Alongside the announcement of Tatsumi Kimishima succeeding the late Satoru Iwata as president of Nintendo on September 14 2015, the company also revealed a "large scale restructuring" that consolidates its internal development groups. Starting from September 16 2015, the Nintendo EAD and Nintendo SPD divisions are known as Nintendo EPD (Entertainment Planning & Development Division). After all the divisions were brought into a single building in Kyoto in summer of 2014, they have now been formally grouped under a single banner.
Shigeru Miyamoto no longer acts as General Manager, with the position being taken over being former GM of SPD, Shinya Takahashi. Under him, Katsuya Eguchi (former Deputy GM of EAD) and Yoshiaki Koizumi (former GM of EAD Tokyo) will serve as Deputy General Managers of EPD.
Former SPD and EAD staff will collaborate more closely on projects together under EPD.
Nintendo's official statement on the consolidation of SPD and EAD into EPD:
Establishment of the Entertainment Planning & Development Division
We will integrate personnel who are involved in the development of software for Nintendo platforms and smart devices in addition to work associated with effective utilization of character IP, and in order to create a structure that operates efficiently and rapidly, the Entertainment Analysis & Development Division and the Software Planning & Development Division will be consolidated into the newly established Entertainment Planning & Development Division.
The first new title released after the restructuring will be The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes, followed by Star Fox Zero the latter of which shows the shared efforts of EAD (developing the prototype) and SPD (outsourcing production and final development to PlatinumGames).
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