SPD Kyoto
- EAD Tokyo expansion / Masahiro Sakurai possibly joining EAD Tokyo
- New division lead by Miyamoto with younger staff focused on smaller scale games
- Miyamoto's departure inspiring new IPs for the EAD Kyoto Division

[Anth0ny]

EAD Tokyo 3 managed by Sakurai.

I'm okay with this.

[BlackNMild2k1]

I was just about to post about this, but I'll just post the original source since I think that's who deserves the credit for the compilation.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=43146384&postcount=1

[nickmitch]

I think a nice shake up like that is just what the doctor ordered. It'd be nice if the Wii U eShop had a new Miyamoto  game every few months. And I'd love to see what Sakurai does with that position.

[CM30]

I hope this is accurate.  Because not only does Sakurai working at Nintendo and Miyamoto working on new IPs sound awesome, it means we might get more interesting stuff in the Mario series too.  I mean, think back to Galaxy and how apparently Miyamoto got annoyed that one of the other people working on it wanted to put more story in the game.  Or some of the design decisions with New Super Mario Bros. I'd love to see some more new ideas in the series.

[ThePerm]

imagine if Chris Nolan was making a Batman movie and Tim Burton came in and said...nah don't do that.

[TJ Spyke]

A more apt analogy would be the studio executive in charge of the movie doing it (since he would have the authority). Miyamoto still had authority over the Galaxy games.

[Ian Sane]

I hope it happens as I've wanted it for a while.  Miyamoto is a brilliant game designer but I don't want EVERY Nintendo game to feel like his.  I feel that Nintendo lacks variety and having one guy overseeing almost everything is likely the cause of that.

I want Nintendo's QA to remain high but I want their different dev teams to have their own unique styles.  The QA is really the important part of Nintendo's identity.  The other stuff are just frivilous details.  As long as the quality remains high, Nintendo games will not be compromised by Miyamoto not overseeing.

[marty]

Hopefully this means teams will be more permanent and more responsible for their games.  I believe it was a Shiggy interview a year or two ago where he stated Nintendo would constantly rearrange teams to keep things interesting... which apparently didn't work.  So many Nintendo's games seem to be pieced together which doesn't really make for a deep experience.  Maybe the restructure will bring back games with tighter focus and more coherence.

[the asylum]

Whatever changes eventually produce new F-Zero, I fully support.

[toddra]

I am not sure who most of those people are or what any of that stuff means, I don't care much for "new" or "fresh" I just want them to continue making quality titles in their main franchises above all else.