As we have previously reported, Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima has announced he is stepping down from the company in June. Nintendo will then be led by Shuntaro Furukawa who will assume the role around E3 time. Kimishima believes that he has fulfilled his duties at Nintendo and feels the time is right to retire and hand the reins down to Mr. Furukawa.
“I was asked about my duties when I took over as president while Nintendo Switch was still in development, and one of my biggest responsibilities at the time was to launch that platform and get it to consumers just as we had envisioned. My second role was to change our directorial structure to speed up decision-making and execution on a variety of projects that members of the management team were considering at the time. It takes people to support that, and it was essential that we build a structure that allowed the new generation to play an active role.
As we progressed with delegating authority, including the authority for corporate governance, we created a system where our younger senior managers would be able to act. In the past two-plus years, they have shown what they are capable of accomplishing. Our latest financial results are far better than I originally forecasted, which speaks to the fruits of our efforts to date. My successor, Mr. Furukawa, worked with me as General Manager of the Corporate Planning Department to advance our operations. He has fully fleshed out what this non-traditional collective leadership system we created will be, so I believe this is the perfect time (for a change of president).
With the breadth of projects we are working on, now is the time to transfer power further to new people and to promote a generational shift to bring stronger momentum to Nintendo through these changes.”
I’m happy he’s stepping down honestly
Yeah why. I think he did a good job. I still miss Iwata though. Nintendo Dirrcts came more frequently when he was alive. Everytime a new Nintendo President leaves I get sad thinking of Iwata and how we want seeing Presidents leaving in coming this often.
Why?
I am going to miss Kimishima because he has lead the company well. At least it seems that the new one has a similar thinking to Kimishima.
Nintendo lost its charm of being fun, and getting more money hungry. Too many Last gen ports at full price , paid online. And bad dlc practices
Paid online is good. Theoretically means we’ll have better servers so less lag and whatnot. Plus it’s not at all expensive
That’s what the shareholders want (a money hungry company) and sadly they have to keep those people happy.
Not trying to be those people who defend nintendo all the time.. but.. when your last console sold so poorly and you had bomb ass games. It makes sense to port the games over to the switch.
In E3 2015 the company was too focused on fun and cutesy that a lot of people got disgusted and angry at Nintendo. They just need to make fun directs like in the Iwata days while making games that are good and fun like Mario Odyssey, Breath of the Wild and Splatoon 2 and it will be happy for both the players and the developers.
By the way, I also miss the way that Iwata did the directs because it always did it in a fun way.
Sorry what? Bad DLC Practises? Aside from Fire Emblem I think Nintendo has handled DLC perfectly.
Some would say Smash on Wii U & 3DS did DLC badly, too.
Yeah you’re right. And Shuntaro has been his right hand man for a long time and future successor. I also think they share the same ideas and has similar traits.
Now we know why he is stepping down. But, he did a great job on keeping the company in the pace on there new console.
He did great handling the early life of the Switch. Best of luck to him with whatever he does next. Here’s hoping the next president does great as well.
No disrespect to Kimishima, he did great while he was president. But he clearly didn’t work very hard at getting more SNES Classic minis in stores, like Reggie promised. At least in the US. I’ve never seen them in stores, aside from the two I bought (which was pure luck). Now I know that the re-release of the NES Classic this summer will be another guaranteed nightmare. No matter what lies Reggie ends up telling.
And while I’m on the subject of availability, what happened with amiibo? I was at Targt yesterday, and the amiibo section was cleared out with new products in their place (some of which was that silly Nintendo LABO). Even Walmart and Gamestop have no more amiibo. Best Buy only had a few Detective Pikachu amiibo (finally got one), and some of the first Splatoon amiibo and two Breath Of The Wild amiibo. Is amiibo fading away now? I never got the three Splatoon 2 amiibo. And now it looks like I’ll have to order them (for higher prices).
Target*
Now that you mention it, I have also noticed a sudden absence of amiibo at my local Gamestop. I think they had the BotW Champion amiibo for a grand total of 2 weeks before I never saw them again. Glad I swooped them up when I did then.
I wonder if the Toys R Us across the street from them has any amiibo left, if they haven’t all been bought up during their closing sale, that is.
He did a good job. :) Get a very deserved retirement and enjoy the life, thank you for the good work.
That was very interesting what he said in terms of corporate management structure. The biggest impact he will have on the company may not be fully realized for some time. Sounds he, and others, had a clear vision of how to reorganize, and his, I assume, great wealth if knowledge and wisdom from many years of corporate experience, he pushed forth his magnum opus in some sense. There is something to be said about innovation in the way business and production are carried out even in the office environment that would be considered an art. To get it all right in an efficient manner so decisiins are made with the most precision and productivity is at a maximum, it is a great feeling when somethibg like that comes together if anyone has experienced it at their place of employment or if they own a business.
In this case though, its Nintendo, a place where creativity and ingenuity is at a premium. And therefore, there is most definitely an artistry to creating the best environment and system for those creative ideas and products to flourish.
Bravo Mr. Kimishima, on your great work and thank you for what you helped bring to us and Nintendo and what future this work will reveal to us in the years to come.
Thank you for your service & good luck in your future endeavors. (I wonder if this is what the WWE tells the guys they let go for stupid reasons instead of pushing them better within the company.)
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He has fulfilled his duty well, ensuring the early success of the Switch and making it 10 times what the Wii U was. Thank you, Kimishima.
I don’t think he really did a good job with filling Iwata’s Shoes anyway, with the fact that he didn’t do his job much when such as with hosting Public Presentations and being able to speak English as well, not to mention what he made of the Switch of which Iwata never would’ve approved, thus making his ghost unhappy: Ports of games from it’s Predecessor (which shouldn’t hurt as long as it won’t stop eventual new games in those franchise as well especially with what there’s been a new game of on Each and Every Nintendo System), using Cartridges which I thought like VHS Tapes were obsolete after making he made the decision that the N64 would be their last home console to use cartridges, not launching the Switch at the end of the year like every other Gaming Console, the Wii U not making a life span of atleast 5 years like every other Gaming System, and most of all ditching the great features of the Wii U that changed our lives of which he had great things to say about in the Directs.
OK, I can be less questionable about the Cartridges if VHS Tapes started having a comeback or if Competitive Platforms also used Cartridges. Either way, I hope this letter gets received in the knick of time in regards to Nintendo’s E3 Presentation: http://aminoapps.com/p/dt50pgw