IGN said:

Nintendo has announced that Tatsumi Kimishima will assume the role of President and Representative Director for the company.

Kimishima's appointment as the new head of Nintendo comes two months after the sudden death of former president Satoru Iwata from a cancerous bile duct growth. Iwata was 55.

Previously, Kimishima served as the chief financial officer of The Pokemon Company Inc. until 2001. After that, he became the first president of Pokemon USA until 2002 - it would eventually grow and be renamed as The Pokemon Company International. Kimishima replaced Minoru Arakawa as president for Nintendo of America in 2002. He was later succeeded by current president Reggie Fils-Aime in May 2006.

At that time, Kimishima became CEO and chairman of the board for NoA until he relinquished the position to Satoru Iwata in April 2013. Kimishima held a number of positions Nintendo including managing director, general manager of Corporate Analysis & Administration Division, and head of Human Resources Division.

Link to the IGN article.

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It'll be interesting to see if he makes any radical departures or stays the course.

Not that Nintendo has a clear course really. And it is probably too late for him to change the momentum of NX much.

Posted by

Zero

on: 09/14/15, 16:18

Edited:

09/14/15, 16:19

I for one welcome our new Nintendo overlord.

There is one thing I'm skeptical about: I think The Pokemon Company sorrrrt of represents some of my least-favorite things about Nintendo. I'm not sure how much influence he wielded with that team but I'm not really a fan of them.

Posted by

TriforceBun

on: 09/14/15, 16:31

If they can just get mobile and NX right, it should be some smooooth sailing. Mobile should be pretty easy anyway! Yeah though, sounds like they are still following Iwata's set course for now.

I really like how Takeda and Miyamoto are still holding positions at top with their shiny new roles. I'm feeling comfortable for now. I wonder if Kimishima wants to be in this for another decade or if he is just serving during this transition as they groom somebody younger to be a more long term president. 65 isn't too old or anything (considering both front runners for President of the United States are older and seeking a much mire stressful position), but I wouldn't blame anybody for wanting to retire around his age and kick back with some mojitos on the beach.

Posted by

Hinph

on: 09/14/15, 16:33

Since he once held the position of President of NOA, hopefully we get more games from Japan localized in the future.

Posted by

GameDadGrant

on: 09/14/15, 17:02

I was hoping for Takeda, but as long as Kimishima tries to continue down Iwata's path I think it'll all be good. I guess I'll just have to wait and see what comes of this before I form an opinion.

EDIT: I should probably try to learn his name.

Posted by

r_hjort

on: 09/14/15, 17:08

Edited:

09/14/15, 18:50

This guy looks like an ass kicker but I can't judge a book by its cover. He seems to have moved positions a lot. That's the only concern I have about the guy.

Posted by

Abdooooo

on: 09/14/15, 18:09

@Abdooooo
I thought the same thing at first, but that might turn out to be an asset. He's seen the Nintendo business from a number of positions in two different regions, and most of the time he seems to have moved upwards in the hierarchy, so it doesn't seem like he's been moved around due to him not being able to handle his positions.

Posted by

r_hjort

on: 09/14/15, 18:19

@r_hjort

Very good point! I'm sure their management/board thought long and hard before appointing him.

Posted by

Abdooooo

on: 09/14/15, 18:24

Wow, this is surprising and disappointing. To find out like this, through the media, that I didn't get the job...that's a real shot in the gut.

Posted by

nate38

on: 09/14/15, 18:48

Glad to see an announcement about this. Hopefully he can keep Nintendo on the right track moving forward.

Hinph said:

*I'm pretty sure this is how to hold a DS, yeah, this must be right...better keep smiling though*

Posted by

anon_mastermind

on: 09/14/15, 19:18

@TriforceBun
Former Prez could be a good thing so he could pull more strings! He must have powerful friends, like Princess Leia.

Posted by

carlosrox

on: 09/14/15, 19:24

nate38 said:

Wow, this is surprising and disappointing. To find out like this, through the media, that I didn't get the job...that's a real shot in the gut.

lololol!

Posted by

Chocobo_Rider

on: 09/14/15, 19:27

The abrupt passing of Iwata left some very big shoes to fill, but I trust Nintendo's decision-making. I wish him and Nintendo the best as they build upon Iwata's work.

Posted by

Octorockin

on: 09/14/15, 19:35

2) He says he is elected for 1 year and doesn’t know what will come next. Says he is not against company outsiders to lead Nintendo one day.

— Dr. Serkan Toto (@serkantoto) 14 september 2015

I do not care for the latter half of this tweet. I hope he's just being diplomatic, not wanting to close any doors that may or may not need to be kept open in the future, and not giving us a sign of what is to come. Iwata was so fantastic in part because he knew the insides of the company so well, from the positions of programmers and up. Screw the outsiders.

Posted by

r_hjort

on: 09/14/15, 19:42

My only concern with this guy is that he is now 65 years old. Assuming he lives a long, happy and rich life I don't see him being president for an extended period of time just purely due to old age. That's especially troubling when you consider that Miyamoto is getting older as well. I hope they have a bunch of young personnel capable of taking up leadership positions when the old guard retires.

Posted by

Stephen

on: 09/14/15, 20:07

nate38 said:

Wow, this is surprising and disappointing. To find out like this, through the media, that I didn't get the job...that's a real shot in the gut.

...


Kimishima is reaction image material confirmed

He seems quite experienced with planning and business development, from what I've googled so far. He even had Reggie's job as president of NoA for around 4/5 years. Dude has some experience. If they stick to the plan and do good with the new mobile software and NX, the next years should be fine.

Posted by

HammerLord

on: 09/14/15, 22:04

Edited:

09/14/15, 22:08

Apparently he advised against the Wii U and predicted it would "fail".

LINK

Posted by

Zero

on: 09/15/15, 02:14

A part of this that we may have glazed over is that it's not just a new president, but the company is going through some serious restructuring and merging divisions.

Link (IGN)

EAD and SPD are merging into a unified software division and their two hardware divisions are doing the same... then there will be a new division for other new IP related business ventures.


I guess this does seem to simplify everything, but... err, Sega's downfall started by merging all the teams back together, and why such massive restructuring so quickly if they are following Iwata's course?

I think I'm realizing that I care who the president of Nintendo is more than the POTUS. That's probably bad, but I really don't care. The US government is already screwed up beyond any hope of repair, but Nintendo is still great dammit!

Posted by

Hinph

on: 09/15/15, 02:24

@Zero
"Following his appointment, Kimishima revealed a few nuggets of information to Japanese publication Nikkei, including the fact that he actually advised Nintendo against launching Wii U and predicted it would fail.

According to Nikkei, Kimishima (who was serving as CEO of Nintendo of America at the time), warned other Nintendo executives that Wii U would fail, claiming that it was too similar to Wii."


That could mean a lot of things. Could mean he didn't like the system as a whole, or just the marketing plan. If it's the former, "too similar to Wii" could mean Wii U was too gimmicky, or not gimmicky enough. He could also just be saying whatever he thinks will get the company's stock highest today.


Personally, if I HAD gotten the job, instead of trashing the Wii U, I would've just said NX will launch with new installments of Kirby's Dream Course and Ice Climbers and dropped the mic. Maybe my style's just to REAL for Nintendo though, man. Maybe I'll just take my talents to Sega instead.

Posted by

nate38

on: 09/15/15, 03:01

nate38 said:

Personally, if I HAD gotten the job, instead of trashing the Wii U, I would've just said NX will launch with new installments of Kirby's Dream Course and Ice Climbers and dropped the mic. Maybe my style's just to REAL for Nintendo though, man.

Yeah. That would be the problem .

Posted by

Shadowlink

on: 09/15/15, 03:10