Nintendo has announced it is purchasing 10,028.55㎡ (2.5 acres) of land in Kyoto, Japan. The land is situated just down the street from its current headquarters in the city. Nintendo has said that it is buying the land in order to expand its headquarters with a new development center. Nintendo is tentatively calling the proposed building the “Corporate Headquarters Development Center, Building No. 2.”
In its acquisition press release, Nintendo says the objective of the new facility will be for research and development “reinforcement.” The land that Nintendo has purchased previously belonged to the city of Kyoto. As part of its disclosure, Nintendo revealed the purchase price, which was in the form of a bid. Nintendo is paying 5,000,000,000 Yen ($40 million) for the land. Nintendo also revealed some details about the proposed building that will be on the site. Nintendo has proposed to construct a 38,000㎡ (409,000 sq ft), 72m (236 ft), 12-floor building to house its new R&D reinforcement center. It isn’t clear when construction on the building will begin but Nintendo has projected December 2027 as the planned completion date.
Nintendo has always placed a heavy emphasis on research and development. The company is well known for shaking things up with each console release. While Microsoft and Sony release consoles that feel like evolutions of their previous models, Nintendo tends to throw everything out when a good idea comes up. The Wii was nothing like the Gamecube, the Wii U was nothing like the Wii and the Nintendo Switch is entirely different (though inspired) from the Wii U. While many people are assuming Nintendo will release a Nintendo Switch 2 as its next console, nobody can certain what Nintendo is cooking up in its R&D centers. This new R&D center will likely be one of the more exciting buildings to work in at Nintendo.
