Nintendo merging handheld and console divisions on February 16
New ¥30bn Kyoto facility will allow R&D collaboration and tech sharing
Nintendo is to amalgamate its console and handheld hardware divisions in a brand-new Kyoto facility on February 16, 2013, the manufacturer has confirmed to GamesIndustry International.
The company hopes that, by housing the two arms of the business together in the new ¥30 billion ($340m apprx) offices, they will be able to share technological research and breakthroughs more efficiently, as well as perhaps working on further integrating the 3DS and Wii U.
It's a big shake up for the business, which has seen its latest hardware devices struggling to meet the phenomenal expectations set by their predecessors. This is in no small part due to their facing stiff competition from new players in the market, particularly those of tablets and smartphones. By adopting a more 'joined-up' approach to hardware development, the company could be seeking to address the challenges posed by these new market contenders.
Whilst Nintendo has never tried to delineate itself with processing power or graphical fidelity, its more recent successes have hinged on the innovative use of technology to provide USPs with incredible market appeal. It's thought that, as well as working on new technology for and possible iterations of current platforms, the new facility could work on future hardware which could seek to combine the potential of home and handheld systems in a single device.
Edited 1 times. Last edit by Daniel Hughes on 16th January 2013 11:23am
http://kotaku.com/5150307/nintendo-building-new-rd-center-in-japan
As I said, though, that's all rumoured and unconfirmed. I do think it's credible though, that younger minds are stepping into positions of authority over individual studios and development projects, while more senior minds fill the gap left by Miyamoto moving away from management and back into development and the training of younger staff.
If you're looking for changes on the business side of things, I'd expect changes to come only if Wii U fails completely, which is far from certain. Iwata has already proven he has the ability to create immense success and reverse near-disaster. Getting rid of him now would cause more problems than it would solve.
I'm sure there is nothing to read into the restructure, but it makes you think what crazy ideas could be going on in the background.
Regarding "younger minds" I still stand by the perception that we are all getting that Nintendo JP is looking at reshuffling the deck of their Western approach, especially after lapses in marketing and promotion (TVii and Bricking being some of the big issues).
I want to be clear this is not schadenfreude, or trying to monster the situation - this is calm non fan-boy observation from the outskirts of a change in approach between JP and Western business approaches.
As for bricking...notice how you don't hear about that anymore? That's not due to a firmware update altering the means of system updates but the fact that the media blew it out of proportion when a big name journalist had a brain fart and unplugged their system in the middle of a firmware update which was also incorrectly reported as being a monstrous 5 GB in size.
Minor issues being greatly exaggerated are not failures of the system or company but rather opportunistic media looking to score hits.
And completely agree with Jim - sometimes I wonder if the media were given a great big stack of cash from MS, and told to rubbish the WiiU at every possible turn.
Its *still* only been out for less than 2 months, and its launched better than the 3DS. And does everyone remember the disasters that were the 360 & PS3 launches?
Hey guys, this is nothing disastrous - Nintendo is the safe one on my list, but it still had some Western management "brain farts" that we know the JP executives were not happy with - the reason I speculate about the changes. Can't wait to see how the Sony team survive if the PS4 problems are anything as bad as the rumors will have!!