Nintendo, it seems, has a LOT of internal development teams, as well as a lot of second-party developers. Since E3, people have been complaining about how Nintendo has been neglecting "core gamers" (whatever those are); however, how much of the work these teams are doing do we really know about? Here's the result of a little cursory research - and the results are surprisingly in favor of those self-proclaimed "core gamers":

FIRST PARTY TEAMS: A first-party development team is one that Nintendo holds at least 51% share in. In other words, one that they basically own.

1) Brownie Brown, Inc. - A bunch of ex-Square employees who worked on the old GB/SNES Mana games.

What They're Known For: Mother 3 (along with HAL Laboratories); a couple of mediocre Mana games

What They're Probably Doing: At the moment, the team is slated to work on Blue Dragon Plus along with Mistwalker. After that, most likely another Mana game for the DS (or DS-2).

What They Should Be Doing: Making Mother 4. And bringing it Stateside, dangit.

2) Intelligent Systems - Former members of the legendary Nintendo R&D1 development team. Headed by Gunpei Yokoi (creator of the Game Boy and Virtual Boy) until his death.

What They're Known For: Famicom Wars series; Fire Emblem series; Paper Mario series; WarioWare series.

What They're Probably Doing: After putting the finishing touches on Fire Emblem DS, which was just released in Japan, there's been no real word on what Intelligent Systems is doing next. We can pretty safely assume, however, that they have at least one game from each of their three major franchises - Fire Emblem, Paper Mario, and WarioWare - in the works. They're a big development team who releases several games a year, so I expect we'll see an announcement in that regards soon.

What They Should Be Doing: Those three IPs are getting a bit long in the tooth, so let's see a new IP in 2009, guys.

3) Monolith Soft - More former Squaresoft employees. Founded in 1999, the company associated itself with Namco until Nintendo purchased a majority share in them last year.

What They're Known For: Xenosaga series; Baten Kaitos series; contributing work to Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

What They're Probably Doing: Putting the finishing touches on Disaster: Day of Crisis, set to release next month in Europe, with a North American release likely to follow soon after. After that, my best guess would be one or more DS or Wii RPGs, since Nintendo bought them primary to concentrate on RPG development.

What They Should Be Doing: Localizing Soma Bringer. Of course, I doubt that'll ever happen...

4) Nintendo EAD Software Group #1 - One of the core development groups in Nintendo's prestigious Entertainment Analysis and Division R&D team, headed by Shigeru Miyamoto.

What They're Known For: Every Mario Kart game since Double Dash; Nintendogs.

What They're Probably Doing: EAD 1 is probably in early development of some unknown title, since MK Wii just released back in June. I wouldn't be surprised if it's something "casual" a la Nintendogs, or perhaps a launch title for the DS 2. Either way, we likely won't hear about it for a while yet.

What They Should Be Doing: Likely exactly what they're doing.

5) Nintendo EAD Software Group #2 - One of the core development groups in Nintendo's prestigious Entertainment Analysis and Division R&D team, headed by Shigeru Miyamoto.

What They're Known For: Animal Crossing (GC); most of the "Wii" line of games.

What They're Probably Doing: This is basically the "casual" division of EAD, and currently they're hard at work on Wii Music, Animal Crossing: City Folk, and Wii Sports Resort.

What They Should Be Doing: Just what they're doing - producing more "casual games" to make the Internet "hardcore" more irate. :)

6) Nintendo EAD Software Group #3 (AKA "Zelda Team") - One of the core development groups in Nintendo's prestigious Entertainment Analysis and Division R&D team, headed by Shigeru Miyamoto.

What They're Known For: Every Legend of Zelda game that hasn't been outsourced.

What They're Probably Doing: Nintendo hinted at this year's E3 that Zelda Team were hard at work on some new project - likely a new Zelda game for Wii. The team just finished up Phantom Hourglass last year, so I expect the new Zelda to hit in Christmas '09.

What They Should Be Doing: Making a "different" Zelda game in the process. I love the OoT-style Zelda games as much as the next guy, but it's time to move on.

7) Nintendo EAD Software Group #4 - One of the core development groups in Nintendo's prestigious Entertainment Analysis and Division R&D team, headed by Shigeru Miyamoto.

What They're Known For: The "Super Mario Advance" line of games; Super Mario 64 DS; New Super Mario Bros.; Big Brain Academy (DS)

What They're Probably Doing: We haven't heard much of anything from EAD 4 since New Super Mario Bros., so it's likely that they have something major in the pipeline. If I had to guess, I'd say some sort of 3D (or 2.5D) Mario title to launch the DS 2.

What They Should Be Doing: Developing an original SMB title for the DS 2. These guys proved with NSMB that they can do more than just ports, so here's hoping.

8) Nintendo EAD Software Group #5 - One of the core development groups in Nintendo's prestigious Entertainment Analysis and Division R&D team, headed by Shigeru Miyamoto.

What They're Known For: Wii Fit.

What They're Probably Doing: This team was basically formed for the sole purpose of creating Wii Fit, so I'd imagine they have something new involving the Balance Board in the works. Going with Nintendo's "blue ocean" strategy, it's most likely a "crossover" title a la NSMB or Animal Crossing.

What They Should Be Doing: Giving us some new reasons to break out that Balance Board. Skate It and Shaun White are nice, but a new first-party effort would be nicer.

9) Nintendo EAD Software Group Tokyo (AKA "Mario Team") - One of the core development groups in Nintendo's prestigious Entertainment Analysis and Division R&D team, headed by Shigeru Miyamoto.

What They're Known For: Super Mario Galaxy.

What They're Probably Doing: As with Zelda Team, Nintendo hinted at E3 that Mario Team was at work on a new title. It's probably not a Mario title - Nintendo seems committed to releasing only one Mario game a generation - but seeing as this team cranked out the sublime Mario Galaxy, I can't wait to see what else they have to offer.

What They Should Be Doing: Giving us Super Mario Galaxy 2. One isn't enough. :(

10) Nintendo Software Technology Corporation - The American wing of Nintendo's in-house development teams, started specifically to create titles for the North American market.

What They're Known For: Wave Race: Blue Storm; Mario v. Donkey Kong series; Metroid Prime Hunters.

What They're Probably Doing: NSTC were the team working on Project H.A.M.M.E.R. before it was unceremoniously canceled. Rumor has it that the title is still in development, but we haven't heard a peep from Nintendo about it for a year. Therefore, I suspect we're more likely to see a new Wave Race or 1080 Snowboarding title coming from these guys in the next year or so.

What They Should Be Doing: Actually finishing Project H.A.M.M.E.R., because it looked really friggin' cool.

11) Retro Studios - An American-based company that became a first-party Nintendo subsidiary during the GameCube days.

What They're Known For: Metroid Prime series.

What They're Probably Doing: Retro has all but confirmed that their next game will not be a Metroid game. Rumor had it that they were working on the nebulous Kid Icarus Wii title, but now third-party developer Factor 5 seems to be a likelier candidate for that game. What Retro has in store, therefore, I have no idea, but it'll almost definitely be a "core" title.

What They Should Be Doing: Reviving one of their old, canceled projects, like, say, Raven Blade.

SECOND PARTY TEAMS: A second-party team is one that creates games exclusively for a console manufacturer via an exclusivity agreement.

1) AlphaDream - A Japanese team that specializes in 2D games; includes yet more ex-Squaresoft employees. (Jeesh, there's a lot of those at the big N.)

What They're Known For: Mario & Luigi series; a handful of Hamtaro shovelware.

What They're Probably Doing: We haven't heard anything from this team since they released M&L: Partners in Time on the DS. My guess for their next game would be more Hamtaro crap, unfortunately, though they likely have another quirky RPG in the pipeline as well.

What They Should Be Doing: Bringing a 2D M&L game to WiiWare. I would give my right arm for that.

2) Ambrella - A second-party shovelware company that cranks out a bunch of kiddy games.

What They're Known For: A bunch of C-grade Pokemon games (i.e. Hey You Pikachu; My Pokemon Ranch).

What They're Probably Doing: Developing the next bit of pocket-monster shovelware. But, hey, can you blame Nintendo for milking such an obvious cash cow?

What They Should Be Doing: Developing something that doesn't suck.

3) Camelot Software - The prestigious RPG and sports game developer, most famous for working with Sega during that company's Genesis and Saturn days.

What They're Known For: Shining Force series (up to and including the Saturn games); Mario Golf & Mario Tennis series; We Love golf (published by Capcom); Golden Sun series.

What They're Probably Doing: Strong rumor has it that this team is hard at work bringing its Golden Sun franchise to the Wii. Having just finished up We Love Golf early this year, it would follow that any such game is still in the early development stages. I think it's more likely to hit the Wii than the DS, but we'll see. Other than that, Mario Tennis hasn't made an appearance on the Wii yet, so I expect that to hit sometime in the next year or two.

What They Should Be Doing: Developing a new Shining Force strategy game for the Wii or DS. Both would make perfect homes for a new entry into the famed strategy-RPG series.

4) Game Freak - The boys that made a little yellow electric mouse famous. They also made some pretty good other games that aren't about catching 'em all.

What They're Known For: Pokemon series of handheld RPGs; Yoshi (NES/SNES); Drill Dozer

What They're Probably Doing: Putting the finishing touches on Pokemon Platinum for the DS. After that, it's probably on to the next Pokemon game.

What They Should Be Doing: Making more original IPs. On the occasion that Nintendo lets them off the leash, Game Freak can crank out some really fun, original games, like the aforementioned Drill Dozer. However, that only seems to happen once in a blue moon...

5) Genius Sonority - A Japanese development company headed by the former director of Dragon Quest V and VI.

What They're Known For: Pokemon games on home consoles; Dragon Quest Swords.

What They're Probably Doing: After the modest success of Dragon Quest Swords, I wouldn't be surprised if these guys continued to collaborate with Square-Enix on bringing Dragon Quest games to the Wii. However, it's equally likely that they're now hard at work on a new Pokemon game for Wii.

What They Should Be Doing: Genius Sonority is another development team for whom Nintendo really needs to loosen their yolk. I'd really like to see what these guys could do with an original IP.

6) HAL Laboratory - The creator of many of Nintendo's famous IP, formerly headed by Satoru Iwata (now President of Nintendo).

What They're Known For: Kirby series; Adventures of Lolo series; Mother/Earthbound series; Super Smash Bros. series.

What They're Probably Doing: Putting the finishing touches on Kirby Super Star Ultra (DS) and developing Kirby Wii. After that, I expect we'll see a Smash Bros. title for either the DS or DS-2, and possibly a new IP.

What They Should Be Doing: Releasing the Mother trilogy on DS. Or, at the very least, just bloody localizing Mother 3.

7) Nd Cube - A low-profile development house based in Tokyo, Japan.

What They're Known For: F-Zero Maximum Velocity (GBA); lots of titles that didn't make it overseas.

What They're Probably Doing: Thought defunct for a while, Nd Cube has recently posted job listings for Wii and DS developers. What they're developing, exactly, is anybody's guess.

What They Should Be Doing: After they get their stuff together, make F-Zero Wii.

8) Noise - A small development house who just recently began having its titles localized.

What They're Known For: Custom Robo series.

What They're Probably Doing: Having released Custom Robo Arena on the DS, Noise are probably hard at work taking the franchise to the Wii. I doubt we'll hear much about it until it's almost ready to ship, however.

What They Should Be Doing: Making something other than a Custom Robo game. These guys are talented, but they need to branch out a little.

9) skip Ltd. - A Japanese development house, specializing in quirky titles.

What They're Known For: Chibi-Robo series; Captain Rainbow.

What They're Probably Doing: Captain Rainbow bombed in its native Japan, so I'd imagine that Nintendo ordered skip to localize the game for other regions. That's not guaranteed, though, as the game is rather unsuited for non-Japanese markets. skip is an adventurous development house, though, so I suspect that whatever we see from them next, it'll be new and original.

What They Should Be Doing: Localizing Captain Rainbow, if they're not already. I want to save Birdo's vibrator. :(

So, there you have it. Nintendo isn't ignoring its core fanbase; we just don't know what the hell most of the development teams it has under its wing are up to.

I hope they´re working on a new Paper Mario, but like the ones for the N64/GC.

A new Zelda is a given.

Where´s F-Zero?..I want it.

Alot of speculation but thats always the case with Nintendo.

Very long post. Some good titles (if speculation turns true) in the works.

I am disturbed by the lack of Pikmin, Starfox and F-Zero.

Thanks! I'm honestly not sure who this thread was aimed at, except that I wanted something to link to for the next "zomg nintendo hates teh hardkore i'm selling mah wii :( :( :( " thread.

I would kill for a Golden sun on the Wii. I'd also kill for a Smash Bros. on the DS. I also didn't know HAL wasn't part of Nintendo. Boy wouldn't it be a kick in the crotch if M$ bought them out some time in the future.

All the predictions of a "DS-2" are pretty ridiculous. Look how well the DS is selling. And note the new trend of consumers largely giving the cold shoulder to new hardware coupled with how unhappy many 3rd party devs seem to be during this latest console transition.

The follow-up to the DS and the follow-up to the PSP are probably 2-4 years from seeing the light of day. Nintendo isn't going to up and abandon the DS in just a year or two. It's sales are too high. They'd alienate too many customers. The only thing we'll see is a DS redesign, MAYBE by the end of 2010.

Interesting stuff.

I know that Miyamoto said that Pikmin 3 was in the works, but I haven't the faintest as to who's going to develop it. The teams that made the Pikmin and Star Fox games have basically been dissolved and integrated into other groups in Nintendo's EAD division, so, I don't know.

As for F-Zero, it'll likely come from Sega's Amusement Vision team, since they're the ones who developed GX on the GameCube.