Nintendo’s new development centre may reportedly be delayed to make it bigger

Nintendo is reportedly set to delay the completion of its new development centre in Japan.

Last year the company successfully purchased the land next to its main headquarters in Kyoto, and announced plans to build a new development centre there.

The roughly 10,000 metre-squared site, which Nintendo purchased for ¥5 billion ($34.7 million), will be the home of its new building, tentatively named Corporate Headquarters Development Centre Building No 2.

The original plan was that the building would be 12 storeys tall and would be completed in 2027. However, according to Nikkei, Nintendo is reportedly considering changing this to make building bigger.

Nikkei’s report claims that Nintendo is anticipating a long-term increase of staff, and is therefore considering the addition of extra floors to the building, pushing the completion date back to 2028 or later.

According to Nikkei, Nintendo hired 130 new graduates in fiscal year 2023, which it says is 50% more than three years ago.

The article quotes Nintendo president Shuntaro Furakawa as saying: “The development resources required per piece of software are increasing. We would like to maintain the level of recruitment of the past few years.”

Nintendo said in a management briefing in November 2021 that the Switch’s unexpected level of success has enabled the company to invest in new business opportunities, including expansion of its game development capability.

During the briefing, Furukawa said it will spend up to ¥100 billion yen ($800 million) expanding its internal game development capability and up to ¥50 billion yen ($400 million) growing its non-game entertainment software assets, such as movies.