Software Planning & Production Department (New??)

Software Planning & Production Department (New??)

Kyoto Ninja 02 Feb 2013 01:15

The Latest Iwata Asks: Fire Emblem Awakening refers to Genki Yokota and Hitoshi Yamagami as members of "Software Planning & Production Department".

It could be a mistranslation, but i don't think it is. It looks like Software Planning & Development Department and Software Planning & Production Department may have gone independent of each other. This separates the SPD that develops games (Sakamoto's boys) and the ones that mainly plan and produce (Tanabe and Yamagami).

Lots of R&D changes being revealed as expected.

Monkey (guest) 02 Feb 2013 13:11

Good catch!

If this is true, maybe there is a possibility of more small production units developing software assigned to Sakamoto? If the old SPDs except unit 1 are now SPP and are separate from SPD, Sakamoto's promotion from Producer to General Manager doesn't make much sense, does it? Usually a GM has many sub units under his command.

Re: Software Planning & Production Department (New??)

Kyoto Ninja 02 Feb 2013 16:59

Well his Production Group No. 1 (which he used to manage before got promoted), technically had a couple of small teams. Rhythm Heaven team, Kiki Trick team, Tomodachi Collection team, and WarioWare team. Maybe each will be their own group under his new Software Planning & Development Department. There is still more to uncover.

Software Planning & Development Division ? (No name change?) - Shinya Takahashi
Software Planning & Development Department (Sakamoto), Software Planning & Production (Tanabe?), Software Development & Design Department (Not sure who is manager yet). Very confusing department names for this division.

Then inside Sakamoto's Software Planning & Development Department you probably have Group No.1 , Group No. 2, etc.

Monkey (guest) 03 Mar 2013 11:23

Shikamaru, I see you have updated the SPD profile with many sub units managed by SPD1 veterans. Is that confirmed or just guesswork?

Re: Software Planning & Production Department (New??)

Kyoto Ninja 03 Mar 2013 15:20

Yeah Monkey. Just placeholders - guesses for the time being. Slowly putting it together. A couple of game releases and new iwata asks would help a lot of course.

Monkey (guest) 05 Mar 2013 11:52

Oh, I see. A friend from another forum (hello morromocotudo!) pointed out that in the original Fire Emblem Iwata Asks there is no mention of the SPP unit, just the same japanese characters used to describe the Software Planning & Development department. The interview is old and predates the reestructure, so maybe the english version is updated with the new info or it's just a mistranslation. I also looked at some old interviews, the one with Ocarina of Time 3D and the one with the 3D Classics where they mention the Special Planning and Development department, and as far as I can see they also use the same kanjis that describe the same Software Planning & Development department. So we are looking at a possible mistranslation in the english version, or maybe the people who translate the interview have a lot of knowledge about Nintendo's structure.

Lots of changes lately, but I think we need to be patient to fully know the scope of the reestructure and all the little details.

Monkey (guest) 18 Mar 2013 19:27

Soon we will have more info from the Iwata Asks, but I found this interesting. From the LM Wired interview:

"We just started working with Ikebata-san’s group on this project. We used to work for Tanabe-san’s1 group on these projects."

As far as I can see, Ikebata worked as an assistant producer/supervisor in many Tanabe games, but the way it's worded here may imply that now Ikebata has a production unit separate from Tanabe's. They also mention same old SPD. We will see very soon.

Re: Software Planning & Production Department (New??)

Kyoto Ninja 18 Mar 2013 22:48

Tanabe had to be promoted as well. We shall see. I mean there definitely is some big changes post february how ever things were settled in the new R&D building.

It is also interesting that Nintendo now has a distinct NOA production group separate from SPD that works on games like Big Fish Mystery and Sing Party. Azusa Tajima formerly of SPD runs it alongside some other Japanese transplants now in NOA.

Re: Software Planning & Production Department (New??)

Kyoto Ninja 22 Mar 2013 02:21

And with that note.. update (thanks to Luigi's Mansion Iwata Asks)

EAD Division
Shigeru Miyamoto - General Manager - EAD Division
Takashi Tezuka - Executive Officer - EAD Division, Software Development Department
Katsuya Eguchi - General Manager - EAD Division, Software Development Department

SPD Division
Shinya Takahashi - General Manager - SPD Division
Kensuke Tanabe - Executive Officer - SPD Division, Software Planning & Development Department
Yoshio Sakamoto - General Manager - SPD Division, Software Planning & Development Department