Kimishima
Image: Nintendo

You'll have seen Nintendo President Tatsumi Kimishima in a range of headlines today, as the executive has shared one of his most rounded and substantial interviews to date with a Western publication. TIME has spoken to the man at the top of the company, and he's been fleshing out and clarifying some important points around Nintendo's current projects and priorities.

We've shared some of his comments around NX and Wii U, in addition to his thoughts on smart devices and utilising Nintendo IP; now we'll wrap up with some of his words on the future of the company and his role at the helm.

For starters, Kimishima-san spoke more about the 'fellowship' positions held by Shigeru Miyamoto and Genyo Takeda, roles created when he took over the Presidency. Whereas predecessor Satoru Iwata had been a creative driving force within the company, it's clear that these new positions are a way to harness the relative experience of these senior figures and to tackle aspects that, perhaps, aren't to Kimishima-san's strengths.

The Nintendo President emphasizes, below, that both men's responsibilities revolve around driving strategies and developing ideas for the long-term future of the company.

With respect to Mr. Miyamoto and Mr. Takeda, really what we want to do with the whole fellowship position in the organization is to leverage all of that knowledge and all of that experience they have, to really look at the future of Nintendo, to bring that creative force into crafting and developing what we are going to be in the future. And I'm not talking about just the next year or two, but the future, and you can hear the capital 'F' there I think.

Mr. Miyamoto, for instance, is spending a lot of time, not only with his fellow developers, but also working with Universal Theme Parks to design the Nintendo experience that will evolve there. In fact, you may even be seeing Nintendo characters more often in the clothing and shoes that people wear.

As far as the second big role that they have, it's really working day to day with the talented staff that we have at Nintendo and growing and nurturing that creative force. You have people like Mr. Konno responsible for the Mario Kart series, or Mr. Koizumi who is in our Tokyo office with Mario Galaxy and so forth. So those guys are really working on that ground level, saying 'Okay, let's create the software we need today and tomorrow.' And Mr. Miyamoto and Mr. Takeda are of course supporting them, but also, as I said previously, looking into the future of Nintendo as well.

Longevity was a topic that came around when, upon his appointment, Kimishima-san stated - perhaps as a matter of caution - that the role of President is only for one year at a time. That has always been the case with the board re-electing the post every 12 months, yet him mentioning such a fact was largely interpreted as a hesitancy to commit to the role long term. He's now clarified to TIME that he intends to be in charge for longer than that period, though has again indicated that he's focused on developing young and emerging talent for senior roles in the future.

I know that everyone is interested in how long I will be around. I really want to say that all the initiatives I've discussed with you, these are on me, these are my responsibility and I have every intention of seeing these to fruition.

Also, something I think that maybe was misunderstood previously was, there was talk about me being around for one year. What that was, is the board of directors, as a member of the board, the term is for one year. And at the next shareholders meeting we have to be reconfirmed as board members. That happens on a yearly basis, but there was never any meaning that I would only be president for one year in that conversation.

What I really want to do is work with the young and talented staff members that we have at Nintendo, and continue to nurture and grow them, so that they can express their creativity, but also so they can take on some of those management roles and become the leaders we need to take the company into the future.

Outside of that Kimishima-san admitted that the company still has work to do in getting more consumers to use amiibo as intended, as toys-to-life figures, as opposed to keeping them as ornaments and collectibles. In addition he's clarified that Quality of Life (QoL) is still in the works, but isn't at a stage of development where it can be shared as yet.

It's been intriguing to get some insight from this interview. It's clear that ambition and confidence in the company's future are themes throughout, and it'll be interesting to see what happens in 2016 and beyond.

[source time.com]