Tatsumi Kimishima Named As New Nintendo President

Hope he does justice to Nintendo and takes the company in a good direction. Best of luck!

Good luck for him leading Nintendo.

I know very little of his work being a Brit but if he is good enough for Nintendo, he's good enough for me. Best of luck to him and I hope he does well.

This will be interesting, once the current projects are finalized I wonder how things will turn out with a new guy in charge.

Wishing you all the best........ You've got some big shoes to fill

We'll see what he's gonna be up to. I have no idea what we're in for with him, so it'll be interesting to see how Nintendo goes about with him in the chair.

Smh, Nintendo needs some new blood

@XFsWorld no they just need somebody that's younger. say 30 or so? maybe higher?

some 65yr old may end up into problems like what Iwata had.... if anything don't expect him to last forever! I'd rather some guy say aged 35 does it so he lasts longer.

@XFsWorld New, much younger blood.

Dunno what to think yet, besides a slight fear that he'll begin to move Nintendo towards scrapping their hardware and selling games on other platforms... Seemed like Satoru Iwata was the one that kept Nintendo from making that mistake in the past.

Wow, congratulations to Tatsumi Kimishima. It's crazy to think he'll only be the fifth leader in Nintendo's 126 year history.

He certainly has the credentials. Here's to the future 🍷

Well... That was unexpected. Sort of, maybe. I actually haven't heard of Tatsumi Kimishima before, so I'm eager to see what this will be like.

Having worked at a bank for decades and filling mainly management roles after that, he does lack that developer touch Iwata had, whose life seemed to be all about games, gamers, and Nintendo.

This seems to be more like a traditional head of a company. Also, he's quite old, really. It actually seems to me like they made him president to buy some time, maybe some years, while they look for a proper, better and probably younger new president to take the helm after him. Well they had to do something, Iwata did pass away terribly suddenly after all...

I'm extremely eager and curious to see where this goes, although I'm convinced they'll stay on the course Iwata laid out, mostly, Nintendo won't suddenly abandon their core values, standards and beliefs.

That face...doesn't look too friendly if you ask me...

I know very little about him, so I'll just wish him luck and hope he does a good job.

@SamirMalik Faces don't mean much. I know people that don't look friendly but are actually really nice.

One thing I'm hopeful for is that he focuses on improving Nintendo's third-party support.
This is still a nagging issue for Nintendo, and hopefully he can fix the gap between the third-party support when compared to Playstation and Xbox.

@Gelantious same here, during all the investor meetings its seemed it was just Iwata and Miyamoto keeping Nintendo in the console business

Here's hoping he does a better job than Iwata. I loved Iwata as a person but loathed his business decisions. The Wii U and "New" Nintendo 3DS are just walking marketing disasters, yet great consoles.

Please tell me that isn't the most cheerful picture you could find.

Wow! He looks more serious than Hiroshi Yamauchi! At least Yamauchi still smiled in pictures.

I hope this guy is good for Nintendo.

@SamirMalik He has that "Sensei" look which could really mean anything and nothing.

@Caryslan I dont think anyone wants Nintendo platforms to perform like an Xbox at the moment. As for the current PlayStation, that thing literally sold for no reason. It could be called the PS3-60FPS Edition.
With the PS4 Vs, the WiiU its literally 3rd Party games Vs. 1st Party games. And having a gaming PC, i take the latter any day of the week.

@Chaotic_Eevee I think the WiiU marketing was fine, we just live in times where people mostly care about graphics and technical shenanigans and not about games per se. And thats the WiiUs Achilles heel.
The N3DS on the other hand....yes, that thing was dead at birth.
It is the GameBoy Color of its particular family, a remodel with new hardware capabilities that no one really took advantage of.
They should have made that handheld only when they had enough dev teams to support it with exclusive software.
Xenoblade showed what a beast it is, but that was far from enough.
Heck, even some more Wii Ports would have been nice.

@Caryslan unless the NX sets the sale records ablaze, is such an "that's perfect" idea or dose something crazy and buy's COD's DLC exclusivity. it doesn't matter the system's specs or anything third parties just wont touch it. We need all our Nintendo friends to pick up whatever third party games that hit the NX. there was a lot of quick ports for Wii U and everyone avoided them or getting them 2nd hand hoping the low sales would make publisher do better next time. it didn't they just stopped bothering to even try

@CB85: I got the same impression. He seems to be a pretty solid choice. He has experience in a lot of fields. I don't think it is bad for him not being a developer. After all he got two "sidekicks" that fill that gap.
But I also find it rather curious that they chose someone that old (I mean, in Germany one would retire at that age). So I also got the impression that they are basically buying time. But maybe we will be surprised seeing this guy leading Nintendo until he's 105.
I find it a bit superficial to think he isn't a nice guy just based on this one picture of him not smiling.

@GammaPhonic Basically he wears the same face in every picture online. ^^
But I actually have the impression that he is indeed smiling in these. Like when you smile, but also think you should look serious.

He sounds like a boss in tekken.

"Get the right people and success will follow", so the saying goes. It may be that's one of the signs Nintendo are putting out by promoting head of HR. Equally, it may be he was the best qualified Japanese guy at HQ with extensive US experience.

Nintendo from what I can see has a lot of bureaucracy and duplication of effort. I hope he will focus on streamlining the company, and especially on making life easier for for small 3rd party western developers like me

Let's see how this goes.

1/10 IGN Review - Too happy.

Loving that sensei look.

Head of HR, two presidential roles....we're good.

Good luck, sir. We're counting on ya.

I'm guessing that him being the former head of NOA means he can speak English? Also he obviously has experience with the Western market which is where the money is. I'll be curious to see how visible he'll be to the customer (Although I doubt he'll be replacing Iwata doing Nintendo Directs-but who knows?)

As for his age, Nintendo are a traditional Japanese company that holds experience in high esteem, and the truth is Nintendo has a lot of older high ranking staff, and the younger ones are too busy making games.

He looks like that guy who fires the old Marty McFly in Back to the Future 2....

Hum, Interesting. Well I wish Tatsumi Kimishima good luck and I hope Nintendo can be on a good course :+).

Still, I am not sure if Tatsumi Kimishima is the kind of person who will do game Directs like Iwata, but I do believe that Tatsumi Kimishima will present himself in a kind of digital video soon.

I think maybe if not Tatsumi Kimishima will do game Directs I pretty sure Miyamoto will take over for the Japanese ones, or at least that Miyamoto might do a good portion of the Directs potentially.

Anyway hopefully this is s new and fresh start for Nintendo even if isn't for the better, then at least for business reasons. In the end good luck Tatsumi Kimishima .

Edit: According to a article from Nintendoeverything Tatsumi Kimishima will not change the basic strategy set by Iwata. He will create a kind of Future-proof group apparently.

@Tiefseemiez I think so too. At 65 he's not going to be president for very long. They're probably training someone younger for the job right now.

I guess we'll know in a few years if he was the right man for the job but I can tell you already that I'm slightly worried about a guy who was both a chief financial officer and banker being the President of a video games and entertainment company. To me, it's a bit like putting the shareholders directly in charge of a company. All those people think about is short term gain and profit above all else, and left in charge they would, somewhat ironically, drive most companies into the ground in the pursuit short term gain and profit above all else. I hope this guy is smarter than that.

At least he knows the western market.
Best of luck.

Let's not judge him by his admittedly terribly photo! I remember when Iwata was named, people doubted he had the gravitas to lead Nintendo after the iron hand of Yamauchi. Kimishima-San is incredibly qualified, so Nintendo will be in safe hands for the long term, that's for sure. We will all miss Iwata's personal warmth, but let's give Kimishima a chance to show what kind of CEO he'll be.

He looks so stern! Good luck and congratulations anyway!

Here's wishing all the best for him in his new role, and I hope that Iwata's love of games and gaming can guide him.

best luck to him

good luck. would have preferred someone younger though.

He seems to be definitely from the business side of things rather than gaming. I don't suppose it matters too much as Nintendo has already made the move into mobile gaming, but I'm sure this guy would be taking them there even if they'd resisted up to now.

Not coming from the development side doesn't mean much. Don Mattrick was a developer that worked his way up and has been one of the worst things to happen in gaming in recent memory.

This was less dramatic than anyone could have anticipated it seems. But seems like the perfect choice at this point. Reggie and Miyamoto were never going to happen and I doubt anything much happened with them anyway. You don't just move up or over because the position is open.

Good luck to him, and it's very ageist to say he's too old. Nonsense as well, he must have great experience.

i hope he can be as playful as Mr Iwata

I have no idea who he is, but I hope he captures that Nintendo charm that Iwata used to show so often. Not expecting him to force himself to be Iwata 2.0, but as long as he's not stuck up AND does his job well, he'll be fine with me. That's easily what separates Nintendo with the likes of Sony and Microsoft, the fact that they're so playful and out there with their fans.

I'm interested to see how they progress with Nintendo Direct. I would hope we get an introduction from Kimishima and then lead on to the EU / USA presenters taking on more screen time. Shibata-san is great for the EU and I would be more than happy to see him resume work for the presentations ^_^

Good luck for the new president!

I hope he'll continue Satoru Iwata legacy, please keep Nintendo as the creative and fun company.

looks like a verry serious buisnessman wich is good but...what does he know about making videogames?

Worked at a bank? Former CFO? Here comes the money! Money, money, money, money, money, money, money!

Creative Fellow and Technology Fellow? What do those even mean? Also, glad they decided on someone finally, but I really hope his ideals align with the company's. Because I don't want to see a Nintendo that becomes just like Sony or Microsoft in the way of their consoles. Yes, they'll do better, but it just wouldn't be the same. It'd be like the company died along with Satoru and I'm sure the fans don't need to deal with that.

'He's has a face of stone, but a heart of gold'. I don't think this guy will be admiring banana's anytime soon, but he knows what he's doing with Nintendo. And in fairness; its not just Kimishima. Miyamoto and Takeda are now Creative and Technology 'fellows', so really it's kinda the 3 of them running Nintendo. Nintendo collectively would choose someone they thought would be perfect for running the company with its future goals, and Kimishima seems to be the man for the main job. I hope to see him in a 'Direct' soon.

@CB85 @Kirk I would too say this man is one who has to keep the company alive and well financially while they train the people who will become the new management. After all, it's really easy to crush a company with bad decisions, so it's a good move to have at the head a man who knows how to move in this delicate field, while Miyamoto and Takeda will make the decisions on the creative (mainly software, I think) and hardware side. Still, we'll see, maybe this president will surprise us!
For the moment, I wish him good luck!

@Lilith93 Don't forget he works for Nintendo for 15 years now. I'm sure he has enough experience with Nintendo, besides he won't be the only one making decisions. I guess he's more comparable to Yamauchi, both had no background in gaming, but that didn't stop Yamauchi from doing a great job.

Seems like he can fill the role well. He has big shoes to fill, but he was NoA president during a good time.

@Tiefseemiez Toller Name übrigens ;D

I was hoping for some younger blood. But he seems very qualified on paper, so we'll see... He better present him himself proper to us with the next Nintendo Direct, maybe liven up a bit!

That is a smile people. A terrible, predatory smile.

All the best to mister Kimishima.

I dunno about this. It feels typical. Choose somebody that's got to a of previous experience from an era they were probably at their prime. Choosing an HR guy makes me think he will be appointing the right people to do the jobs at Nintendo that are key for success. So I guess their is that. At the very least I hope he keeps Iwata's strategy in place.

@Einherjar When a good portion of your former fanbase thinks your system is an add-on for your previous system, your marketing has failed. Hard.

There are still people in the US who think the Wii U is just a tablet add on for the Wii. It saddens me.

That's not a face of a Nintendo Direct but if he headed NoA he must speak English fairly well right?

Not very photogenic, and not really Nintendo Direct material, but we'll see how it goes.

I wish Kimishima-san the best of luck as Nintendo's new CEO. Likewise, I hope he does a good job as a leader and takes Nintendo to a new, hopefully better era.

But with that being said, the man is quite old. The picture of him that many sites have used is from a decade prior, when the Gamecube was still Nintendo's main focus. Kimishima-san is 65 years old. He will be replaced in 10 years, if not shorter (To put things into perspective, Iwata was 42 when he was appointed CEO).

My Japanese friends tell me 'He inherits the will of Iawata San'

So it looks Luke they're going down the sensible 'numbers man' route......No bad choice and he'll do a very safe job of protecting shareholders investments. I would personally like to have seen a more gaming based appointment but what do I know about running a company eh!?! Good luck to the bloke, fingers crossed he's full of great ideas and has the bottle to stick to them!!

Thank God is it not Miyamoto. As good of a guy he is, I don't trust a lot of his ideas lately. But as for Tatsumi, I trust he will do a pretty good job.

65 years old?

Well if he oversaw the launch of the Wii in the US, that could be good regarding the NX launch since I'm sure everyone, in the US mostly, remembers those "Wii would like to play" ads and how successful the Wii was, so hopefully from a Promoting/Advertising point the NX should hopefully get some good coverage.

But that's only a theory. I wish the best of luck to him in his new Role.

New Captain on the deck! All Hands, salute!

To the folks complaining about age most of the execs in Nintendo are in their late 40s to mid sixties. The younger members of Nintendo are devs and programmers. So the only other way they would get some younger person is going outside of Nintendo. That would be great for their bottom line (as I'm sure they would lean heavily on mobile and graphics) but I think that the inherent tone of Nintendo of a company will be lost with an outsider at the helm. Also the Japanese (and slowly America is following due to lack of retirement options) tend to work for a very large portion of their lives. They don't usually go "oh hey I'm 65 time to retire!" ...they keep going even when they have fiscal stability.

Well, his resume is actually quite fitting to what is coming for Nintendo in the upcoming year or two. He helped launch the Wii in the US and no matter what you think about it, the marketing during that time was excellent. "Wii would like to play", Oprah giving away Wii consoles. Managing the backlash against the name and hyping up the concept to the point of mainstream fever in the US. This was all approved under this man.

Bodes well for the NX launch(es).

@XFsWorld Balls, I hope not. If the last ten years of top-selling games are any indication, "Twitch Plays Angry Birds" will be the future of all gaming. Nintendo can keep letting grandfathers give us more Super Mario Galaxy, Mario Kart 200, and Smash Bros Ultra Mega Super Edition for the next 100 years.

Never heard of him before but apparently, he's very experienced so I think he'll do fine. Hopefully a Nintendo Direct's coming soon now.

@KTT At 65, he's a decade younger than the last two non-Iwata Preisdents were when they retired. So, he will retire eventually, but he's Japanese- he'll be working til he's 85.

As long as his management expertise allows Nintendo's developers' (which includes both Miyamoto and Takeda) visions to continue to come to pass as they see fit, the company and its fans will have a bright future.

@Lilith93 Having launched the Wii, been the President of Nintendo of America for several years, and worked on many Pokemon titles... a lot?

Had to break my post because @Angelic_Lapras_King ninja'd me!

Even being part of HR means he may have had a hand in attracting and hiring some very promising talent like the Splatoon developers.

Having been a big part of the Pokemon company at times gives him perspective as well.

It's a different perspective than Iwatas who came from the coder and developer side of things, but it sounds like a reasonable choice and I disagree with someone's assessment of him being a "numbers guy". I don't see anything suggesting that, though he certainly could be. Yes, he spent the most time at a bank but according to the other article he was "dealing with aspects such as corporate planning, international business development, communications and promotions."

I don't think he'll be anywhere near as public and integral to marketing as Iwata-san was. That's okay. There are others that can put on a great public face and hopefully the parading of the designers and producers in front of the public will continue because so far that is working pretty great.

He seems like he has that business experience and that gaming knowledge that should be a good fit,

@ikki5 I don't think Miyamoto fits into a CEO role at all, but not because I don't like his game design ideas. The man is motivated by always finding something new and challenging. That is going to end in failures quite a bit (and tons of which I'm sure we don't see), but that's the nature of risk. Without that, we have no advancements. Perhaps his notions have a touch of avant-garde to them and some will balk, but that's the nature of pushing boundaries.

@Dankykong Wait... people thought Reggie might be CEO of Nintendo Japan? I'm just — let me compose myself, ahem — that would be dramatic to say the least. 0_0

Good luck, Tatsumi. I'm sure you'll do fine, given your experience.

Is this the new guy for the Nintendo Direct show?

He should carry a cane and whack anyone laughing at his 'please understand' persuasion.

@Chaotic_Eevee And there are also countless of people who defend the numerous remasters on the PS4, argumenting that "they havent played them before"
Interesting, since they are the most prolific titles of the predecessor system. Why did that system also sell like hot buns and what have these people been playing all these years ?

Also, how is it possible that a console causes so much confusion, yet people have no problem writing esseys about the differences in smartphones that look almost identical to each other, also recieving nothing more then a new suffix.

If you ask me, its mostly nonsense downtalking. If you dont want to get it, you wont get it. The system was clearly marketed as the one with the lesser hardware. And that was reason enough for people to toss it away.
Again, look at smart devices. People love their uber powerful devices, although nothing really comes close to utilizing that properly.

My first day of university and his first day as president of Nintendo. May we both fare well!

Interestingly he's still living in America, at least according to Wikipedia

@Einherjar The PS4 remaster argument is that a significant number of Xbox 360 and Wii owners jumped ship to the PS4, and thus never owning a PS3 have never played these great titles. To an extent they are correct.

As far as confusion goes, it wasn't Nintendo's marketing that was the issue as much as it was retailer ineptitude and sales associate bias that hurt. I've lost count of the number of times I have stood in a store overhearing a sales associate either not know the product or actively discourage purchase. I've also found myself annoyed to no end with Walmart and Target haphazardly throwing Wii and Wii U games into a case. Is it really that difficult to organize them by system?

Good luck, Kimishimi-san!!!

He looks like he'll do. Obviously not Iwata 2.0; but he has plenty of experience with Nintendo, so I expect he can manage and direct things well enough without sabotaging creativity.

I thought this was going to happen. Well, atleast it was internally like how I guessed it.

Some of the comments on this article reminds me why politicians put so much emphasis on image and outward appearance. It's just one picture, people.

It seems they went polar opposites. From a creative type to a businessman type. It's probably a safe pick; they probably expect more stability with a numbers guy. Iwata led the company through some unparalleled highs, but crashing lows all within a decade, numbers wise. They're probably hoping for restrained growth. Hopefully he doesn't sell out in order to make sales by pushing for more car games or guy with gun who drives around in a car game....murder simulators. He doesn't seem to be the type who will do directs. Maybe we'll see more of Miyamoto taking that role. Wouldn't be a bad thing.

He's probably like the old-old Nintendo boss. He really doesn't care for video games but ruthless when it comes to making deals.

@Einherjar There was WAY more than a single game which required the GBC's technical boost over the GB to function. That number is even higher when counting the many games enhanced through use of the GBC. (Pokemon G/S/C is just the most famous one.)

Well, he certainly doesn't have the friendly face of Iwata, but here's hoping for the best.

I'm glad he has a lot of experience, best of luck to him!

@Darknyht Over here (Germany) we never really had that sort of problem. We had a strong presence in electronics stores, many demo units (and ive yet to see a Xbone / PS4 one), cardboard ads etc. Right now, our stores are overflooded with Mario Maker stuff. A lifesize Mario cutout at pretty much every corner, cardboard blocks scattared all across the store etc.

@PlywoodStick Thats the point i was trying to make.
The N3DS is technically nothing more then the GBC was. A gameboy with slightly better hardware and a better screen (in color, which was a big deal back then).
But other then the GBC, the N3DS never saw the support the GBC had recieved. The only game really taking advantage of it is Xenoblade.

I hope he can help support third parties to Nintendo!

Okay, that's enough about being too old or too serious looking......how soon until we see him in a Nintendo Direct?

@Einherjar I agree about the "new" 3DS. I have one only because we were in the market to buy a third 3DS when it was announced. I do love the improved 3D and right analog stick is awesome in games like MH4U, but I really thought we would see a few more games that would take advantage of the extra power.

He could well be the right wrong man for the job.
Nintendo makes great games but they need to understand that in Japan people play on handhelds and in USA and UK people play on consoles. Now NX promises to solve this with a crossover console. But the USA and UK want things in there games that Japanese don't this is the hurdle!
With the new boss having a good understanding of USA markets from 2002-2006 this my pay well help but that period of gaming still lacked what modern gamers want and except. With nintendos inability to adapt and the new CEO stuck in the dark ages. Will Nintendo move forward or backwards?

@damo I know this is a fun game site and not FT, but you used "head" twice in the article. Since its an official announcement can we get an official title, Chairman, COO, CEO, President? I know this 65 year old guy must have had a lot of business cards in his life, but unless he was a prostitute none of them probably said "head" on it. @Nintyman did a nice job filling me in.

@aaronsullivan I bet Reggie thought he should be. Having his predecessor get the job must be killing him inside. Guess hell be finding new ways to make us suffer now. Though E3 may have been enough.

Anybody who knows me, don't ever expect me to type this man's name correctly, I don't think spellchecker is going to help much either.

He looks like he's able to spank me. My body is definitely READY!

Have to agree with @Kirk here. One would think that a CFO/banker running a company is a logical choice... Unfortunately, in reality, they are more often than not in favor of the investors and traditionalism (you know, that thing Itoi was heavily criticizing through Earthbound) over being in favor of the public and adaptive innovation.

A good business leader is one who is creative, and can sympathize with their workforce, or better yet, is of the workforce (such as Iwata). Someone who understands what it means to work "in the trenches" is almost invariably a better leader than someone who is distant from the workforce due to their wealth and status (common for bankers/CFOs of big companies). There are exceptions, of course, but even then, they usually work better as co-leaders on the side, rather than bearing the brunt of the responsibility, lest their favoritism turns to personal profit. It's rare to find people who can resist such a pull, and I have only ever met one CFO who has.

We'll just have to see, I guess... Just don't be surprised if we see more of the current status quo in Nintendo's operations. Hopefully, Kimishima will put their human resources experience to good use, as a more stoic leader... Otherwise, we may have a more disaffected version of Yamauchi on our hands.

I hope he continues Nintendo Directs!

I was hoping they were going to go with young blood that would embrace the world today.(no region lock, powerful console, and so on) sigh but a hope is only a dream.

Hopefully he might smile soon. I know I would be very happy if I was running the beat Videogame company in the world. Dude is like a bulldog

@Einherjar Ok! I misunderstood. I just remember there were games like Dragon Quest 3, the Zelda Oracles, Pokemon Crystal, Magination, the Mario sports RPGs, Shantae, and more which pushed the GBC as hard as possible while giving plenty of 1st and 3rd party support. The N3DS, on the other hand, has not even had the surface of it's potential scratched. (Cause it has a touch screen xD)

@rjejr Just remember the phrase "key me she mah". So a key, you, and your mom... Or something... Well, maybe not...

@Mahemoth I don't know whether to applaud your enthusiasm, or wonder how that"s what his stern expression means...

So he was there throughout the GameCube and Game Boy Advance era and the Wii and DS launch. Hey that was the last time an F-Zero game came out.

His dead serious look gives the impression he doesn't even bother taking names, he simply kicks ass.

And he also doesn't do Nintendo Directs. If they do any more - and I still stand by my belief he won't - he'll guess start for one to introduce himself, and Reggie takes over them for NOA at least.

Well, here we go.

@Rockmin
"I hate that I have to buy Nintendo consoles just for 1st party games"

I hate that I have to buy Playstation/Xbox consoles just for a few choice 3rd party games.

But such is life. Buy both, accept it and game on.

A new president at retirement age? Who isn't historically a developer, but a banker?

This is going to be something very different from Iwata.

With the input of Miyamoto and Takeda, though, particularly in such dynamic sounding support roles, I'm sure he will do very well in picking up the mantle.

@Pod: Yeah another ex-developer would've been nice, but I didn't count on it per se, because it's a rare thing anyway.
But what I was counting on was Nintendo appointing a Japanese president who also speaks English (like Iwata did). I guess since Kimishima was head of NoA, he does speak English.
@NintyMan: Although Yamauchi was the president in my childhood Nintendo era, I never noticed him in that time. I only read about him recently when Iwata died, but judging from that, what you wrote is true. He was a very distinct and authoritarian president (after all, it was his family business). I trust in the decision Nintendo made, but I really hope Kimishima will be as imaginative/resourceful as Iwata was.

I'm not sure I like their choice. For one, he's older than Iwata was, which means he probably won't last long or breathe new life into Nintendo. He also doesn't seem to have a lot of experience with the gaming side of things, he seems like a businessman first and a game developer second. Still though, if he was head of NoA then I'll at least give him a chance to prove himself, he might improve Nintendo's western relations.

@SamirMalik Sometimes you just have to be a bit mean to get to the top.

@NintyMan That is a very encouraging point of view.

Good luck to the new Nintendo President, and let's hope success continues at Nintendo!

@Uberchu Not only that, but younger people may know more about what people want as a console and in games.

People really don't see why they chose him. He was the HR guy, iwata had already had everything set before he had to go. This guy's role is just going to be to do whatever iwata had already planned while selecting and preparing the group of people who will be in charge if the company for the next decades. I would predict he is going to be president from 5 to 10 years maybe.

@KLZ He was only elected to a 1 year term. Obviously, he could be re-elected for a longer term afterwards, but that remains to be seen. It sounds like they elected him as a transitional President and CEO. Nintendo is definitely in a period of transition, and they were before Iwata's death. Kimishima's job is to carry out that transition and make any necessary changes in terms of structure and management during the transition.

@IceClimbers that's what I said

I don't think that the choice is overly surprising. The commentators were guessing that it was going to be someone inside the company. They were right. With no 3rd party support for the Wii U, it seems natural to leave Miyamoto where he is to rally the software troops. And with the NX on the horizon, Takeda is probably good where he is too. Not to forget that not that long ago, investor confidence in Iwata was a bit shaky. I'm sure the board was looking for a really safe choice so as not to spook the investors too much. Kimishima clearly has the experience. Can you imagine what world happen to investor confidence of they appointed some crazy wonder-kid?

Not really too familiar with Kimishima's work, but I wish him and Nintendo all the best. It'll be very interesting to see what kind of a role he plays when it comes to making appearances going forward, if he's going to have more of a public presence similar to Iwata, or if he steps back and lets Reggie or someone else do more of that kind of thing.

@Damo Seriously? "Head"'s a job title? What's the progression look like -

Human Resources Assistant
Human Resources Manager
Director of Human Resources
Vice President of Human Resources
President of Human Resources
Head of Human Resources

Not your fault if the company he worked for had stupid titles, but you have to admit "Head" sounds stupid. Though I suppose all of you guys in the UK could have business cards could that read "Head" on them - "Head Editor" "Head Website Designer" "Head Reviewer" so I shouldn't judge other cultures. My wife told me people use "Head" all the time in the business world, but even she had to admit she'd never actually seen it on anyone's business card.

"Nintendo announced Tatsumi Kimishima as its new president earlier today. In a followup piece from Japanese outlet Nikkei, Kimishima shared a few comments through an interview. Nikkei also provides the following information about him:
– Personality is described as “soft and friendly”
– According to the Nikkei, Kimishima predicted Wii U’s failure when it was introduced by warning it was too similar to the original Wii
– Despite his business background, he is quoted as saying it’s wrong to lead a gaming company on numbers alone
– The Nikkei claims Kimishima wasn’t Iwata’s favorite choice
– Nintendo was first looking for somebody younger but didn’t have the personnel
– The article also suggests the troika was a rushed decision because the holiday season, where Nintendo makes 50%+ of sales, is near
– Accordingly, Kimishima is quoted as saying one task for him will be to develop the next group leadership structure for Nintendo"

@Einherjar The New 3DS is already dead? How about we wait and let the sales do the talking.

I wish him the and the company the best of luck. Lets hope he makes the right decisions. (Pls more amiibo stock.)

@amiiboacid How about you simply look at the fact that the system only has a single game in its library and nothing else on the horizon ?
Its biggest rival is the 3DS itself. The system is extremely widespread and with literally no reason to upgrade whatsoever, the N3DS is dead weight.
Its a pure "enthusiast" system, which isnt enough to break even.

With more software, the whole thing would have looked completely different.
Heck, even ports would have elevated it from just another 3DS reskin to maybe a portable Wii.
Mario Galaxy 3D, Metroid Prime Trilogy 3D, Twilight Princess 3D.
Xenoblade showed, that the system can handle these games. Heck, the game pushed the Wii and runs without any major sacrifices on this handheld.

But no one took advantage of it, not even Nintendo themselves, which is a pity.

@SamirMalik I know, but it's could resemble the kind of evil Nintendo needs to be its once great former self.

@Einherjar They're are more games coming, believe me, there are. Though the DSi had no exclusives but some games took advantage of the additional features and improved graphics, like the New 3DS. Its not supposed to be a whole new system, but a updated model.

@amiiboacid I drew the comparison in other comments already.
The N3DS is nothing less then the GameBoy Color of its family.
A 3DS remodel with enhanced hardware specs and a handfull of additional features.

But so far, nothing a CirclePad Pro couldnt handle...which costs you 20 Bucks new.
The DSi offered a fair share of downloadable games not available on the DS itself.
Again, the N3DS only offeres a single game that is exclusive and there are no other games even announced that take advantage of the system other then maybe "reduced startup times".

The GBC was also not supposed to be a completely new model, but was treated this way by its fair share of exclusive games.
Some were enhanced by it but downwards compatible, others were strictly exclusive due to taking advantage of the GBCs enhanced hardware.

@PlywoodStick Your missing the point, it's not knowing how to spell it or pronounce it, spelling is easy, typing is hard. Kimshima is probably as close as I'm ever going to get. I type Nitneod like that. Almost every time.

@Yorumi Didn't know I could do that, man it would have helped me w/ Ntineod a long time ago. Actually no it wouldn't, Google still can't fix my Ntinedo typos.

@Einherjar The DSi didn't get any exclusive retail releases but did get many download only games as the first DS couldn't download games. Further down the line the New 3DS will get indie exclusives as it can support unity. It already has the Binding of Isaac: Rebirth.

@Angelic_Lapras_King NX could become a hit because of that.Wii U marketing sucks....

This man looks very... austere. Austerity does not equal fun.

But, naturally, I'll reserve judgement until I see the man in action. Until then he has my support at the helm of the Big N.

I hope he does well.

@Einherjar Hrm. Hey, two N3DS exclusives: Xenoblade Chronicles 3D and The Binding of Issac: Rebirth.

@rjejr Eh, most of us aren't Japanese, we won't mind.

Hopefully a man who uses his noggin

So, a 3 headed beast approach. Creativity fellow, Technology fellow, Business fellow.

Hope it all turns well. "Creative fellow", & "Technology fellow" just sound like neat titles, though they sound makeshift.

@TheTeaStirrer I just found out this guys temp for 1 year.

please find yunger blood some time next year! thanks Big N!