Nintendo on merging its developer divisions, 3DS’ current role, more
The Verge has published a new wave of comments from Nintendo’s Shinya Takahashi. Takahashi spoke about the company merging its developer divisions a few years ago, sticking to release date, the current role of 3DS, and more.
We’ve rounded up these comments below. You can read the full article on The Verge here.
On ensuring there aren’t big gaps between new game releases…
“It’s something that I think about and worry about all the time.”
On the benefits of merging its development divisions, which took place a few years ago…
– Nintendo can be more flexible and purposeful with how it uses its developers
“We think very carefully about how we can assign people to projects in development. What number we can assign, what we can have them working on. And that’s something that we always think about very closely in regards to how we ensure we have a steady release of high-quality titles.”
On sticking to release dates…
“If they don’t have a deadline, they’ll be happy to refine the project forever. If we didn’t have a deadline, we might still be working on Super Mario Bros 3 for the Famicom.”
– Takahashi also works with the company’s sales and marketing teams, in order to ensure everything follows the right schedule
– He says “Putting all of that together is maybe the biggest part of my job”
On the 3DS…
“As a platform that is now in its eighth year since launch, I think it has found a very interesting role for us. Which is that it’s accessible to a lower age demographic, and we’re able to focus a lot of software that’s really appealing to that audience on the Nintendo 3DS platform, which means that we can also look for software teams that are very well-suited to creating games of that type.”
On how having platform knowledge in one place not only benefits the games Nintendo makes, but also its ability to help outside partners…
“All of the systems that we create internally to improve the development environment are things that we’ve been able to share. It becomes an investment not just in one title.”
