What exactly is Nintendo's 1st party development studio structure?

[ChadFL]

Nintendo is a bizarre company, top to bottom. I've mentioned it in other threads, but it seems like they have an irrational fear of growth/expansion. The company has a very confusing network of subsidiaries and nominally independent studios that work exclusively or semi-exclusively for Nintendo. I've mentioned it in other threads, but it seems like the entire company is driven by the odd personality of people like Shigeru Miyamoto (severe OCD, probably high functioning autism, perfectionist to a fault). Ironic considering as brilliant as Miyamoyo it, he can sometimes waste years on games that still turn out to be garbage, like Star Fox Zero.

Nintendo is famously secretive and hostile to corporate and industry change. Even with hindsight, I have no idea what many of their offices do for prolonged periods of time.

Retro studios was mentioned by someone else, and it is a great example. That studio allegedly has 200 employees, but has created and launched ZERO new games since since 2014. The only things they've completed in that time are a re-release of DK Tropical Freeze and a Metroid Prime 1 remaster. They are supposedly working on Metroid Prime 4, but that game seems to have been in development hell for over half a decade.

Another good example of Nintendo weirdness is AlphaDream. It was a strong partner of Nintendo going back to 2000. It was one of the most productive developers for Nintendo, putting out new Mario & Luigi games about every other year. It was a terrific game franchise, but the company hit a rough patch and Nintendo... just let them go bankrupt. It was a company that would have been well placed to create a hit Mario RPG on the Switch, but nah, Nintendo cut them loose.

This isn't even getting into all the beloved franchises Nintendo abandoned decades ago, like F-Zero and Wave Race. It simply defies belief that Nintendo doesn't put out more first party games on the Switch despite no longer needing to support multiple systems, like they did in past generations.

I know this post may come across as borderline hatred of Nintendo, but that isn't intended. I am simply pointing out the glaring flaws in the bizarre (even by Japanese corporation standards) structure of Nintendo. Nintendo is still my favorite game company, but man, are there ever a thousand ways they could make their company even better.