Nintendo to spend ?127m on R&D facility
An eight-floor investment in the future.
Nintendo will spend more than £127m (¥16.5 billion) on a snazzy new research and design facility in Kyoto, Japan.
The Nikkei reported (translated by Andriasang) that building work will start in January 2012, and be finished by the end of 2013. By that time, Wii U will already be at least a year old.
Why the big move? Nintendo is splashing out to centralise its existing R&D offices with the company's main headquarters. Nintendo's staff will now all be in one location. They can have lunch together, play frisbee.
This allows better communication between developers and the company's top brass which, Nikkei speculated, could lead to better games.
The house of Mario has been planning the move for a while - an early 2009 estimate put plans for the lavish eight-storey building at only ¥12 billion.
Nintendo's design accomodates 1500 workers and 40,582 square metres, which are the best kind.