Nintendo is set to expand its main campus in Japan with a brand-new Development Centre.
The company has purchased a 10,000-meter square plot of land next to its existing headquarters in Kyoto and plans to build a new center, called simply “Corporate Headquarters Development Centre Building No 2”. The purpose of the building is reportedly to strengthen the company’s research and development and will be complete by 2027.
“In addition to the conventional R & D investment and capital investment, we have positioned the site to be acquired and utilized this time as having an important role in strengthening R & D,” they confirmed in an official statement.
We posted the News Release "The Acquisition of the City Owned Land Adjacent to Nintendo Headquarters”.https://t.co/iOKsJrbPka
— 任天堂株式会社（企業広報・IR） (@NintendoCoLtd) April 12, 2022
The land was once the site of the former Foundation Support Factory and Material and Disaster Prevention Center, owned by the city of Kyoto.
Now, Nintendo will use the land to build its new R&D center after purchasing it from the city at a cost of ¥5 billion ($39.8 million).
As part of Kyoto’s Corporate Location Promotion System, Nintendo will be granted up to ¥100 million ($1.4 million) every year for the following three years to help cover its operational costs. However, this is dependent on how many employees Nintendo hires at the new center.
It was previously reported that Nintendo would build two new offices – one at its former headquarters which previously housed the Nintendo Kyoto Research Center and its Mario Club QA team.
Another is housed on the 6th and 7th floors of the Kyoto City Waterworks Bureau’s new government building which Nintendo plans to rent from May 2022.
However, while the new Research Center was assumed to be built next to its existing headquarters, it looks as though it will instead be constructed on this new plot of land – directly opposite Nintendo HQ.
Elsewhere, it looks as though you can now stay the night in Nintendo’s old headquarters as its 1930s HQ reopens as a hotel.
Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.