Nintendo announced this morning that 65-year-old Tatsumi Kimishima will take the reins as the company’s president, following the sudden death of Satoru Iwata in July.
Kimishima’s relationship with Nintendo began when he became CFO of The Pokémon Company in 2000, eventually becoming president of Pokémon USA and president and then CEO of Nintendo of America. Most recently, he served as director of human resources on Nintendo’s board of directors. Before his time at Nintendo, he served as a banker for over 27 years.
In an interview with Nikkei, translated by analyst Dr. Serkan Toto, Kimishima affirmed that he would continue the path laid out by Iwata as the company cautiously steps its feet into the mobile sector. Despite worries by some fans that he is not as connected to the industry as Iwata was and that he will run Nintendo solely by numbers, he has stated that it is “wrong to lead a gaming company on numbers alone,” and he also predicted the failure of the Wii U upon its introduction, saying that it was too similar to the Wii.
Kimishima has been elected for a one-year term and “doesn’t know what will come next.” He has told Nikkei that he is not against outsiders leading Nintendo in the future, but also plans to develop a new internal group leadership structure. He was also not apparently Iwata’s first choice of a successor, and the company had hoped to find someone younger but did not find a qualified insider.
He takes the reins in a transitional period for Nintendo. The Wii U has been limping all three years since its release, the 3DS is at the end of its lifespan, the mysterious NX platform is set to be unveiled in 2016, the “Quality of Life” platform is on its way, and the company is taking its first steps into mobile gaming. Perhaps the company is hoping Kimishima’s banking background will steer the ship in the right direction financially through this period.
In what seems to be a management shift, Shigeru Miyamoto and Genyo Takeda have been given new roles as “Creative Fellow” and “Technology Fellow,” providing specialized guidance and assistance regarding operations – pointing to possibly a less hands-on role for the two of them.
Source: Nintendo, Nikkei (translated on Twitter by Dr. Serkan Toto)
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I’m okay with this. Some young blood would be preferred as to avoid Yamauchi-like stubbornness, but hey he’s only here for a year and we’re getting into the holiday season – someone needs to steer the ship. Might as well be someone, for the short term, who might focus on the numbers and put in some long-term groundwork for financial stability.
Case in point, the restructuring. The “Business Development Division” is a great idea, and a necessity. Nintendo has some glorious IP. Iwata did start to explore this recently with third party spin-off games, toys, the theme park announcement, openness to film and television. This just formalizes it and adds some structure. Have a group work on finding this opportunities and fostering relationships. Doing so with active purpose rather than waiting for an opportunity to present itself.
I think it’s also clear that Takahashi is who they were intending to replace Iwata, but he’s not ready yet. With Miyamoto and Takeda now taking on more of a guru-like (or “fellow”) rather than a managerial role, their divisions have been merged and Takahashi is heading it up. This is an experience and exposure building exercise. Takahashi’s breadth has been expanded, just another rung up on the ladder.
I also think Kimishima brings about something vital – especially in this lead up to the NX. He was heading up NOA in the beginning of the GCN era. Post Arakawa’s amazing ability to lose third parties to Sega with the SuperNES and push them away to Sony with the N64 – Kimishima actually brought them back. The GCN, while it wasn’t a grand success, was a good time for Nintendo third-party relations. They had active connections with several publishers and developers, they had western and mature content too. Once Kimishima left, so to did the third parties. Not the only reason, of course. But, I think him being in this position will be a big plus.
Plus just the fact he was at NOA. And heading up Pokemon’s growth in North America. He understands the North American market. And that’s where the money is. Japan’s console market is shrinking, but traditionally that’s what Nintendo targets. I mean, he won’t fix all this in the year he has, but he can lay the groundwork and start some initiatives for Takahashi to continue
He seems to have promise and I’m excited to see where he’ll lead the company from here.