Nintendo has been a big deal in gaming for more than 30 years. Despite various rivals launching more powerful products, the company's imagination and innovation has not only allowed it to survive but often thrive and outpace those opponents. The Switch might be the best example of that so far. Despite recently celebrating its fifth birthday, the console continues to go from strength to strength and is now Nintendo's best-selling home console ever.
The ongoing success of the Switch is allowing Nintendo to expand its horizons, and today it announced what the next step toward those horizons will be. The creation of a whole new development center, right alongside the company's headquarters in Kyoto, Japan. Nintendo revealed on its corporate Japanese site (via GamesIndustry.biz) that it has acquired the land alongside its HQ, and its new development center will be finished in 2027.
The new building has been tentatively named Corporate Headquarters Development Centre Building No 2. Catchy. The 12-storey building will be built right alongside its HQ, despite the belief that the space alongside its current development center right across the street was being reserved for Corporate Headquarters Development Centre Building No 2. For the time being, Nintendo will rent two floors in another nearby building so the expansion can begin while the new development center is being built.
The success of the Switch is very much responsible for Nintendo's ongoing expansion. Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa revealed earlier this year that the company plans to spend $800 million expanding internal game development and $400 million on non-gaming elements such as movies. That's right, Nintendo probably won't be leaving it at just the one Mario movie. There's already a Donky Kong spinoff rumored to be in the pipeline.
Elsewhere in Nintendo's ever-expanding world, owners of 3DS and Wii U consoles continue to be a little peeved following the news that both systems' online storefronts will be closed by this time next year. A move similar to the one PlayStation tried to pull with the PS3 and PS Vita, but in this case, there doesn't appear to be any sign that Nintendo will be making a u-turn.