Nintendo EPD

Nintendo EPD, in full Nintendo Entertainment Planning & Development, is Nintendo's largest internal development wing and the creator of the vast majority of brands we associate with the company at first thought today — Zelda, Mario, Splatoon, Animal Crossing, or Ring Fit Adventure. It was formed by merging two historic divisions and has since been behind the overwhelming majority of the Switch console's flagship titles. For players, EPD is synonymous with Nintendo's precision — games that appear playful and accessible at first glance but hide remarkably refined game design beneath the surface, something the company has taken great care over for decades.

History

Nintendo EPD was formed in 2015 by merging two long-standing divisions — Nintendo EAD (Entertainment Analysis & Development), which had been behind the Mario and Zelda series since the days of the NES and SNES, and Nintendo SPD (Software Planning & Development), focused more on smaller projects and collaboration with external studios. The goal of the merger was to unify internal development capacity under a single leadership and allocate teams across projects more efficiently.

The new division fully demonstrated its strength with the arrival of the Nintendo Switch in 2017 — delivering several major titles in the very first year alone: the open world The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, the platformer Super Mario Odyssey, the racer Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and the shooter Splatoon 2. This wave defined the early period of the Switch and showed that EPD could work on many major brands in parallel. In the following years came further successes — the creative tool Super Mario Maker 2, the fitness title Ring Fit Adventure, which became a phenomenon, and Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which accompanied millions of players through the pandemic period in 2020.

EPD continued releasing new entries in established series — Splatoon 3, Nintendo Switch Sports, the long-awaited Zelda sequel Tears of the Kingdom, and Super Mario Bros. Wonder, which returned to 2D platforming. With the arrival of the Switch 2 console in 2025, the division again delivered both launch and follow-up titles, among them Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza, confirming its role as the main engine of Nintendo's first-party output for the new hardware generation as well.

Key figures

Overseeing the entire division and its projects for the long term is Shigeru Miyamoto, the legendary designer behind the creation of the Mario and Zelda series, who holds one of the highest creative oversight roles at the company. The Zelda series has long been shaped by producer Eiji Aonuma, who has been responsible for the direction of the brand since the days of Ocarina of Time. Director Hidemaro Fujibayashi played a key role in the creation of the open world of Breath of the Wild and its sequel. Among the leading figures is also Yoshiaki Koizumi, who has taken part in producing a number of major projects, including Super Mario Odyssey.

Today

Nintendo EPD remains, in 2026, the main internal development pillar of Nintendo and is behind the vast majority of major exclusives for the Switch and the emerging Switch 2. The division continues to develop dozens of brands in parallel — from action-adventures through racing games to sports and fitness titles — and its games regularly rank among the best-selling and best-reviewed on the market. Given the division's size and the scope to which it covers Nintendo's portfolio, EPD remains one of the most important development centers in the entire games industry.