Nintendo Software Technology Corporation

Nintendo Software Technology

The exterior of Nintendo Software Technology's headquarters in Redmond
Type	Subsidiary of Nintendo
Industry	Video games
Founded	1998; 20 years ago (1998)
Founder	Minoru Arakawa Claude Comair
Headquarters	Redmond, Washington, United States
Key people	Shigeki Yamashiro (President)
Products	List of software developed
Owner	Nintendo
Number of employees	50 (2016)
Parent	Nintendo of America
Website	www.nintendo.com

Nintendo Software Technology (or NST) is an American video game developer. NST was created by Nintendo as a first-party developer to create games for the North American market, though their games have also been released in other territories such as Europe and Japan, exclusively for Nintendo consoles. Although the development team is based in North America, there is a traditional Nintendo and Japanese-centric design applied to the development of the software. Co-founders Scott Tsumura and Claude Comair retired in 2002 and 2006, respectively. NST is currently headed by Shigeki Yamashiro, and is located inside of Nintendo of America's headquarters in Redmond, Washington.

Nintendo made the decision of transplanting several members of their development team in Japan over to America. NST also recruited several veterans from companies such as Rockstar Games, Electronic Arts, and Microsoft to further complete their development talent.

The establishment took place in 1998 through a collaboration with the private university DigiPen Institute of Technology, also located in Redmond. The offices opened with several doctorate level instructors and some recent graduates of the university working with several Nintendo of America designers and producers. Their first game, Bionic Commando: Elite Forces, was released for the Game Boy Color in 1999 and was a sequel of Capcom's Bionic Commando.

Over the years, NST has developed many games for Nintendo consoles such as the Mario vs. Donkey Kong series, Wave Race: Blue Storm, and Metroid Prime Hunters.