Nintendo Entertainment Planning & Development

Nintendo Entertainment Planning & Development, or Nintendo EPD, is Nintendo's largest division and makes its games, mobile apps and other software. It was created on 16 September 2015, as part of a company-wide restructure under newly appointed president Tatsumi Kimishima, by merging two long-standing divisions: Entertainment Analysis & Development (EAD) and Software Planning & Development (SPD). Besides development, it manages and licenses the company's intellectual property and oversees games made by outside studios.

Shinya Takahashi, who had run SPD, became general manager, with Yoshiaki Koizumi and Katsuya Eguchi among his deputies and Yoshio Sakamoto and Takashi Tezuka as senior officers; Hisashi Nogami (2017) and Eiji Aonuma (2019) were promoted later. Its early games included The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes (2015), made with Grezzo, and Star Fox Zero (2016), with PlatinumGames. In 2016 it also released Miitopia and moved onto phones with Miitomo and Super Mario Run.

On Nintendo Switch it released The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Splatoon 2 and Super Mario Odyssey in 2017. Super Mario Maker 2 and Ring Fit Adventure (2019), Animal Crossing: New Horizons (2020), Splatoon 3 (2022) and, in 2023, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Super Mario Bros. Wonder followed. With MercurySteam it made Metroid: Samus Returns (2017) and Metroid Dread (2021).

It works mainly in Kyoto, with a Tokyo group that makes the 3D Mario and Donkey Kong games, and is split into ten production groups, each with its own series: Zelda, Animal Crossing and Splatoon, Mario Kart, 2D Mario and Pikmin, among others. For Nintendo Switch 2 it released Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza (2025), followed in 2026 by games such as Splatoon Raiders. Its slate also includes a new version of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Metroid Ravenous, scheduled for 2027.