Topic: Tatsumi Kimishima Named President of Nintendo

[Br26]

Formerly served as president of Nintendo of America.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/41146/tatsumi-kimishima-named-president-of-nintendo

In a press release statement issued today in Japan, Nintendo has named Tatsumi Kimishima its new president following the death of Satoru Iwata in July.

Kimishima has previously been Nintendo of America's president, reigning from 2002 to 2006 when he was succeeded by the current president Reggie Fils-Aime. He has also served as Chief Financial Officer of The Pokémon Company, as well as the president of the US branch.

Genyo Takeda and Shigeru Miyamoto, who were named co-representative directors of the company in the wake of Iwata's passing, have also been given new titles. Takeda has been named Technology Fellow, while Shigeru Miyamoto has been named Creative Fellow. Nintendo defines the new Fellow role as "An individual selected from among the Representative Directors who has advanced knowledge and extensive experience, and holds the role of providing advice and guidance regarding organizational operations in a specialized area".

Other personnel changes include:

Shigeyuki Takahashi - General Manager, Finance, Administration Division Supervisor of General Affairs Division In charge of Quality Assurance Department

Satoshi Yamato - General Manager, Marketing Division In charge of Advertising Department

Shinya Takahashi - General Manager, Entertainment Planning & Development Division Supervisor of Business Development Division, Development Administration & Support Division

These changes in leadership will go into effect on September 16.

[Ymeegod]

Hell yeah, :0.  He was the "choice" that I wanted mostly because he spent some time in the good ole USA and his family still lives here.  Nintendo really needed someone that understands the entire market instead of focusing on "homeland" Japan.  Gives me some hope for an Metroid 4 anyhow.

[TOPHATANT123]

For the time being I don't think who the president is is particularly important since they will be following the course set by Iwata. As for someone who understands both the Western and Eastern markets, Kimishima is probably the best guy for the job. It's going to be interesting to see how he handles the inane questions of the shareholders, we should also hear the first details about the account system from him soon as well.

[Enner]

Business man is gonna business.


The safe and sensible choice is the gut reaction I'm reading from others. Hope Kimishima does well.

[King Bowser Koopa]

Gives me some hope for an Metroid 4 anyhow.

http://i.imgur.com/Jxk3btl.png The GBA says hi.

[oohhboy]

I like their use of Fellow.

Best of luck to them.

[broodwars]

As I've said elsewhere, I have no idea what to make of this news. The guy was such a non-entity at Nintendo of America that most of us had never even heard of him until he got "promoted" out of NoA President to some middle-manager position back in Japan. I will say this, though: NoA was a much more competent entity during the years he was head of NoA than the years where Iwata took over it, so maybe there was something to his "leadership." This is just an extremely odd pick, especially since he's pretty damn old already so this feels more like an interim pick than a long-term presidency.

[kokumaker]

* its

[Ian Sane]

I don't know the name.  NOA wasn't exactly blowing me away during the Cube years but they were brilliant compared to how they've been since.  This is probably an improvement?  Maybe?

[ThePerm]

I remember the announcement years back when he got promoted to head of NOA from the Pokémon company.

[ThePerm]

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/media/gen919.jpg

we should also make this one of the photos in the news article. BUY SEGA

[Ian Sane]

Hey, he's smiling in that photo!

This guy seems strictly business and not a videogame guy.  But then Yamauchi wasn't a videogame guy and I generally think he ran the company quite well until the N64, and even then I find the N64 did the best job of making the most of a bad situation out of Nintendo's post-SNES consoles.

But then if someone is going to turn them mobile only it would be a business guy who doesn't know games.  Since he's been part of Nintendo for long I'm hoping he's not dazzled by mobile like a newbie to videogames might be.

[Stratos]

Business people can still listen to focus groups and make decisions based off of the feedback he receives from fans and customers. Hoping he does help get a better grip on NOA as they seem to be dropping the ball regularly.