... but they aren't "mashed into one group" -- there are multiple design teams working independently of each other. Yes, they are all under the EAD name now, but the same article goes on to point out that many designers were promoted to producer levels. The individual design teams remain individual, but they are now all classified under the same catagory. Team 1 isn't going to necessarily have to deal with Team 2's ideas.
The main difference is that in the old days, R&D1 creative heads had no idea what R&D4 creators were doing. As a method of competition, they were not allowed into each others department. Now. Miyamoto and Tezuka are involved in every game, even if the team members have their own sort of arrangement. It is definitely a change.
I'm almost surprised the author didn't speculate that Gumpei's death was caused by a mysterious Italian plumber zipping past him on the freeway.
I almost might take offense to that. If you don't agree with my opinion thats fine. I feel I provide A LOT of information eitherwise.
This article is misleading. R&D1 is not dead, just merely reorganized.
If by reorganized you mean the fact that the two former general managers are gone, several staff retired, and most of what was a core team having been merged into other teams. Then yes reorganized. R&D1 is dead technically on paper. And if you want to talk spiritually, I mean Sakamoto is there but whatever team he is in, I can guarantee you its going to be different. Though truth in the matter, hopefully at least half of the Metroid team is there.
Seriously, treating R&D1 and EAD like separate companies is not just silly, but downright retarded. They are all internal development teams/departments at Nintendo and can be altered, merged, or divided at will.
There is no argument there. Never do i treat them as different companies. However, there were some traditions and guidelines the groups followed. And they definitely had their own identity.
By merging all of game development under one branch instead of having several teams, sounds like a really smart idea IMO. (I mean merging them all under EAD, as opposed to having EAD, R&D1, R&D2, etc. stand side by side)
I stated how I think hopefully this means more games are released overall.
And unlike Nintendo's 2nd parties, it's not like Nintendo's internal teams really "owned" any individual properties. I mean, Metroid wasn't exclusive to R&D1 after all.
The 3D Metroid and Wario were out of R&D1 jurisdiction. Obviously, there was a reason for it.
Correct. Both GBA Metroids are R&D1's games, though key IS staffers were also on board.
No Intelligent Systems assistance at all in any of the GBA Metroids. There was IS assistance on Wario Ware Touched and Twist though. The original Wario Ware was done by R&D1, and since then, they havent fully released anything.