This video should explode and the EPD terms should become standard in any discussion of upcoming Nintendo games, it'll make it MUCH easier to know what to expect and know which games to purchase based on what games from each studio resonated with the player

"Nintendo isn't a Monolith" Missed a prime opportunity to say "however it does own a Monolith"

Crazy. I always thought Miyamoto crafted Pikmin 4 by himself out of wood and wires. I had a lot of fun watching, and the editing and pacing was really nice and puts a sweet bow on everything.

Honestly seeing nintendos teams layed out like this makes some of their more weird decisions kinda make sense

Nice in-depth analysis, but you forgot EPD11 which is the team that develops mainline F-Zero games. They are locked in a basement in Kyoto and aren't allowed to go near a computer.

Hey, the algorithm is doing something right for once... it's been recommending smaller channels with gems like these! Great vid :)

My doctor: "When did the throbbing pressure in your head start?" Me: "When I watched this awesome video from Back Log Banter teaching me about every Nintendo Development team." My doctor [speaking into walkie talkie, for some reason]: "Inform the CDC we've got another BLB case."

The video I never knew I wanted. I do love how many of these just "make sense", like a team only for zelda, or the helper teams with a million credits. But be almost a different company depending on which one you work on.

My cousin's husband works at the Nintendo team at Paris and they worked on the Mario Kart Live Home Circuit motion controls and a bunch of other projects that never came to light

My takeaway from this is let EPD9 assist on a Pokemon game. Because they seriously know how to make visually stunning games which also perform well, and God knows Pokemon needs some of that.

A follow-up video with Nintendos long-standing partners and external studios would be nice ^^. While those are kinda more well-known (HAL doing Kirby games, Intelligent Systems Fire Emblem etc.), their role in support is often overlooked (Monolith helps a ton, Retro Studios did as well in the past). Personally I can't really grasp what 1UP-Studio really does. An overview over which studios Nintendo actually owns (not that many compared to other publishers) and which are just very close partners, but formally independent might be helpful aswell. Oh, and this video is great by the way :D (Thanks to Jon Cartwright for the recommendation)

Oh yeah, a funny thing about NST is that you can just see the developers/artists/producers on Twitter just tweeting about "I did X Y Z for the newest game", the girl who made the design and model for Mario in the latest Mario and Donkey Kong game just tweeted her contributions out and that she's proud, which is really cool.

Forgot to mention the most famous division of Nintendo, the Seattle Mariners

One of the stranger things about the EPD studios is the way the numbers are assigned. You'd think the 3D Mario team would be team 1 or 2, but they're team 8 and the first 2 teams are teams that assist outside developers.

No idea how I missed the EPD restructuring. This whole time I was under the impression that EAD was still a thing. Amazing breakdown, super informative. Thank you!

Just a couple notes. For EPD 2, the head seems to be Toyokazu Nonaka and has been for several years. several of the Western projects which were under the purview of Tanabe and Terasaki were moved to EPD 2 (namely NST and also the Switch port of DKCTF along with stuff like Stretchers, Snipperclips and Good Job). Also worth noting many series under EPD 2 have dedicated producer like Akira Kinashi for Pokemon, Genki Yokota for Fire Emblem and Xenoblade and Toshiaki Suzuki for Mario Party. For EPD6, we should mention that this Switch for Warioware happened when SPD1 and SDD joined EAD shortly after Tomodachi Life. Goro Abe stayed behind with SPD3 and the series became led by Intelligent Systems rather than codeveloped with Nintendo. Tomodachi Life and Rhythm Heaven are theoretically supposed to be under EPD7 under this understanding. For EPD8, you neglect to mention Koichi Hayashida who was the producer on the 3D Mario's until Super Mario Maker 2 where he and small team joined EPD10. For EPD9, you didn't mention Bandai Namco, which has been critical for Mario Kart 8, ARMS and the Booster Course Pass. For EPD10, you mention Shiro Mori but he directed NSMBUDX not Super Mario Maker 2. The director of Maker 2 (and Run) was Yosuke Oshino, who left and directed Pokemon Smile

I desperately hope this spreads, especially so that people would stop *carelessly* saying things like "Why can't Nintendo just _____?" and "What was Nintendo thinking when they _______?!" They can still argue this stuff, but at least have more of an informed opinion about it. The answer to questions like those above has been, and always has been: Nintendo is not just one massive team. It's multiple teams made up of groups of varied backgrounds working towards common goals, but not always the same project. They're practically different tribes flying under a unified banner, with one tribe leading. And yes, this individuality includes Nintendo Legal. Some can argue Nintendo Legal is practically an entirely different tribe altogether, much like how The Pokémon Company is practically its own ecosystem. They work in parallel with Nintendo, to assist and protect them, but they do not represent the developers of Nintendo. Sakurai is not out there killing your fan games. He likely played them and enjoyed them.

Something interesting, bowser's fury being supported by NST was mentioned, but to what extent wasnt mentioned. However by digging through game files many of bowser's fury's assets are named in english, implying that NST (the US-based team) made not the port itself, but the bowser's fury expansion.

This is very interesting. Imma throw some hats to what each might be developing rn: EPD1-Probably inside EPD2, but could return individually EPD2-May be helping other titles like Pokémon Legends Z-A EPD3-Very likely in early development of the new console's Zelda EPD4-Might be developing the switch 2's main included game, like Nintendo Land in Wii U EPD5-Working on Splatoon 3 updates and probably developing a new Animal Crossing EPD6-Probably helping with Mario Sports games, Metroid Prime 4 and TTYD EPD7-Might be working on Metroid 6 as we speak, or a remake? EPD8-Very very likely developing soon to completion a new 3D Mario game as a release title EPD9-Probably preparing the next Mario Kart title, or maybe an ARMS sequel EPD10-Maybe early developing on Pikmin 5 or Super Mario Maker 3 EPDMobile-Strangely silent for a while, might drop a new mobile game by the next gen NST-Just launched Mario vs DK, might continue on that franchise

I've been a fan of Nintendo for years and it never occurred to me just how many teams comprise the game development company.

I’ve been looking for a way to uncover which development teams do what, but apparently nobody cares enough to post anything about it. Thanks for this video.

A point of clarification on EPD8, at least regarding how it was phrased in the video, but EPD8 were not the sole developers of the Famicom Detective Club remakes. That was done by Mages (formerly 5pb), a visual novel studio whose most well-known series is likely the Steins;gate series. And while not a Nintendo studio, I figure it's worth mentioning Bandai Namco's Studio 2 / Studio S (whose website was opened in November 2023). They're responsible for assisting on Mario Sports Superstars with Camelot, Mario Kart 8, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Mario Kart Tour and ARMS with EPD9, and they're the developers behind Smash for 3DS / Wii U and Smash Ultimate.

I'm glad to inform that your video was alongside huge Nintendo KZfaqrs! Great work summing it all up!

This was a very professionally made video. The little graphics and animations were great and the info was well articulated.

EPD 4 def the experimental ones of Nintendo’s studios but I really appreciate their zany fresh ideas. Also love the Animal Crossing and Splatoon devs, they’re just so cool. Love this vid and it’s super well edited!

Glad this video exists, because understanding the development teams really helps to provide for more sensible Nintendo game speculation. You can easily figure out patterns, and it's helped me a lot in the past. For example, a new Mario Kart coming out within the first few years of the Switch wouldn't make sense. EPD 9 was busy making ARMS in the lead-up to the Switch, so they'd need a few more years to make a new game. This is why Mario Kart 8 was ported over. They wouldn't have a new Mario Kart for awhile, but they wanted it on the system. For all we know, the next Mario Kart could end up being extremely polished! They've had so much time since ARMS released to come up with ideas. It's not a guarantee, but we can determine that a new Mario Kart is certainly just around the corner now that we're moving onto a new system. Princess Peach Showtime was really easy to figure out the developer of, if you were paying enough attention. It couldn't be EPD 8, because it just didn't look like an EPD 8 game. It couldn't be Next Level Games, because their games have very specific animation, and Showtime had stiff NPCs. But the type of style did feel quite similar to GoodFeel, and I would've figured it out sooner if I was more educated on the projects they'd been working on. It became pretty clear to me after the 2nd trailer, and especially gearing up to release when we started to hear more of the sound effects and such.

That was a great video guys, extremely informative. Regarding EPD Mobile, it's more of a support studio than a primary developer. Mario Kart Tour, Animal Crossing Pocket Camp, Dragalia Lost and Fire Emblem Heroes were all made by their respective main game teams, with EPD Mobile, DeNA and Bandai Namco helping to keep them running. EPD Mobile did make Dr. Mario World though and maybe Miitomo, unless DeNA took on full production of that one.

This video has been a long time coming. Congrats guys, hope to see many more like this.

Finally KZfaq is sending me good recommended videos

Damn, love how in-depth this video goes!! Killer job guys

Hey guys! You both did a great job here and I'm so excited to see what other ideas you've both come up with.

15:12 You feel that? A constant, throbbing pressure in your head? Yeah, that's just your brain expanding thanks to all the incredible knowledge you just imparted. From this video's sponsor, BRILLIANT

One of the most informative, original and useful videos on KZfaq in some time. Thanks!

This was really insightful! it was great to hear who's working on all these games

Exquisite video! Thanks for making this, and I hope you continue to make deep dive videos similar to this one!

This was something I researched a few months ago since there wasn’t a KZfaq video on it. This deserves more views! Great work

Awesome video. I'm one of those people who's really knowledge about this stuff, but for SEGA specifically, so hearing the Nintendo-like development layout is a treat.

It is Criminal that you guys don’t even have 1k subs yet. Please keep up the good work guys. Keep a steady flow of quality videos coming out and you guys will be a prominent voice in the community in no time.

So EPD 10 released 2 highly acclaimed games (with one being GOTY nominated) in the same year? damn, that's impressive

Awesome video! Pacing and editing were on point. Subscribed!

This was awesome. I always wondered what teams did what. In F-Zero X there's a driver named Mr. EAD who was a nod to EAD 1 I think. It was one of them. He even had a Starman on his belt!

Great video. I especially like the parts with Dr Lobe

Man I feel old because I remember reading magazine interviews with Nintendo key figures naming teams like R&D 1 and R&D 2. They have also gotten dramatically larger because I think I remember reading in the 90's that Nintendo was comprised of less than 1,500 employees and now I think they're just a few hundred shy of 8,000. It's also interesting with how successful and efficient they are given they are still smaller than other behemoths like UbiSoft, EA and Blizzard. I completely missed this SPD restructure in the last 8 years so I gotta keep that in mind when discussing so I don't slip up and say EAD anymore lol.

4:10 You're gonna look like a fool when the EPD structure lasts until 2100 😅 Great video! Wasn't expecting anything great, but was surprised. I never knew this was how Nintendo was structured and the different pieces of history mentioned.

Something I noticed while watching this was just how many key Nintendo team leads have been in the company for a long time. Nintendo seems to make a priority of actually retaining their talent -- and rightly so, as within that talent lies the accumulated knowledge and skills base needed to make quality products. Let them go, and they take that knowledge and skills base with them, leaving a void in their wake that is extremely difficult to fill.

Incredible video guys! Super interesting to know the breakdown of things actually work!

Great video, was thinking about finding a video about this then you came up in my recommendations!

Wow, seriously well done video! The script was perfect! And the graphics showing the different teams and their works are great too. My only suggestion is ensuring your voice over is consistent because it seemed to change a bit over the course of the video. Otherwise this was awesome, please keep up the good work - you’ve earned yourself a sub 😉

This is a topic related to Nintendo I never thought I'd learn about! Great video!

Amazing video, always been curious about the teams 👍

Really great video!

Fantastic video, guys! 💯 Learned a lot from this

Thanks for the video! It's great to learn about how Nintendo's devs teams are structured!

So this is what Sony and especially Microsoft can't get the memo on.

Great stuff! Adds some important clarity to a process that I knew existed but not enough about. Really well pitched, paced and edited - and performed, of course.

Great analysis. Thank you.

Finally, some new topics about gaming. Keep posting like this and I expect your account to blow up

Really informative video! I had no idea about the different studio notorieties and such. For my personal interests, I wonder if EPD9 will do soe more esport-type angles in the future...

This is such a fun video idea. I just assumed that all these games were conjured up by shigeru miyamoto in the basement of Nintendo HQ!

Super informative! Thanks :)

This is a great video. It's interesting to see how Nintendo's teams are actually split up and what they focus on.

Thank the algorithm cause you got another subscriber 😊 Excellent video

great video

great research, thank you!

Thanks a lot for the explanation!

I've been using an age old outdated graphic whenever talking about the EPD teams, now I finally have a great ressource to give to people if they are unfamiliar with the team structure.

This is such a great video! Well edited and paced, i would only recommend whoever's reading the script to speak more clearly at some points i had trouble understanding what he said. Great work nonetheless!

Great video, thank you!

Great video. Love Nintendo and teams who work on the games.

Interesting how EPD4 has released a game every year since 2016. Makes me wonder if we'll see something from them later this year, or if they'll leave a gap to work on something for the Switch succesor. Great video, very informative!

This was a very interesting video. Thanks so much for letting us learn about this! I do agree with Nintendo not really opening the hood and revealing how they develop their games, since most 10-year-olds would get bored to death during Nintendo Directs having to hear EPD5, EPD4... over and over again

Whoa thats some great knowledge that you gave us! I am surprised nobody has ever mentioned how Nintendo lays down their dev teams haha thanks for that

Saw your tweet. Really good video! 👌

Ooooo i can learn some new stuff! Awesome!

As the dumb brother I didn’t understand a word in this whole video, but yall were super articulate and this was very professionally edited. Proud of you and BLB (I watched the whole thing)

This was genuinely really interesting. We need to make Arlo aware of this before his next predictions!

Great video!

Very helpful. Thanks

I remember a time in college when I thought that there was a scale retail store model due for my 9AM class. It wasn't due for another two months but I was able to put it together and still admit to the teacher "yeah it's nowhere near where I wanted it to be" Wound up going a whole different direction but yeah; it meant a lot to have it and still not be complete.

I feel Nintendo is always just one step above when it comes to creating a unique and productive work environment with these teams constantly working on new titles, they can release a new mario, paper mario, zelda, casual title, splatoon and more every single year! Great marketing strategy!

Thanks for the breakdown! Really helps you in assuming what kind of game you can expect in the coming years since the first party studios are very set in stone. Would love a video like this with Nintendo's partners like Monolith Soft, HAL and so on. Regardless, it's clear Nintendo has been very successful at a management level, the release schedule during the Switch era speaks for itself

Really was entertaining and informative. Maybe you could do a second video about Nintendo’s 2nd party studios (like Monolith, Retro Studios) especially after the fresh agreement with Studio Shiver. Definitely would watch that!

Can I recommend you bump up the volume of all audio tracks during the editing process? It's all rather quiet relative to other KZfaq videos with ''proper'' volume levels. Putting the commentary at something like -3 dB below the clipping level (since that is the ''leading'' audio track) would be great. And then obviously mix the rest of the audio/music accordingly.

Genuinely informative video. Now I understand why there were Mario Kart toys in Nintendogs. I wish Nintendo would give each studio distinct names that would give them more personality, similarly to how fans can say "oh this is such a Next Level Games/Goodfeel/Monolith Soft game" but knowing Nintendo I perfectly know why they don't. They want everything, the good and the bad, to be attributed to them as the nebulous blob of a company and that giving studios individuality would make them appear weaker in a business sense. I'm sure that deep down they want to rename all their acquired studios to strip them down of their brands but know that it would be a PR and HR nightmare.

Ive also been suggested this video by KZfaq. This was very interesting. 🎉

Hey this is pretty great! Man, EPD is quite a black box. They're more secure than the pentagon!

Great video! I have a quick question (which I guess could just be researched myself but what the heck): do you know which team is responsible for working alongside Sora for games like the Smash Series or Kid Icarus? Just curious!

It's actually really fitting to represent the three divisions of Nintendo as the triforce, 2 of them are fine but the 3rd is controlled by evil incarnate and is responsible for everything bad that happens in the world

Great video, i've already heard of epd in other videos and some dev teams sharing the same series like AC and splatoon, arms and mario kart and both 2d mario and pikmin, but not the specifics. I didnt even know that 2d metroid had an internal team, and i just assumed that both 3d mario and 2d mario shared the same dev team. That said what team would be assigned to develop forgotten series like a brand new top down zelda, star fox or a traditional f zero game

Its interesting to think about what the different series would look like if the other teams took them over

The more I watch this awesome video, the more I think I'm watching forbidden kno being unveiled to the world... and that Nintendo's ninjas will come after the brave warrior who unleashed such esoteric information upon the world... Good luck, my dude.

Knowing there is a dedicated 2D Metroid team fills me with hope and joy

8:56 Kawamoto san is also the Producer of the great game "Rusty's Real Deal Baseball". Hus career has only been on the up and up since it's release so i feel a sequel is in the books . 📚

So now I know exactly who to blame. This will be very helpful

There's one more wrinkle in the mix; the permanent EPD teams are just the producers. The boots-on-the-ground (artists and programmers) are allocated from a single pool, which limits the number of games that can be in full production at once, depending on their scope. Basically, if 3D Zelda and 3D Mario are going full-tilt at the same time, and another team wants to make an equally massive game, it could affect some or all of the other teams.

Very interesting video but can you explain where you got this info from and how sure you are that it is reliable. Many thanks!

Nintendo show has a lot of development teams it’s confusing to keep track of them all honestly great video sir and great research into all of the different development teams for Nintendo.

Dafuq is EPD 7 doing all the time?

Great video

Yeah, I needed this