Namco Bandai worked with Nintendo on Wii Sports Club
Wii Sports Club wasn’t an entirely internal effort from Nintendo. Revealed in the latest Iwata Asks, the Big N ended up working with Namco Bandai on the game’s development.
Nintendo president Satoru Iwata as well as designers Kozo Makino and Takayuki Shimamura spoke about the decision to bring in Namco Bandai for the creation of Wii Sports Club. The group stated:
Makino: We asked Namco Bandai Studios to develop it, so I first participated as a coordinator. But in the end, I got into just about anything. I mainly worked on the network aspect of the game, but at times I made suggestions on how some features should turn out to be.
Shimamura: From the middle of development, Makino-san and Suzuki-san were also working as full-fledged planners. We did ask Namco Bandai Studio to develop the game this time, but staff in Nintendo’s Network Development & Operations Department—the Software Planning & Development Department that these two are in—and EAD also chipped in.
Iwata: Lots of people within Nintendo helped out.
Shimamura: Yes, it was a collaborative effort.
Makino and Suzuki: That’s right.
Iwata: Why did they help?
Shimamura: I think because it was Wii Sports. Everyone had strong feelings for the game and said “We have to go all-out with this” as they lent a hand—which I’m very thankful for. I truly feel that we were able to reach this point in part thanks to that effort.
