Post by: WindyMan on January 11, 2006, 03:51:13 PM
Jim Merrick has been working for Nintendo for almost 12 years, and today he's calling it quits. The former marketing head of Nintendo Europe was slated to return to Nintendo of America, but apparently he had second thoughts and decided to leave altogether.
The official company line? "After nearly 12 years with Nintendo, the last three of which were at Nintendo of Europe, Jim Merrick has left the company to pursue other opportunities," says a spokesperson for Nintendo.
Nintendo fans might remember Merrick as being the only one in the Nintendo executive chain to actually speak out on their next-gen plans. More importantly, he oversaw the launch of the DS hardware across the European territories.
PGC wishes Mr. Merrick all the best for his future!
Post by: mantidor on January 11, 2006, 04:34:48 PM
Post by: kirby_killer_dedede on January 11, 2006, 04:48:19 PM
Post by: KnowsNothing on January 11, 2006, 05:07:40 PM
Post by: Djunknown on January 11, 2006, 05:23:01 PM
Oh well, maybe its just for family reasons. Its a shame though, the Aussies could have really used him....
Post by: BiLdItUp1 on January 11, 2006, 05:47:32 PM
Post by: Hostile Creation on January 11, 2006, 05:59:33 PM
And he let plenty of good facts slip, which was nice.
Post by: Kairon on January 11, 2006, 07:29:39 PM
~Carmine M. Red
Kairon@aol.com
Post by: nemo_83 on January 11, 2006, 07:36:33 PM
One would assume, if one believes NGC, that Nintendo went into a s*** fit when this story broke, and the nail which stood up had to be hammered down.
Post by: Knoxxville on January 11, 2006, 07:48:22 PM
Post by: ruby_onix on January 11, 2006, 08:49:13 PM
Quote
Originally posted by: Kairon
What was so great about this guy other than that he was a pair of loose lips?
http://www.n-sider.com/personnelview.php?personnelid=793
More recently, Mark Rein (the Vice President of the company that makes Unreal) was blasting the Revolution, saying that the controller will result in nothing but more kiddie gimmicky crap on Nintendo systems, and while Nintendo was pulling their usual "tee hee, we won't confirm or deny that" thing, Jim Merrick personally called out Mark Rein and told him to make an appointment to see the Revolution firsthand, at which point Mark Rein apparently became a Revolution convert. This was before we learned that the Rev might not even be powerful enough to run Unreal 1.
Mostly I think this is just bad news because it's yet another Nintendo personalty to have walked out the door in the last five years, without much of any attempt being made to replace them.
Who the heck does Nintendo have left now? Shiggy. Iwata. Perrin Kaplan. That's about it. They've lost more than 50% of their personality and tried to replace it with one guy, Reggie.
Post by: couchmonkey on January 12, 2006, 04:37:02 AM
I'll miss the tidbits Merrick released every 4-6 weeks for Revolution, but not that much. I wish him good luck.
My personal conspiracy theory is that Merrick was through with Europe, but found that he didn't have much of a place at NOA anymore with Reggie in the spot he traditionally occupied. I don't know if Reggie took over Merrick's exact position, but from a media perspective he did...it used to be Jim Merrick and Perrin Kaplan, now it's Reggie and Perrin Kaplan. They don't need anyone else at NOA.
Post by: TheYoungerPlumber on January 12, 2006, 05:33:48 AM
Post by: ThePerm on January 12, 2006, 06:14:30 AM
Post by: pyrokamileon on January 12, 2006, 08:12:54 AM
Post by: Crave on January 12, 2006, 03:45:41 PM
