Investor Meeting Q&A: Iwata on the various divisions, new QoL department
Currently, there’s 4 development divisions at Nintendo:
1) hardware development (directed by Mr. Takeda): there used to be 2 divisons (home consoles / handhelds), but they were merged a while ago in order to operate more efficiently. Iwata explains that nowadays, technologies suitable for home consoles and handhelds are becoming increasingly similar, so it doesn’t make much sense to have two separate divisions. He mentions electricity consumption on home consoles, which is an aspect Nintendo has been focusing on ever since the Wii: it used to be (and still is) a central part of handhelds design (where it needs to be as low as possible, in order to save battery). The Wii U uses the GamePad, which is equipped with a large screen, a battery pack, control inputs and wireless modules: the know-how acquired by making handhelds proved really valuable when designing that very peculiar controller.
2) Entertainment Analysis and Development Division (directed by Mr. Miyamoto) : works on games developped internally.
3) Software Planning & Development Division (directed by Mr. Takahashi): works on second-party games (games developped by third-party companies, in cooperation with Nintendo. Luigi’s Mansion 2 is one example.). It was initially created in order to let Mr. Miyamoto focus on internal projects, and Satoru Iwata himself was at its head before Shinya Takahashi took over a couple of years ago.
Recently, Satoru Iwata has been pushing for more cooperation between the two software divisions, in order to determine clearly which games can/need to be developped internally, or those that are better in the hands of a partner. As games become more and more complex, requiring increasing amounts of ressources, such a cooperation is indeed quite crucial for Nintendo moving forward.
4) System Development Division (directed by Satoru Iwata himself): a very important division, which is taking care of some of the most important parts of software development such as network, system software, OS, SDK (Software Development Kit) and libraries. For the time being, Satoru Iwata is the only board member with a background in programming, which is why he’s at the end of that division, but in the future, he would like to find a more suitable person to head that division.
For Satoru Iwata, it is crucial that the four divisions at Nintendo cooperate and share the same values / goals. If not, the company as a whole will suffer, and encounter many of the problems plaguing some big companies. That’s the reason behind the construction of the Development Center (which was completed last year), where all the divisions are now assembled: that way, developers can easily communicate with each other. and in person.
But those divisions aren’t exaclty like studios or anything: their purpose is purely administrative. For Iwata, the goal of Nintendo is to provide users with great experiences, regardless of the division that came up with it. Actually, it’s a crucial aspect of Nintendo’s strategy: as Iwata reminds us, what is highly rated doesn’t necessarily sell well nowadays. Therefore, Nintendo has to come up with easy to understand experiences, that don’t cause any stress to the users, and can attract consumers at a glance. The various divisions have to form a coherent group, that works towards a common goal: amiibo is actually one project that was born from such processes.
However, there is one exception: QoL (Quality of Life). In order to create a new project and a new business model, Nintendo had to set up a brand new department, separate from the others, and composed of developers from all 4 already existing divisions. Unfortunately, Satoru Iwata doesn’t give us more information…
Source: Nintendo
