Nintendo Buys Land Next to HQ to Build New Development Center - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 12 April 2022 / 2,649 Views
Nintendo announced it has bought the land next to its Japan headquarters to build a new development center. The land was previously owned by Kyoto and was used as a Foundation Support Factory and a Material and Disaster Prevention Centre.
The gaming giant purchased the 10,000 square meter site for ¥5 billion ($39.94 million) and the new building on it will tentatively be called Corporate Headquarters Development Centre Building No 2.
The building will be 12 floors and is expected to be completed by 2027. Nintendo says it "will carry an important role on reinforcing its R&D."
There was a previous report Nintendo was working on expanding its development with two new office expansions in order to develop more games in-house, rather than outsourcing to third-party developers.
Thanks, VideoGamesChronicle.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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sony and microsoft are buying up why nintendo is building up.. suppose everything being in house/next door is a good think can keep an eye on things alot better
Because you can buy a studio but retaining the talent is a different matter we've seen this already in how some key people have recently left some of the bought studios.
This is great. Love to see them expanding
"Nintendo was working on expanding its development with two new office expansions in order to develop more games in-house, rather than outsourcing to third-party developers."
I wonder what this will mean in the long term for long running partnerships like HAL Laboratory and Intelligent Systems?
I don't think this affects those relationships at all. HAL and Intelligent Systems still develop crucial Nintendo software and hardware in Intelligent System's case.
The 3rd party developer that helps Nintendo the most is Bandai Namco so I would imagine this expansion is being made so they don't have to rely so much on them in the future. Though, it wouldn't surprise me if Bandai Namco staff that have helped Nintendo in the past end up taking jobs at this new facility when it's done.
I'd also imagine this means we could see the formation of new EPD teams and new IP as well.
I even forgot about New Pokémon Snap. But yes they helped on Smash Ultimate, Smash 4, Mario Kart 8, 8 Deluxe, Tour, and Arms just to name some more modern titles.
I really don't know why Nintendo chooses not to purchase them either. Maybe they simply don't want to be purchased right now. They kind of remind me of SRD.
SRD had worked on basically every major Nintendo title since the Famicom and Nintendo only just bought them this year...for around half a million USD. It's speculated that the owners just wanted to retire and sell. Maybe the same happens with HAL and Intelligent Systems.
I know that with HAL, Nintendo actually saved them from bankruptcy in the 90's but the only condition was to nab Iwata as Nintendo's president. They could have bought HAL back then but they didn't.
Would rather go at the expense of partnerships with Square and Bandai Namco, if any. Might also just be a move to counter acquisitions in advance. Many other Devs Nintendo works closely with don't really have that many alternatives and are not really on anyone is buying list.
For instance Platinum Games is only able to make good Switch games, since they basically skipped PS4 and Xbox one and lack the tech to make decent looking games on PS5/Xbox Series. The same probably also goes for other third party devs that pretty much work exclusively for Nintendo.
On the other hand Atlus makes games that barely pass the PS4 standard technically and will still produce PS5 games that sell well enough, mostly thanks to the stylish animé style than anything else though.
Didn't PG develop Nier Automata?
On topic: I suspect thay are trying to prevent long software droughts in the future.
They did but there's a bit of an asterisk on that because Square did provide additional support as well as supervision on the project. Plus the Director of Nier Automata, Yoko Taro, is not a PG Director. Idk if he's a Square Director either or if he just does freelance lol
