[NS] Nintendo Switch

First Party Studios:

Nintendo EPD: Born from the fusion of Nintendo’s old EAD (Entertainment Analysis and Development) and SPD (Software Planning and Development) studios, EPD (Entertainment Planning and Development) is Nintendo’s biggest and core studio. Currently it’s divided into 10 separate teams, each one working on different projects.

EPD 1, 2, 6 and 7 are focused on supporting and coordinating with outside studios, usually only in an overseeing position.

EPD 3: The Zelda Team, currently hard at work on the sequel to Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, recently announced to be delayed until 2023.

EPD 4: The assorted random stuff team, whose recent work includes Nintendo Labo, Ring Fit Adventure, and Game Builder Garage. There´s a decent chance they’re the team working on Nintendo Switch Sports, which seems to match the rest of their output. That last part is pure speculation, though.

EPD 5: The Animal Crossing and Splatoon 3 team, currently working on Splatoon 3 after the juggernaut that Animal Crossing New Horizons turned out to be.

EPD 8: The 3D Mario team. Their current project is unknown, but there’s several rumors that claim they’re working on a new Donkey Kong as well as preproduction on the next 3D Mario. It wouldn’t be the first time a team works on a DK game before a 3D Mario, as the team behind Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat followed it up with Super Mario Galaxy.

EPD 9: The Mario Kart (and ARMS) team, currently split between supporting DeNA with Mario Kart Tour and working on the 48 track DLC for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, scheduled to last until late 2023.

EPD 10: The 2D Mario and Pikmin team. Ignoring the fact Pikmin 4 has been mentioned to be in active development since at least 2017 with nothing to show for it (in true Pikmin tradition), EPD 10’s projects are currently unknown. Their last big game was 2019’s Mario Maker 2, which they followed up with a port of Pikmin 3, developed in collaboration with Eighting, and the newest installment of Big Brain Academy, developed in collaboration with EPD 4 and long time series dev Indiezero.

Nintendo Software Technologies: Once one of the Big N’s most prominent western studios, responsible for the Wave Race and 1080 series, the second half of the 2000’s saw the studio take a series of hits, most prominently the cancellation of its most ambitious game: Project H.A.M.M.E.R. From around that time and until the release of the Switch, NST was banished to localization and Mario vs. Donkey Kong hell. Fortunately, since 2017 the studio has been involved in bigger and more unique projects, including original games like The Stretchers and Good Job, as well as supporting the development of Snipperclips and Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury. Their current project is unknown.

Nintendo of Europe Research and Development: The appropriately named NERD team mostly handles the development of emulators and other non-game software for Nintendo. Their work includes the emulators used on the NES/SNES classic consoles, Nintendo Switch Online and Super Mario 3D All-Stars, the VR part of Labo, the Heart rate detection of Ring Fit adventure, and the AR part of Mario Kart Home Circuit.

Monolith Soft: Not to be confused with Warner Bros.’ Monolith Productions, Monolith Soft grew quickly during the 2010’s to become one of Nintendo’s biggest studios and a key player in its development plans. MS projects include handling their flagship series, Xenoblade Chronicles, whose fourth entry: Xenoblade Chronicles 3, is slated for September 2022. Besides that, Monolith is also a supporting developer in a lot of Nintendo’s titles, most notably Breath of the Wild and its sequel, as well as Animal Crossing New Horizons and Splatoon 2.

Next Level Games: One of Nintendo’s most recent acquisitions, this Canada based studio has been a long-time partner of the big N, but it seems their recent work on Luigi’s Mansion 3 convinced them to acquire them altogether. Currently working on Mario Strikers Battle League, a revival of their first Nintendo published project.

NDCube: Once the developer of Wii Party, after Konami’s acquisition of Hudson, NDC was promoted to developer of the Mario Party series, ushering an era of mediocre to bad party games. Recently, however, their output saw a sharp increase in positive reception, specifically 2020’s Clubhouse Games and last year´s Mario Party Superstars. Rumors based around Youtube surveys suggest Superstars might be getting DLC later this year.

Retro Studios: Coming from humble beginnings as a partially owned studio whose founder (The Guy Game creator Jeff Spangenberg) embezzled Nintendo resources to host a porn website, Retro became one of Nintendo’s most celebrated studios and their biggest western subsidiary. Their claims to fame are the critically acclaimed Metroid Prime series and their outstanding revival of the Donkey Kong Country series. Currently working on the eternally-hiring-new-people development of Metroid Prime 4, after the project was handed over to them after two years of unsuccessful development under an undisclosed team widely believed to be Bandai Namco Singapore and Japan.

1-UP Studios: Formerly known as Brownie Brown, this Japan-based studio transitioned from developing RPGs for Nintendo handhelds to a full time support studio having worked on titles like Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury, Animal Crossing New Horizons and Ring Fit Adventure.

SRD: Software Research and Development has been one of Nintendo’s closest partners, with the relationship between the two companies dating back to 1983 with the NES port of Donkey Kong. Despite SRD’s offices being housed inside Nintendo’s Kyoto Development Center, SRD wasn´t acquired until February of 2022. They’ve been a support studio for decades.

2nd Party Studios

HAL Laboratory: Long time Nintendo partners, original employers of late Nintendo President Satoru Iwata as well as Smash Bros and Kirby creator Masahiro Sakurai. Responsible for the Mother series, the evergreen Kirby series and a string of well liked smaller titles like the BoxBoy series or the more recent Part-time UFO. Their latest release, Kirby and the Forgotten Land, released less than a week ago. However, 2022 *is* Kirby’s 30th anniversary, and both HAL and Nintendo have announced plans to celebrate it. Whether this means merch, live events or a second Kirby game or collection this year is currently unknown.

Intelligent Systems: Another long time Nintendo Partner, Int-Sys projects include the Fire Emblem series, which experienced a massive surge of popularity over the last 10 years, the Paper Mario subseries, locked in an endless cycle of frustrating people who want a Mario RPG on the Switch or NPCs with unique character designs, and the Wario Ware series, delighting everyone with good enough taste to know Wario is the best videogame character ever. Currently they’re widely speculated to be working on the next installment of the Fire Emblem franchise, whether that’s a remake or a brand new game is unknown. They’re also overseeing Koei Tecmo’s fix-fic Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes.

Indiezero: The current developer of the Brain Training/Big Brain series, their credits also include the NES REMIX games, Sushi Striker, and the Theathrythm Final Fantasy games. Their latest game: Big Brain Academy: Brain vs. Brain released in December 2021, and their current plans are unknown.

Grezzo: During the early 2010’s Grezzo was utilized as a supplemental Zelda team, handling the 3DS versions of Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask and Four Swords, as well as codeveloping Tri-Force Heroes. From 2017 onwards they’ve handled a more diverse set of projects, including developing the remake of Link’s Awakening as well as the Switch version of Miitopia.

DeNA: Nintendo’s main mobile developer, in charge of Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, Mario Kart Tour and Pokemon Masters. However, all those projects are supported by its main series core developers. So, for example, Mario Kart developers EPD 9 support DeNA for Mario Kart Tour and EPD 5 supports them for Animal Crossing Pocket Camp.

Jupiter: Smaller developer that mainly makes the Nintendo published Picross series.

Camelot: Ex-Sega developers that found a new home as Nintendo’s Mario Golf and Mario Tennis factory. Once upon a time they also made cult classic JRPG series Golden Sun. Recent releases include 2018’s Mario Tennis Aces and 2021’s Mario Golf: Super Rush. Next project is unknown, but it probably involves Mario characters wearing sportswear.

Gamefreak/Creatures Inc: The ever-growing Pokemon machine, constantly pushing the limits of what’s considered an acceptable 60 dollar game that’s part of the highest grossing media franchise on earth. To maintain a consistent output in recent years they’ve adopted a Call of Duty-esque strategy of having numerous teams working on different mainline entries. Their most recent releases include 2021’s Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl and 2022’s Pokemon Legends Arceus. They also recently announced Pokemon Violet and Scarlet, slated for the end of 2022. Games on the Pokemon series not developed by Gamefreak are handled by a variety of developers, including ILCA (Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pear), Niantic (GO), TiMi (Unite), Bandai Namco (Pokken) and Spike Chunsoft (Mystery Dungeon.) A Pokemon spinoff is liable to be announced every other Wednesday. Oh, and Pokemon Sleep, whatever that is, was announced in 2019. Must be a big game.

3RD Party studios working on Nintendo IPs*

MercurySteam: Spain based developer and seemingly current shepherd of the 2D Metroid series. Their latest Nintendo published game, Metroid Dread, had a very positive reception and sold well, elevating the likeliness of them handling future Metroid 2D outings. Recently, it was announced that Dread would receive a string of free updates, including one in April that adds Boss Rush mode. MercurySteam does have other commitments with other publishers, but the free DLC updates do increase the possibilities of further in-depth post launch content.

Koei Tecmo: One of the Big N’s most common collaborators, responsible for supporting Intelligent Systems in the development of Fire Emblem: Three Houses as well as developing a string of Zelda and Fire Emblem spinoffs in the style of their long running Dynasty Warriors series. The most recent of these, Hyrule Warriors Legends received it’s last DLC wave in late 2021. Currently at work on Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes.

Wayforward: Smaller studio famous for its Shantae franchise. Developed the release date-less Advance Wars 1+2 Re-Boot Camp, a remake/revival of GBA cult classic Advance Wars that had its 2nd release date of April 8 postponed because of the real-life war in Ukraine. It wouldn’t have been the first time an Advance Wars game released close to a major horrifying military conflict, as the first Advance Wars title was released on the 10th of September of 2001. Maybe Nintendo stopped making Advance Wars games to protect humanity.

Platinum Games*: Creators of the technically Sega-owned but Nintendo produced Bayonetta series and currently working on the series’ third entry. They also released 2019 Nintendo Switch exclusive Astral Chain. Besides that, they’ve had a rough couple of years, including the recently released and critically panned Babylon’s Fall and the cancellation of their biggest project to date, Scalebound. There seems to be a lot riding on Bayonetta 3’s shoulders.

Ubisoft: Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, a crossover between Nintendo’s Mario series and Ubisoft’s Rabbids games managed, despite the eyebrow raising premise, to turn out as an enjoyable and somewhat charming tactics RPG. Special shout out to the singing Rabbid ghost section scored by Grant Kirkhope of Banjo Kazooie fame. A sequel, Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope was announced during 2021’s Ubisoft Forward event with a tentative release date of 2022. However, there are some rumblings that state the game might be pushed to 2023.

Bandai Namco: Long time partners of Nintendo, Bamco has a history of developing games for Nintendo’s franchises that dates back to the Gamecube era, with titles like Star Fox Assault, Donkey Konga 1 and 2, and Mario Superstars Baseball. More recently, they´ve developed or co-developed titles like ARMS, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Pokken Tournament DX, Pac-Man 99 and New Pokemon Snap. It’s currently unknown if they’re working on any Nintendo IP, but chances are they are.

Edit: Forever Entertainment: Polish game studio responsible for, among many things, the recent remakes of classic Sega games like Panzer Dragoon and House of the Dead. In September of 2021 they struck a big business deal with Nintendo involving publishing rights and funding. It's currently unknown what this partnership will result in. Shout-out to u/blanketedgay for tipping me to this info.

3rd Party Developers whose games have some kind of exclusivity to the Nintendo Switch

Sega/Atlus: The 2 headed chimera that is Sega/Atlus has a long history of supporting Nintendo through exclusives. On the Atlus side, Nintendo consoles have been the sole home of the core Shin Megami Tensei series, whose latest entry, SMTV, released last year. Meanwhile, on the Sega side of things, Nintendo’s former rival has developed quite a chummy relationship with the big N. For over 10 years Sega’s developed the crossover minigame collection series Mario and Sonic at Olympics, with no sign of it stopping. Besides that, Sega is the owner of the Bayonetta IP and, while relatively hands off, they are an extra party in that game’s development.

Square Enix: Squeenix’s subsidiary Team Asano has been a consistent developer for Nintendo’s consoles since the 3DS with the first two games of the Bravely series. That support has continued into the Nintendo Switch era with the release of Octopath Traveler in 2018, Bravely Default 2 in 2021 and Triangle Strategy in 2022. The continued success of these games means there’s a high chance Team Asano’s future games will continue to release first or exclusively on Switch. Other Nintendo Switch exclusives by Square Enix include the upcoming Live A Live remake, slated for July 22, 2022.

Grasshopper Manufacture: The house that Suda 51 built, known for their over-the-top low budget action games, specially their cult classic No More Heroes series. The franchise’s latest title, No More Heroes 3, released last year as a Switch exclusive, with Nintendo assisting with the physical publishing of the game. While recently acquired by NetEase, Grasshopper and Nintendo seem to have a strong relationship and it’s likely they´ll keep supporting one another.

Team Reptile: Indie game studio working on Nintendo Switch console exclusive Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, a Jet Set Radio Spiritual Succesor.