Topic: Kaplan, Llewellyn, and Harrison All Call it Quits

[Svevan]

Top execs have decided not to follow Nintendo to San Francisco or New York.
 http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/newsArt.cfm?artid=13582

 Three top executives and 90% of Sales and Marketing staff at Nintendo of America have decided not to relocate to New York or San Francisco when the division moves later this month. George Harrison, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Corporate Communications, Beth Llewelyn, Senior Director of Public Relations, and Perrin Kaplan, Vice President, Marking and Corporate Affairs are all resigning their posts when Sales and Marketing makes the move from Redmond, where NOA is currently headquarted. Sources close to Game Informer Online have reported that these three and the other resigning employees will take a severance package of some sort.    

No one has received an official word yet on the resignations or when they will actually occur; Game Informer speculates the three will leave after this year's E3 show in Los Angeles.    

Nintendo World Report recently interviewed George Harrison on our podcast at the Universal CityWalk midnight Wii launch. Our last interview with Perrin Kaplan can be found here.

[Ceric]

Sad to see George Harrison leave.  Though you have to wonder what the benefits, working conditions, and the relocation Nintendo was offering were like for 90% of the Sales and Marketing Staff and three to executives, who probably had a hand in the decision, decide to not relocate.

[Smash_Brother]

GOOD RIDDANCE, KAPLAN!

Nintendo wanted them gone. If they had actually wanted to keep them, they could have sweetened the deal for them to move to the point where it would have been a better career move to stay.

However, the fact that they opted for the severance package indicates that it was intentionally made out to be the better choice so they'd opt to resign.

Something tells me this is Nintendo's way of "sweeping out the barn". Current Wii success is probably 70-80% due to word of mouth and has very little to do with advertising.

[Ceric]

I agree with the Kaplan Statement.

[UltimatePartyBear]

This is going to change most of the public face of Nintendo.  I wonder if it will cause a big difference in the way Nintendo comes across to us, or will the source of Nintendo's PR tendencies be revealed to be NCL when the new faces say the same old things?

The Harrison interview link is borken.

[that Baby guy]

Well, I blame Kaplan for most of the advertising campaigns that were terrible.  Even though I have no proof, I still blame her.

[Rhoq]

Every time Kaplan opened up her mouth she was shooting Nintendo in the foot. It's seems she's been doing nothing but spewing misinformation since E3 2004. I'm sure Reggie got tired of making up excuses for comments she obviously made up (Wii would feature a new type of "High Def" gaming experience, Wii games would be region free, etc.)...I'll miss her since she was usually some well needed comic relief, but other than that she was basically worthless.

[RickPowers]

You guys are totally off base.  I can tell you for an absolute fact that Perrin wanted to change a lot of the ways Nintendo was marketed in the US, and the decisions were largely taken out of her hands by NCL.

That said, I'm absolutely stunned by this development.  It's definitely a changing of the guard, that's for sure.  But I'm not surprised ... you were asking people to move to two of the most expensive places to live in the country, and Seattle wasn't really cheap to begin with.  I can't blame them for not wanting to uproot their families.  Still, it's going to be a massive change for the company.

[mantidor]

Quote
Originally posted by: Rhoq
Every time Kaplan opened up her mouth she was shooting Nintendo in the foot. It's seems she's been doing nothing but spewing misinformation since E3 2004. I'm sure Reggie got tired of making up excuses for comments she obviously made up (Wii would feature a new type of "High Def" gaming experience, Wii games would be region free, etc.)...I'll miss her since she was usually some well needed comic relief, but other than that she was basically worthless.

what!? I don't think so, it was usually the other way around, I'd say it was more like no-information if anything, her interviews didn't say anything we didn't already know, and reggie has screwed up way more than her back when he wasn't president.







 

[IceCold]

I said wow.

I don't really understand the hate towards Kaplan.. she might have made some mistakes but overall, she wasn't too bad. And with Harrison leaving too, this is a major shakeup.

[couchmonkey]

Thank you Rick.  It's like a freakin' witch-burning in here.

Big change indeed.  I personally think the marketing for Wii has been great, but there's no doubt that the product is so good that it practically sells itself.  I don't think this will have a huge impact.

[Ceric]

Yeah... I hate moving to expensive places.

[WuTangTurtle]

wow, that bit of news took me off guard.  Well, if this shakeup brings a better marketing team, then I say hooray.  I never disliked either of those people, I hope they got a good severance package.  I've been in situations where all employees lost there job, and I have to say it isn't a very positive thing.

Best wishes to those guys.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

ahahahahhaa YES

About the PR hate, you have to realize we don't really get any real information out of them, especially crap we can hold them to down the road.  It's always been that way.  But their job as a public face for Nintendo, especially on the internet, IS TO ENTERTAIN ME.  Reggie's the only westerner so far to consistently manage that.  The others, no.  IGN tried their hardest over the years with Kaplan & Co, but they were unsuccessful.  And Billy really let the cat out the bag with that last Kaplan/freak interview.  Reggie?  He doesn't need an interview to kick public relational ass.

BUT YES, WE CAN NOW REPLACE THE EMPTY SEATS WITH CLONES OF REGGIE, EACH ONE WITH THE POWER TO MANIPULATE A MANA ELEMENTAL OF THE EARTH.

[Artimus]

I think Kaplan is ok.

I think Reggie just took their names and kicked their asses.

[that Baby guy]

Quote
Originally posted by: RickPowers
You guys are totally off base.  I can tell you for an absolute fact that Perrin wanted to change a lot of the ways Nintendo was marketed in the US, and the decisions were largely taken out of her hands by NCL.

That said, I'm absolutely stunned by this development.  It's definitely a changing of the guard, that's for sure.  But I'm not surprised ... you were asking people to move to two of the most expensive places to live in the country, and Seattle wasn't really cheap to begin with.  I can't blame them for not wanting to uproot their families.  Still, it's going to be a massive change for the company.

Yeah, I figured that all along, secretly, but I still have an irrational blaming of her, just because.  It's fun to do that.  Or something.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

"It's fun to do that. Or something"

Fun is what it's all about, right?

[that Baby guy]

Sometimes, it's all about making sure the murder simulators get in the hands of the children.

[Caliban]

Now that all has been said and done, we know that Ken Kutaragi is indeed coming to work for Nintendo, it's a 3 and 90% for 1 deal.  

[joshnickerson]

That's a pity, though I highly doubt this would have any sort of impact on Nintendo's current success. I think they simply decided to put family first and not to put their families through a cross-country move, as it should be.

[that Baby guy]

It's just like Billy Donovan heading back to Gainesville and not going to Orlando.  Except I have no idea if Nintendo will be better or worse off for this decision.  And the analogy doesn't make sense.  But it is exactly like whatever I've said.

[Smash_Brother]

Quote
Originally posted by: RickPowers
You guys are totally off base.  I can tell you for an absolute fact that Perrin wanted to change a lot of the ways Nintendo was marketed in the US, and the decisions were largely taken out of her hands by NCL.

Thing is, so much of the crap she said which either made no sense or was downright insulting to Nintendo's fans that I too would have prevented her from making any administrative changes to anything.

I understand that the job of PR people is to say something without actually saying anything, but she failed at that where others in her field succeeded.

[UncleBob]

Damn... I wish I could talk my wife into making such a big move... Marketing is where I belong...

[LuigiHann]

Clearly, they have to replace the 3 executives with a new Reggie-approved exec board:
Chuck Norris: Senior VP of Kicking
Vin Diesel: VP of Names
Jack Bauer: Executive VP of killing people who know too much

[Kairon]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

... NINETY PERCENT OF THE STAFF ARE NOT STAYING WITH NINTENDO?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

STAY IN WASHINGTON NINTENDO! CANCEL THE MOVE! PLEASEEEEEE!!!!!