Gaming News & Discussion

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The source that stated Leon would be the protagonist of the prologue has rectified himself and now claims that he will be the protagonist for the whole game, not just the prologue. Whether he'll be the only protagonist or not isn't clear.

I'm no market research expert but as far as I know you don't enter a new ecosystem and try to find a foothold by insulting the current client base and being hard headed. If SONY truly intends to have a significant share in this market it needs to understand that the players here are not limited to a console and in fact many of them have chosen to avoid the limitations of consoles. The current strategy of SONY however completely disregards this simple fact and tries to impose on PC players the same limitations that can be found in the PlayStation ecosystem. What do you think is SONY hoping to achieve by following its current strategy?

i dont get what's the big deal here?

surely a country like the Phillippines with 100 mil. plus people with a huge market in plain Sony products should have their own representation on PSN?

What's the big deal? if you can sell hard products and PS5s why cant you support them? you're taking in their money arent you?

Sony isnt a poor company? this is supposedly the #1 games console???

Hello again! About 6 months ago, I put together that got some positive feedback, and with this week’s double-whammy of the Switch successor kinda being announced and a direct being confirmed for June, I figured now was as good a time as any to put out an updated version so folks can know where things stand and have something to chew on while they wait. My intent is to update this post after the June direct with any new information. Please let me know if anything's borked, as formatting big posts on reddit can get a bit wonky and some of these links are getting old

Nintendo Entertainment Planning and Development (EPD): Formed in 2015 as part of a restructuring that unified Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development (EAD) and Nintendo Software Planning and Development (SPD). When people talk about “in-house Nintendo”, this is usually what they mean. EPD groups are primarily small producer/director-led teams that then scale up and pull from a shared “pool” of developers as projects get further into development. EPD’s many sub-groups can essentially be divided into those that primarily develop their own games and those focused more on overseeing/collaborating with other studios (both non-EPD Nintendo studios as well as fully external developers), though there are exceptions and gray areas

Development-focused groups

• EPD 3: The Zelda team; with Tears of the Kingdom DLC , they are presumed to have moved onto the next major Zelda title

• and both reported that a build of Breath of the Wild running on Switch 2-comparable hardware was shown behind closed doors at Gamescom 2023 featuring 4K60fps and “erased” load times; however, these reports also stressed that this was intended primarily as a tech demo and isn’t necessarily indicative of a next-gen update or remaster being planned for release

• Papagenos:

  • capitalized letters spell out “This is a hint”

• , , , and have all previously claimed or alluded to the WiiU versions of Wind Waker and Twilight Princess coming to Switch (often speculated/reported as being a double-pack); nobody's gotten the timing right on this, but these are often framed as finished ports that Nintendo is sitting on for one reason or another.

  • Nate the Hate:

  • Grubb:

  • Kit&Krysta: [Krysta: “I know they exist, they’re in, they’re, uh, they’re, they, they’re done I think they’re just gonna sit on it. But I do not think they’re gonna talk about this at all, for a while”] ()

• EPD 4: The “experimental” team behind games such as Labo, Ring Fit Adventure, and Nintendo Switch Sports. Typically their games feature bespoke peripherals or prioritize using a system's hardware features for novel gameplay. Most recently released Everybody 1-2 Switch (co-developed with NDcube) in June 2023.

• EPD 5: Animal Crossing and Splatoon. Most recently released Side Order, a roguelike DLC mode for Splatoon 3, in February 2024

  • Pre-release, Splatoon 3 was confirmed to get 2 years of support; barring a content extension, the game should get its final content update this year around September

  • Should note that while the two series typically share a producer, there’s historically been little to no overlap in directors, so it’s not impossible for both Animal Crossing and Splatoon to have games in active development at once

• EPD 8: Also known as EPD Tokyo since the rest of EPD is based out of Nintendo’s Kyoto HQ, this is the 3D Mario team (also Donkey Kong Jungle Beat and Captain Toad; co-developed the NES Remix games with indieszero)

• 2020 hiring call for a

• 2020 job listing for a

• Rumors of an EPD 8 Donkey Kong game:

  • LonelyGoomba

  • Nintendo Life:

  • : VV were working on open world 3D DK game since 2016, project was shelved and moved to EPD 8 in 2018

  • DK Vine: A DK game had been in development at an external studio before Nintendo decided to bring the series in-house;

  • Liam Robertson: : Refutes the notion that Miyamoto was heavily contributing design ideas. A DK game codenamed “Freedom” was a demo made by VV and pitched to Nintendo, worked on for “a little over 6 months starting from the end development of on Skylanders Superchargers in September 2015”; “A throughline between the conversations I had with former workers was that they had all heard that Nintendo had given them some positive feedback on their demo”. Ultimately killed by Activision higher-ups, who felt VV’s resources were better spent on franchises such as Call of Duty and Destiny, in spring 2016

    • on the subject of Vicarious Visions’ project potentially being moved to EPD: ;[ [“Nintendo] hadn’t made a decision either way on funding it when it was shut down.”] ()

• EPD 9: Mario Kart, ARMS (and Nintendogs once upon a time).

• With Mario Kart Tour and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe’s Booster Course Pass both receiving their final content updates towards the end of 2023, they’ve probably been working on the next Mario Kart game (either that or LEGS)

• EPD 10: Pikmin and 2D Mario (including Mario Maker). Launched both Pikmin 4 (co-developed with Eighting) and Super Mario Bros. Wonder in 2023.

• Unclear if there are any plans for either Pikmin 4 or Mario Wonder to get DLC (on WiiU, both Pikmin 3 and New Super Mario Bros. U received paid DLC)

• speculation that the Pikmin 4 Japanese website possibly hinted at DLC via pictures not currently in the game:

Oversight and collaborative groups

• EPD 2 has the broadest responsibilities of these groups, through which EPD gets a hand in projects including Kirby, Mario Party, Smash, Fire Emblem, Bayonetta, Xenoblade, and Pokemon, and others

• EPD 6 generally sticks to to overseeing Intelligent Systems’ non-Fire Emblem games (i.e. Paper Mario, WarioWare) as well as all games developed by Retro Studios and Next Level Games.

• EPD 7 is a bit hard to place, but for simplicity’s sake I’m putting it here; as SPD 1 they developed multiple games on their own (notably the Rhythm Heaven and Tomodachi games), but after Nintendo shook up its internal structure in the late WiiU era and SPD 1 became EPD 7, they appear not to have the capacity for solo projects. Instead, all their projects as EPD 7 have been in collaboration with external studios and include the Famicom Detective Club remakes developed with MAGES as well as MercurySteam’s recent Metroid games

• in addition to their confirmed (a 3rd person action-RPG in partnership with 505 Games); MercurySteam put out 2 games in 2017 (Samus Returns and Spacelords) and 2021 (Metroid Dread and American McGee Presents: Scrapland Remastered), so it’s very possible for them to have two projects in development at once

• EPD 1 stands as something of a mystery, as just about every series it would previously have managed and overseen has seemingly been moved under EPD 2 in recent years; its current status and possible projects are unclear

Other Nintendo-owned Studios: Mario World outside of EPD

• 1-Up Studio (formerly Brownie Brown):

  • As Brownie Brown, developed games such as Magical Vacation, Sword of Mana, and A Kappa’s Trail; co-developed Mother 3 with HAL Laboratory

  • As 1-Up, acts as a support studio primarily for Nintendo EPD titles (most frequently EPD 8 projects, though also credited in occasional non-EPD 8 games like Tri-Force Heroes, Ring Fit Adventure, and Animal Crossing New Horizons)

• iQue: Previously distributed Nintendo games and consoles in China under the iQue Player branding; with Tencent now acting as Nintendo’s official distributor in the region, iQue’s primary role has been Chinese localization

• developed the N64 emulator used for WiiU Virtual Console, Super Mario 3D All-Stars, and NSO

• , suggesting an expanded role in game development (presumably as a support studio)

• Monolith Soft: Tokyo studio handles the Xenoblade series, Kyoto studio does support for EPD 3/EPD 5 projects; most recent solo release was 2023’s Future Redeemed, the DLC story expansion to Xenoblade Chronicles 3

• 2017 job listing for

• 2023 job listing for ;

• NDcube: Mario Party (from 9 onwards), Clubhouse Games, various other party game/mini game titles (also F-Zero Maximum Velocity on GBA)

• Most recently released 2023’s Everybody 1-2 Switch (co-developed with EPD 4)

• Next Level Games: Luigi’s Mansion 2 and 3, Mario Strikers series, Punch-Out Wii, Metroid Prime Federation Force

• Since 2013’s Luigi’s Mansion 2, Next Level has released a new game every 3 years; With Mario Strikers Battle League releasing and wrapping support in 2022, they should have a new game in 2025 (assuming they stick to this 3 year cycle)

• Possibly working on the Luigi’s Mansion 2 remaster scheduled for late June 2024

  • Nintendo Prime in March 2023:

    • Nate the Hate on Twitter when asked if the F-Zero project he heard about was F-Zero 99:

• Nintendo European Research and Development (NERD) (Formerly Mobiclip/Actimagine): Primarily handles most of Nintendo’s emulation needs (NES/SNES emulators in the mini consoles and NSO, GB/GBA for NSO, and the Gamecube/Wii emulator used in Mario 3D All-Stars/Pikmin 1+2). Frequently credited in “novel technology”-heavy titles such as EPD 4 projects and Velan Studios’ Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit

• In addition to ongoing NSO work, served as a support studio for Tears of the Kingdom

• Most recently developed Pikmin 1+2 along with the Porting Technology Development Team (part of Nintendo Platform Technology Development, Nintendo’s hardware&tech division)

• Nintendo Pictures (formerly Dynamo Pictures): Animation and motion capture studio

• As Dynamo Pictures, credited on games and media such as Metroid Other M, Monster Hunter Stories, Persona 5, and the Pikmin shorts

• As Nintendo Pictures, credited on Tears of the Kingdom (special thanks), Pikmin 4 (very special thanks), Mario Wonder (character design/character action design/field design/cinematic design/technical support/project management/special thanks), Super Mario RPG remake (character art/animation art/technical art), and Another Code Recollection (very special thanks)

• Nintendo Software Technology (NST): Ridge Racer 64, Pokemon Puzzle League (a reskin of Intelligent Systems’ shelved Panel de Pon 64), Wave Race Blue Storm, 1080 Avalanche, Mario vs DK series, Metroid Prime Hunters, F-Zero 99, support work for indie publishing partnerships (Snipperclips, The Stretchers, Good Job), port work+new content for EPD games (Mario Maker 3DS, Captain Toad Switch/3DS, 3D World+Bowser’s Fury)

• most recently put out a remake of the original Mario vs Donkey Kong in February 2024

• Upon F-Zero 99’s launch, dataminers found

• Retro Studios: Metroid Prime series, Donkey Kong Country Returns & Tropical Freeze, support for Mario Kart 7

• Retro took over development of a rebooted Metroid Prime 4 about 5 years ago

  • PapaGenos: ; believes it is still “a Switch title and not specifically made for the Switch 2”

    • Nate the Hate:

  • ; stresses that plans may have changed and having assets prepared for May isn’t the same as “something happens in May”

  • Brazil, talking about the June Direct:

  • XboxEra’s Nick Baker

• Jeff Grubb has previously reported that Prime 2 and 3 would also get remasters, but isn’t expecting Prime 1-level “big boy remasters” (as he’s phrased it); .

  • He also said that back in July 2023 (fortunately he did not bet his hair on this one)

• reddit user Ncleknows:

• Systems Research and Development (SRD): Programming assistance on dating back as far as the Famicom/NES port of Donkey Kong in 1983 before eventually being acquired by Nintendo in 2022

Close Partners and Frequent Collaborators: The Nintendo and Friends

• Arika: Endless Ocean series, several Dr. Mario installments, Tetris 99/Mario 35/Pac-Man 99

• Most recently released Endless Ocean Luminous in May 2024

• Bandai Namco: As Namco, developed Starfox Assault, the Donkey Konga series, and the Mario baseball games; As Bandai Namco, responsible for Smash games starting with Smash for WiiU and 3DS, asset creation for EPD 9 games starting with Mario Kart 8 (technically had been involved with Kart since the arcade entries in the mid-2000s), and various Pokemon spin-offs such as Pokken Tournament and New Pokemon Snap

  • • Looks to comprise both the Smash team as well as the EPD 9 support team (not confirmed: the Pokken/New Pokemon Snap team)

      • Going off , people at Studio S have worked on Smash games, while those at Studio 2 have worked on EPD 9 games

  • : A 3D action game (possibly a remaster, )and a 2D action game

    • ;

• Camelot: Mario Tennis and Mario Golf games, Golden Sun series

• Emily Rogers stated in late 2021 that

• Game Freak/Creatures Inc./The Pokemon Company:

• Game Freak is currently working on Pokemon Legends Z-A, an action-RPG set in Lumiose City from Pokemon XY, scheduled to release in 2025

• Pokemon TCG Pocket, developed by Creatures Inc. and DeNA, is scheduled to release on Android and iOS in 2024

• ; expected to launch “during Take-Two’s fiscal year 2026”, no platforms have been announced

• in late 2023

• Creatures employee's LinkedIn in addition to the then-unreleased Detective Pikachu Returns

• Pokemon Works founded in early 2024 as a joint venture between The Pokemon Company and ILCA (Pokemon Home, Pokemon Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl, support for Pokemon Scarlet/Violet) for “contracted development of games related to Pokemon” (presumably will be roughly analogous to Bandai Namco Aces, a joint venture between Bandai Namco and ILCA related to the Ace Combat series)

• Pyoro: ;

• Good-Feel: Wario Land Shake It, Kirby’s Epic Yarn, Yoshi’s Wooly World/Crafted World

• most recently released Princess Peach Showtime in March 2024

• Grezzo: Ocarina of Time 3D and Majora’s Mask 3D, Luigi’s Mansion 3D, Link’s Awakening remake, Miitopia remaster; co-developed Triforce Heroes with EPD 3

  • Released Jet Dragon for Apple Arcade in 2023

  • Axios interview:

• 2021 job listings for

• Koichi Ishii (Grezzo founder and president, Mana series creator, Chocobo/Moogle creator) is currently attached to Square Enix’s Visions of Mana as a series monster design supervisor, no indication of Grezzo as a whole being involved in its development

• HAL Laboratory: Known primarily for Kirby; in recent years, they’ve also made the Boxboy games and Part-Time UFO. Prior to roughly the mid-2000s, their output was a bit more varied, including titles such as the first Pokemon Snap and Pokemon Ranger, the first two Smash Bros., and co-developing Earthbound and Mother 3

• Warpstar Inc. is responsible for managing the Kirby IP specifically (essentially, it’s The Pokemon Company but for Kirby); HAL owns 50% of its shares while Nintendo owns the other 50%

• Kirby series director Shinya Kumazaki called Kirby and the Forgotten Land , indicating they intend to follow up the now best-selling Kirby game with another 3D entry

• multiple job listings specifically for developing (pretend to be shocked) ; presumably looking to fill the gap left by external developer Vanpool, which worked with HAL on several Kirby spin-offs as well as Forgotten Land and Return to Dreamland Deluxe before shutting down in May 2023

• indieszero: Electroplankton, NES Remix series (with EPD 8), Sushi Striker, Brain Training for Nintendo Switch (with EPD 4), Big Brain Academy Brain vs Brain (with EPD 4)

• While not confirmed to be involved in the recently-announced Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition, Masanobu Suzui (founder of indieszero) retweeted the game’s official announcement

• Intelligent Systems: Fire Emblem, Panel de Pon/Tetris Attack/Puzzle League, Paper Mario, WarioWare, Advance Wars, Pushmo/Pullblox

• Developing the upcoming Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door remake

• Fire Emblem Genealogy of the Holy War remake: (who also claimed Engage had been finished “for quite some time now”)

  • Nate the Hate , claiming it “has been remade for the Nintendo Switch, it’s simply waiting for Nintendo to announce it”.

  • : Datamining indicates that Three Houses had the codename Iron17 while Engage had the codename Iron19 but contains references in its code to an Iron 18; Three Hopes (the Warriors game that released in between them) was codenamed Seasons, so Iron18 remains unaccounted for

• Koei Tecmo: Pokemon Conquest, Metroid Other M, Hyrule Warriors games, Fire Emblem Warriors games, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3, Buddy Mission Bond (Japan-exclusive), Fire Emblem Three Houses (co-developed with Intelligent Systems)

• PlatinumGames: developer of the Bayonetta games and Astral Chain, co-developed Star Fox Zero with EPD

• Nash Weedle (via Google Translate):

  • Prior to Astral Chain’s release, director Takahisa Taura

  • In a 2021 interview, PlatinumGames studio head Atsushi Inaba said that Taura was "working on something, but we can't say what it is" and that there were "a lot" of things that Platinum wanted him to do. .

    • Taura has since been credited on Bayonetta 3 (special thanks), Bayonetta Origins (game design advice), and Final Fantasy 16 (game designer)

• Ubisoft: Mario+Rabbids games, Starlink Battle for Atlus (featured Starfox content in the Switch version)

  • Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot seemingly confirms a next-gen update/rerelease of Mario+Rabbids 2:

Misc. Odds and Ends. Things that didn’t really fit anywhere else, big grain of salt for some of these

• (the first released game to use EPD’s newest engine, ModuleSystem)

• In 2015, Miyamoto indicated that Star Fox is something Nintendo experiments with internally whenever they begin working with new hardware:

• may have been referring to ; final event was in late March

• Masahiro Sakurai says a console port of Kid Icarus Uprising but notes that

• Hobonichi (Mother/Earthbound creator Shigesato Itoi’s company) celebrating 30th anniversary of Earthbound/Mother 2: (almost certainly just merch, but noting it here just in case it’s something more)

• Mother 3 was re-released this year … on Japanese NSO

• Mike Takagi (artist behind Earthbound’s American cover art) on Instagram reminiscing about Earthbound, late February 2024:

• ; also

• reddit user lineup-leak: (specifically mentions Mario Kart Double Dash, Smash Melee, Metroid Prime 2 as launch titles, with Pokemon Colosseum, FE Path of Radiance, and Mario Party 4 also being tested for NSO)

• claims next Mario Kart will not be a launch title but will release within the first 6-12 months, describes next Mario as being “in final testing phase”

• : This is from a while ago but (and someone can correct me if I’m wrong) I don’t think anything’s come of this yet

• Chris Dring/GamesIndustry.biz:

• reddit user Advanced-Ad7780: (leak didn’t specify a developer, but the first two games were developed by Monolith Soft for the 3DS)

• Doctre: Notes that Velan Studios (Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit, started by Vicarious Visions founders Guha and Karthik Bala)

• Midori:

• (personal conjecture: Some of NDcube’s previous codenames include using and , so they feel like the closest style-fit for something codenamed Banquet)

• Brazil:

Engine Talk: Finally, it’s a bit esoteric but with game engines becoming an increasingly common point of conversation and speculation, I figured I’d put together a rundown of some of the engines used in Nintendo games. This isn’t a comprehensive list (esp. because many studios use proprietary engines that aren’t well-documented), but should give a general idea of who uses what to make what (shouts-out to for doing the datamining work whenever a new game comes out, and for maintaining a useful graphic that collates most of this information) )

• LunchPack

• Version 1: Nintendo Land, Mario Maker, Splatoon

• Version 2: Splatoon 2, Mario Maker 2, ARMS, Labo, Ring Fit Adventure, Game Builder Garage, Animal Crossing New Horizons

• ActionLibrary: 3D Land, 3D World, Mario Odyssey, menus/”wrapper” for 3D All-Stars, Bowser’s Fury, Captain Toad, F-Zero 99 (elements possibly can be traced back as far as Sunshine or Galaxy)

• KingSystem: Breath of the Wild

• ModuleSystem: Switch Sports, Splatoon 3, Tears of the Kingdom, Mario Wonder, Mario vs Donkey Kong remake

• Nintendoware Bezel engine: Tetris 99/Pac-Man 99/Mario 35, WarioWare Get It Together/WarioWare Move It, Super Mario Party/Mario Party Superstars, Clubhouse Games 51 Classics, Big Brain Academy Brain vs Brain, Everybody 1-2 Switch, Brain Training for Nintendo Switch, Endless Ocean Luminous

• (also available for use by 3rd parties; known to have been used for Vroom in the Night Sky and Sumikko Gurashi: Sumikko Park e Youkoso)

• RUDE (Retro Universal Design Engine or Retro Unified Development Environment, depending on which former dev you ask): all Retro Studios games

• Mint: most (all?) HAL Laboratory games since 2011's Return to Dreamland; upgraded and renamed Basil for Forgotten Land

• Unreal Engine 4: Yoshi's Crafted World, Pikmin 4, Princess Peach Showtime

• Unity: Jump Rope Challenge, Pokemon BDSP, Fire Emblem Engage, Super Mario RPG remake, Another Code Recollection