Also, sounds like Hayashida was very hands-off with 3D World and half-producer already, even though he was listed as a director. Seems like Motokura was the main director on that one and is pretty much a lock to direct and lead the next two mainline 3D Mario games.

Osaka is a much bigger city in population than Kyoto, and there are several EAD/SPD developers who are from there. Some still / just moved there? (Shigeyuki Asuke). Capcom, Konami, and other big developers are in the same city as well. It would be a great idea. Again, they have an SRD office there also.

Also, when did you pick that rumour up? Just recently or is it longer ago?

Back to contract workers / digitalscape / premium agency. It's difficult to gauge because they technically are Nintendo employees assigned from those temp agencies. They physically get shipped over. Of course they come with guaranteed 1-3 year contracts, then Nintendo has the option of keeping them as permanent staff. They are a common thing among Japanese developers.

We will have to figure out this specific set of graphic artists who worked on EAD Tokyo and Game Freak games. After all, the same SD Network Tokyo Group next to EAD Tokyo Group, worked on the network features of Pokemon games. So it's not out of the question that EAD Tokyo's contracted graphic artist ended up helping finish Pokemon X/Y which required a much bigger staff than Game Freak houses.

EAD Tokyo is supposedly hiring on all major fronts. But it's difficult to gauge what's been happening.

Nintendo was rumored to open up an EAD Osaka as well, since they have an exact branch mirroring the Tokyo one there. They also have an SRD office in Osaka, and they host their annual Nintendo Game Seminars in both their Tokyo branch and Osaka branch.

And yeah, lots of EAD Kyoto/Digitalscape/Premium Agency character and environment designers working on Tokyo projects. They seem to be understaffed in that department since forever though, which was never the case with programmers. Additionally, a few Kyoto planners are also always listed in the credits.

Hehe, it always seems like Tokyo is somehow, somewhere working on this huge project for years now alongside the 3D Mario's, when in reality they probably just didn't expand that much at all since the studio was created, which only left space for very small projects like Flipnote and NES Remix. I can't believe they're a decade old now.

The thing about EAD Tokyo. It seems as far as graphic artists are concerned, they have been doing a lot of temp workers / contract workers. Since Tokyo has a big temp agencies like Digitalscape and Premium Agency, it seems they hire a lot of artists to 1-3 year contracts. It's hard to tell how big exactly they are, in terms of permanent staff versus contract staff.

Plus, you have 1-UP as a permanent support studio (20-25 people), and now Indies Zero attached to the 3DS Guide and NES Remix series. Heck, I've had a hard time distinguishing some EAD Kyoto artists versus EAD Tokyo artists.

If they have two development teams (plus Shimizu production team) now I'd wager that they hire at least a bit more staff this year compared to past years.

林田宏一 (Koichi Hayashida) Producer
平竹晋也 (Shinya Hiratake) Director
北原有加 (Yuka Kitahara) Lead Environment Artist ? (from history)
村田翔 (Sho Murata) Lead Character Artist ? (from history)

From the latest Nintendo Dream, on sale November 21, 2014.

EAD Tokyo Interview with Koichi Hayashida (producer) on the left blue text and?

That doesn't look like Shinya Hiratake (平竹 晋也) on the right with the purple text. Who is that main director?

Are we sure Masaki Yokobe left Nintendo (EAD Tokyo)? His Linkedin and Facebook don't necessarily confirm he left.

With Hayashida's promotion, I suspect that all the main planners (Hiratake, Motokura, Tsujimura, Kakinuma, Hishinuma, Shirai), will just take turns being directors throughout the various projects at EAD Tokyo. They all have about equal seniority and talent, and really just Hayashida (and Hideaki Shimizu) have been particular standouts for creating IPs on their own.

Hideki Konno
Mario Kart (active)
Nintendogs (retired?)
3DS Apps

Hisashi Nogami
Splatoon (active)
Animal Crossing (active)
Wii Sports (retired?)

Eiji Aonuma
Zelda 3D (active)
Zelda 2D (active)

Hiroyuki Kimura
Pikmin (retired?)
Mario 2D (active, Mario Maker, for now)

Tadashi Sugiyama
Wii Fit U (active but for QoL?)
Steel Diver (retired soon?)
Star Fox (Active)

Takao Shimizu
Nintendo DS/3DS Guide (retired?)
Zelda N64 Ports (active)

Yoshiaki Koizumi
Mario 3D (active?)
Flipnote Studio (retired?)

Koichi Hayashida
Isometric Mario / Captain Toad (retired?)
NES Remix series (retired?)

It looks like half the IPs won't be active come 2015-2016, which means we may be seeing lots of new ideas.

And Nintendo needs one producer each for everything, hehe.

We really don't know Nintendo plans to do with Mario. I mean NSMB and Super Mario 3D World were very close in design. Do they still need two producers handling the IPs??

Who's gonna be project leader in Group No. 2, though? Kenta Motokura is project leader in Group No. 3 directing the next 3D Mario, no?

Also, I wonder if maybe EAD Kyoto has a new group, as I think it's about time. Is there anyone at EAD Kyoto in recent times that could have been promoted as group manager? Apart from Nogami replacing Eguchi in Group No. 2, of course.

EAD Tokyo Group No. 1
Nintendo 3DS Guide Louvre <> New Small IP
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D <> The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D

EAD Tokyo Group No. 2
Super Mario 3D World <> Super Mario Galaxy HD Collection ?
Flipnote Studio 3D <> ??

EAD Tokyo Group No. 3
Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker <> 2016 Project?
NES Remix Pack <> Ultimate NES Remix <—> 2016 Project?

Given that each production group on average handled 2 IPs at a time. This should be interesting the next year or two. I wonder if Indies Zero will be a long-time partner for EAD Tokyo.

During an interview last week discussing upcoming puzzle platformer Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, producer Koichi Hayashida

Hayashida is producer of Captain Toad.

We'll find out either way in some time, I guess.

Hey Metal, Check that out.

As far as Digitalscape. From what I know, they are contract workers. So they get contracted to Nintendo as temp workers. Only Bahamut Entertainment from Digitalscape is an actual outsource entity (which Nintendo used to Wind Waker HD textures). Daisuke Ito is tracked for NCL since 2007-2008. I can't imagine him being contract staff for that long.

Cool pic. I count about 33 people. Those are direct EAD Tokyo staff on Super Mario 3D Land. Definitely missing EAD Tokyo staffers like Hideaki Shimizu and Takao Shimizu. I don't see Koizumi either, unless that's him all the way in back with his arms up.

Taishi Ahagon
Mika Anzai
Yoshiakira Nakano
Katsuki Hisanaga
Daisuke Ito
Kunihito Ihara
Masayuki Kawakita

Are DIGITALSCAPE staff,they got credited in Pokemon X and or Smash Bros 4

Youngseok Kong actually worked in both games.

Hirotaka Tanikawa too,was missing in your 3d world credits,have both ead tokyo and 1-up guys on facebook.

Makoto Yonezu and Tetsuya Kobayashi also didnt work on neither game,both helped with kyoto games.

Will watch out for some LPers, though.

And now it's spreading on other Nintendo sites with lots of other misinformation.

(21 Developers worked on Captain Toad but not Super Mario 3D World)
Yuri Adachi
Koji Aoyama
Akira Ito
Satoshi Kaji
Masayuki Kawakita
Tsuyoshi Komura
Youngseok Kong
Naoto Kubo
Tatsuya Kurihara
Satoshi Miyama
Yuta Ogawa
Shingo Okamoto
Keisuke Okubo
Seiga Sato
Hirotaka Tanikawa
Wataru Tanimura
Mizuki Tatsuno
Daisuke Tsujimura
Yu Yamamoto
Jumpei Yamashita
Yuta Yamashita

(44 Developers worked on Super Mario 3D World but not Captain Toad)
Taishi Ahagon
Yutaka Aihara
Mika Anzai
Kuji Aoyama
Masashiro Arimitsu
Yotaro Doi
Narimasa Hakodate
Manabu Hiraoka
Kotaro Hiromatsu
Katsuki Hisanaga
Yoko Honma
Arisa Hosaka
Kunihito Ihara
Yuki Ijiri
Kiyoshi Ishibiki
Yasuaki iwata
Gen Kadoi
Satashi Kaji
Yuji Kajiyama
Mitsuhiro Kida
Yoshiaki Koizumi
Koji Kondo
Youngseok kong
Kirokazu Matsui
Toru Minegishi
Yuko Miyakawa
Satsoshi Miyama
Shigeru Miyamoto
Tadatsugu Motomiya
Shigehisa Nakaue
Kimihiko Shimomura
Shungo Suzuki
Jun Tanaka
Yoshikazu Tanaka
Hirotaka Tanimura
Hideyuki Tatsuta
Takashi Tezuka
Yuki Tsuji
Takaaki Ueno
Tomoko Watanabe
Takayuki Yaeno
Akitoshi Yahiro
Mieko Yamaji
Kouki Yoshida

Active EAD Tokyo Members who did not work on either Super Mario 3D World or Captain Toad
Takao Shimizu (producer)
Kiyoshi Takeuchi (programmer)
Haruka Kakinuma (planner)

Hayashida Producer

Motokura / Hiratake Director

The usual EAD Tokyo Planners. But Nintendo Dream or Nintendori, always have direct interviews with Nintendo development teams. Usually 5-6 staffers. Great stuff. I'm hoping that comes out soon.

Motokura could, of course, just not be mentioned here and he still is co-director in the background.

If not, he is working full-time on the next 3D Mario since 3D World released.

Shame that the producer isn't involved/mentioned in the interview, so we could know for a fact if it is or is not Hayashida.

Facts:
Koichi Hayashida has become the second biggest auteur at EAD Tokyo behind Koizumi (Shimizu has been really low key as a producer). He was the second lead designer of Super Mario Galaxy (2007). Director of Super Mario Galaxy 2 (2010), Super Mario 3D Land (2011). Director of NES Remix (2013) and co-director of Super Mario 3D World (2013). I think you know where I am going with this. He is the next in line, and I think by Kenta Motokura getting promoted to director 3D World and Captain Toad, it's basically setting up Hayashida's promotion as well.

Koizumi and a few key EAD Tokyo staff were absent from Captain Toad. I believe that we may absolutely be seeing a garage type of development project from some ideas he has had. As far as the next Mario, remember Miyamoto almost blurted out he is interested in a Super Mario Galaxy HD Collection being developed but with EAD Tokyo as the co-developer/producer while a partner does the grunt work. Soo I don't think Koizumi is producing another Mario outside of a collaborative theoretical HD Collection.

I think as of 2014, Hayashida was promoted to Producer / Manager of Group No. 3. His first official releases would probably be NES Remix Pack (which is technically a separate product from NES Remix 1 and NES Remix 2), and of course Captain Toad.

We need some more investigative work to confirm this. So we will see how it pans out.

So let's imagine…

Group No. 1 (Shimizu)
2011 Ocarina of Time 3D <----> 2014 Majora's Mask 3D (Production, Coordination, Music) other work by Grezzo
2013 Nintendo 3DS Guide Louvre <----> Maybe another app?? (Production, Coordination, Music) other work by Indies Zero

Group No. 2 (Koizumi)
2013 Flipnote Studio 3D / SM3DW leftover staff --> New Original Project for 3DS or Wii U?
2013 Probably production of Super Mario HD Collection but mostly developed externally

Group No. 3 (Hayashida)
2013 NES Remix Pack <--—> Ultimate NES Remix (in-house development with co-development Indies Zero)
2013 Captain Toad (most of SM3DW staff)

But I wouldn't be too sure about a third group. Who would even be in the director role of Koizumi's group? Futoshi Shirai? He was at least co-director on some projects in his career, but not lately. Koizumi himself surely isn't.

Also, yes, Hayashida was still noted as director in NES Remix 2 (released April 24th, 2014), but that was when Captain Toad was probably in the middle of development, as well as hypothetically Hayashida's first project as group manager with Captain Toad. And I don't know, but since Iwata's EAD reconstruction, I don't think there ever was a case at EAD where a promoted group manager was still directing another game.

We already know EAD Toyko started working on the new 3D Mario long before E3 2014, so there are a few scenarios:

- There is a Group No. 3 and it was working on Captain Toad and the new 3D Mario simultaneously, while Group No. 2 is working on an unknown project (maybe a 'Garage' initiative?)

- There is a Group No. 3 and it was working on Captain Toad and now is starting on a unknown project (maybe a 'Garage' initiative?), while Group No. 2 is working on the new 3D Mario.

- There is no Group No. 3 and Captain Toad was just a one-off, cobbled together somehow inside Group No. 2

We'll see, I guess.

It should look something like this maybe.

EAD Tokyo Group No. 1 - Shimizu-san
Nintendo 3DS Guide: Louvre (2013), The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D (2015)

EAD Tokyo Group No. 2 - Koizumi-san
Flipnote Studio 3D (2013), Super Mario 3D World (2013), NES Remix (2013), NES Remix 2 (2014), New Project (2015??)

EAD Tokyo Group No. 3 - Hayashida-san
NES Remix Pack (2014), Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker (2014), Ultimate NES Remix (2014)

Producer: Koichi Hayashida? Director: Kenta Motokura? (new official EAD Tokyo Group No. 3??)

Takashi Abe
Yuri Adachi
Masaya Akiyama
Katsuyasu Ando
Norihiro Aoyagi
Koji Aoyama
Hiroki Araya
Shigetoshi Gohara
Kazunori Hashimoto
Koichi Hayashida
Shinya Hiratake
Hiroaki Hishinuma
Takeshi Hosono
Mei ide
Toru Inage
Asami Inoue
Jun Ishioka
Akira Ito
Daisuke Ito
Yuichi Iwasa
Satoshi Kaji
Akiko Kato
Masayuki Kawakita
Satoshi Kawamura
Kyoko Kawasaki
Mio Kikuchi
Yotaro Kiriyama
Yuka Kitahara
Yusuke Kitazono
Tsuyoshi Komura
Youngseok Kong
Naoto Kubo
Tatsuya Kurihara
Hirokazu Matsuda
Yasuhiko Matsuzaki
Naoki Mineta
Satoshi Miyama
Yosuke Mori
Takafumi Moro
Kenta Motokura
Sho Murata
Kazuhiro Musa
Yuki Nakamura
Naoya Nihei
Daiki Nishioka
Yuta Ogawa
Shingo Okamoto
Keisuke Okubo
Tatsuro Ota
Koki Sasaki
Eisaku Sato
Masakaze Sato
Seiga Sato
Futoshi Shirai
Hideyuki Sugawara
Mayako Sugimoto
Yuya Takezawa
Hajime Tamura
Wataru Tanaka
Hirotaka Tanikawa
Wataru Tanimura
Mizuki Tatsuno
Daisuke Tsujimura
Chiaki Uchida
Daisuke Watanabe
Ce Xu
Atsushi Yamaguchi
Kazumi Yamaguchi
Yu Yamamoto
Jumpei Yamashita
Yuta Yamashita
Mahito Yokota
Akane Yoshida
Rikuto Yoshida

Special Thanks
Hiroshi Arai, Takeshi Hayakawa, Sayaka Hayashi, Youichi Hirota, Gen Kadoi, Haruka Kakinuma, Naoki Koga, Yoshiaki Koizumi, Keisuke Matsui, Saki Murayama, Yusuke Nakano, Atsumi Sasamoto, Kaoru Sato, Hideaki Shimizu, Yoshikazu Sumioka, Kiyoshi Takeuchi, Takashi Tezuka, Tsuyoshi Watanabe

General Producer
Shigeru Miyamoto

Executive Producer
Satoru Iwata