Nintendo President Tatsumi Kimishima's Approval Rating Grows 10 Percent

Hah, it's funny cause I approved of them all

Shigeru Miyamoto not 100%?? Who down-voted him?

I can't stand him. He's completely destroyed Nintendo in my eyes.

@ShyGuys

Probably the same guys who whine about Nintendo having their own console and not going full mobile or doing 1000 Mario games for PS and Xbox.

There are always those.

I think he's a better Pres than Iwata but maybe not as good as Yamauchi.

Iwata brought the dark days of Ninty, the motion controller casual garbage alienating all hardcore fans shudders

@RainbowGazelle How so? by changing Nintendo's marketing approach so that they're actually marketable?

Is it common within Japanese business culture to have such high approval ratings?

I feel like I hardly know anything about Mr. Kimishima. That's one thing major I miss from Iwata's presidency; he was so personable with the fan base that I felt like I knew him quite well, making his sudden passing all the more tragic.

That being said, there's no denying that Kimishima took what Iwata started with the Switch and helped lead it to be a resounding success (so far). I wish him the best.

@RainbowGazelle What were you wanting from him? And how has he destroyed Nintendo? I assume this is the same Nintendo, and not some other company I am unaware of?

Iwata was a visionary and with that comes more of a gamble that can bring the success of the DS/Wii but can also bring the failed potential of the WiiU. Everyone could appreciate Iwata's love for Nintendo and his love of gaming but after WiiU's failure, Kimishima would be a welcome figure from a shareholder's perspective. He is a business oriented person and since the Switch's launch, we've seen Nintendo really push into the public eye again with a new look. It's hard to disapprove him. As a gamer you might not like his decisions and he seems like he's not going to try and be the friendly figure of Iwata out to the public but from a business standpoint, nearly everything so far points to that he knows what he is doing.

@PAHTK I'm not saying Iwata was the best CEO ever, but I don't think you can really say he brought about the "dark days" of Nintendo. No matter your opinion on motion controls, you can't deny that Iwata helped produce the Wii and the DS, Nintendo's most successful home and handheld consoles, respectively. The 3DS had a rough start but he was able to get that turned around. And while the Wii U flopped pretty hard, it really did have a rather strong first-party library.

Just my personal opinion, but I think that's pretty far from being "dark days".

@RainbowGazelle He saved Nintendo! Nintendo is doing amazing now!

Kimishima is definitely a lot less visible than Iwata. The Switch design, the development of Zelda and probably Mario, and the entrance into the mobile market were all started under Iwata, but it is Kimishima who has controlled the marketing and steady flow of new titles.

Although he's also responsible for the Switch, NES Mini, and possibly the SNES Mini being short supply.

@ShyGuys My thoughts exactly. He might have downvoted himself as a humble japanese way of saying you always need to improve

I think in about six years they should release a dedicated home Console to rival Sony and Microsoft and use the switch has a handheld only. It's plenty powerful as a handheld to see it easily through a decade of support at any rate.

That's some pretty strong numbers for these oldtimers.

I think Kimishima did a great job at Nintendo.
Of course, Switch was an Iwata concept, but has been 2 years since he passed away, actually I think he stoped to contributing with Nintendo about one month or two before he died.
2 Years... We can not say that Kimishima did just the Iwata's plan. There's a lot of "Kimishima Touch" on the actual Nintendo Posture. I feel that NoA has more freedom now (just look at the advertisement now).
I think that Iwata wanted a Nintendo more childish, but Kimishima wants a Nintendo "less Nintendo" and I think it's good.
He isn't crazy to makes Nintendo forget about it "childish-soul", but I think he cans invest on a deeper game history.
It didn't come to my mind a +14R game with Iwata in command. But with Kimishima? I think it's not impossible, and it is a big progress.

@RainbowGazelle Well I mean that doesn't make much sense. The Switch launch line year in terms of first parties was probably decided in 2014 or 2015, and Iwata would have had a large hand in that. Video game development is like trying to hit a target you can't see yet, and it's certainly not decided by just one person.

@Sakura

I can't say for the japanese culture, but with Nintendo the approval ratings have changed somewhat. These were highest overall ratings that I've seen for as long as I've been able to partake.

Hey, that's more than double Trump's approval rating. Congratulations.

Sounds a bit insanely high. Maybe they asked everyone a yes/no question?

He's the legend with a tekken boss name. Of course people approve.

You'll get kayoken'd by boss kimishima if you don't approve.

@Haru17 @FragRed @FragRed @AlphaJaguar @Switch81tch
Kimishima introduced far more censorship into Nintendo's localisations, has decreased NoE's power so the UK gets fewr localisations, and has genrally increased the DLC, microtransations and all round money-grabbing side of Nintendo. Iwata cared about games and gamers, Kimishima cares about profit.

@RainbowGazelle mo' profit means mo' games means mo' Nintendo.

@RainbowGazelle Oh my, but that's are common practices.
And I can't think about an unfair DLC in a Nintendo property.
Yeah Fire Emblem Echoes, but it was the same thing with awakening and fates, and if you look at competition the Persona 5 dlc is absurd too.
While Breath of the Wild dlc is ok, at least.

As a fan and consumer since SNES days I'm really satisfied with nintendo right now. It's the best moment for gamers since the first two years of the game cube.

Sorry for the grammar, english isn't my mother language and I did drink a bit.

@RainbowGazelle Fire Emblem was DLC infested before Kimishima took over, Pokemon localisation got delayed for Europe since Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, and Kimishima does not dictate as to what gets censored, that's for the regional Nintendo departments to do.

@Grawlog Sorry, couldn't help myself. I saw the words "approval rating" and my mind jumped to the only other place I see those two words together. I won't let it happen again.

This has nothing to do with popularity.... for shareholders its all about money!!!

@electrolite77 For what it's worth, an internal slide from MS France ended up leaking not long ago claiming 36 million Xbox Ones sold/shipped.

@RainbowGazelle Even though your comment seems to have been hidden, I might as well throw my hat into the ring.
"Far more censorship"-- Nope, always been a thing. You've just got more people willing to whine to high heaven and back about it.
"Decreased NOE's power so the UK gets fewer localizations"-- What kind of conspiracy theory is this?
"increased the DLC, microtransations and all round money-grabbing side of Nintendo"-- Completely ignoring how the mobile foray was something Iwata gave the go-ahead on. And outside of IS' recent mistakes, none of Nintendo's DLC practices have been bad.

I'm not sure what some people are tripping-- wait, I do know: the nostalgia drug.

@ShyGuys i'm surprised it's even at 97.59% tbh. Dude is purely living off nostalgic fame at this point. His recent dabblings have all been somewhere between 'meh' and 'dear god get him away from the building' levels of quality and fun.

@Switch81tch @AlphaJaguar Tokyo Mirage Sessions, Xenoblade X, Project Zero 5, Fire Emblem Fates, Bravely Second. All censored after Kimishima took over. Iwata was previously in charge of NoA, and thus Treehouse.

@Switch81tch @CrazedCavalier During Iwata's time, the UK began to get separate British English localisations, such as Fire Emblem Awakening, Luigi's Mansion 2, Kirby, Splatoon, Smash Bros., Mario Kart. Since Kimishima took over there's no more of that. Nintendo couldn't ever be bothered to put the date the right way around for the European version of Swapdoodle. That shows a pathetic lack of caring for Europe as a whole!

@CrazedCavalier The DS was my girst ever Nintendo game, so I'm not sure how I'm "tripping on nostalgia".

@PAHTK Yamauchi is a love-hate kind of figure. One one hand he's the one that dared go big into gaming when everyone, everywhere told him it was an idiotic idea, and it's hard to not be impressed by a man who turned a trading card company in an occupied country into a global entertainment leader and ran it for nearly 70 years successfully.

BUT, some of the "fall" of Nintendo, was Yamauchi's own doing as well. He was an iron fisted dictator within the company whom nobody dare question. That lead to the oustering of Yokoi, the near-disaster that was to be the Nintendo Playstation (to his credit he's the one that realized the problem at the zero hour), but then, his spiteful antics is what gave rise to Sony Play Station in retaliation, and set the rest of the industry in motion. And it was his Yakuza-like operations that lead to a lot of bad blood for many years with third parties. He's the father of the Nintendo we love, but he was also almost the destroyer of it. Iwata did the Wii (with Yamauchi's heavy guidance, and there's been suggestions that Wii was really Yamauchi's influence more than Iwatas, while DS was more Iwata.) And while WiiU was entirely on Iwata's watch, even that had Yamauchi's seal of approval...

I think both the good, and the bad, get credited to both men over these 30+ years. Neither "Wii casual" nor GCN/WiiU failure were entirely Iwata's making, as Yamauchi was still backing both from the sidelines. (And nobody would still dare question him.) And neither was the Wii/DS success entirely Iwata, as Yamauchi was still backing them. I think Iwata's influence is felt more in the software than the hardware.

Kimishima.....is just pure business, and seems intentionally uninvolved in both software and hardware overall, delegating both to Miyamoto and Takeda (until his retirement.) The three of them together seem to have been taking Iwata's (Yamauchi-less...or so we presume...) plan for Switch and making it a huge success. It's kind of a one time only deal. Kimishima's business sense, Iwata's vision, Miyamoto's creative genius, and Takeda's, hardware expertise together.

@Timppis Right, so high even for Nintendo as a Japanese company. That's interesting.

@Masurao Also interesting. Always worth looking a little deeper.

@RainbowGazelle How so?

@JayPley See my other 2 posts for explanations.

@RainbowGazelle Those 5 games needed to be censored (I don't agree though), if you need someone to blame, blame NoA and the US with it's trigger happy and over sensitive minority. NoA doesn't want to feed their agenda. Fatal Frame 5(PZ5) and TMS both have scantily clad women in bikinis. Heck SJW were already complaining about those bikini in the Japanese version even before the game was even localized... FEFates has a scene were SJW believe that Nintendo is promoting druging.... SJW thinking Bravely Default caters to pedos because the characters look like kids in revealing outfits....
Xenoblade Chronicles X had a booby slider... SJWs jumped on that like hotcakes! C'mon this stuff doesn't float very well in the US. This is not Nintendo of Japan's or Kimishima's fault, this has everything to do with the US market.

Japan is culturally very different from western countries, and what makes sense there doesn't always make sense outside Japan. Personally, all of these changes are just silly, people really shouldn't care about such trivial things, people just need to stop being offended by everything....

@TsukiDeity Out of interest, how do we know some of these "SJWs" aren't also Treehouse staff?

It's really hard to say what is behind Nintendo's turnaround success with the Switch and how its advertising has been so on point during this generation. Mr. Kimishima probably played a hand in it somehow, but to what extent. It would be nice to know more about him and what kind of role he plays in the company's decisions, more than just approving ideas but actually taking an active part in the creation of the direction.

I have seen nothing from him that makes me dislike him. But unlike Mr. Iwata, he has a different personality, and is far less visable. That's not a knock on Mr. Kimishima, but after years of having Iwara be the friendly face of corporate Nintendo, it makes it that much harder to attach ourselves and warm up to Kimishima in the same fashion - as of yet.

I'm optimistic for Mr. Kimishima though. Nintendo is heading into a brighter future, and I'd like to think it is part in due to him.

He's a business man, and Nintendo didn't hire him to be personable, which will be the next CEOs job, possibly Genyo Takeda (though I don't know how personable he would be). I think Kamishima's done a good job so far. Switch is doing "enough", and arguable could do and be "more", but I believe that this is all just an intentional stair-step in which Nintendo is letting the market and consumers drive what comes next. An example of what I'm getting at is how the Switch has no media apps like the Wii U STILL has as I type. I continue to use Netflix, YouTube, and the internet browser religiously. I don't think that is because the Switch is incapable or its inept, but I believe they want to steadily grow the install base more (pending more Switches get out there first) and continue to wind down the Wii U to the end of 2017, but we'll see. Either way it goes, Kamishima is focused on the business, and I'm not even mad. Just wish they could iron out the 3rd party support from the big hitters, but that's another story...

So the 5 directors have near unanimous approval...

Wow

@MeloMan
Genyo Takeda has retired from Nintendo.

Lol seriously? 97% of them approved Kimishima? I definitely wouldn't have voted for him...

@ShyGuys Well, as good as he is, he's not perfect. Star Fox Zero and Paper Mario: Sticker Star prove that.

@RainbowGazelle You're under the assumption that Kimishima delegated Iwata's regional responsibilities... he did not. Clearly, After Iwata's passing, localisations of intellectual properties was handed down to regional divisions as opposed to Kimishima handling the work.

Not Takeda. He was considered back when Kimishima was picked but he wasn't right for it, and now has retired (he's still an advisory role however.) I think they're trying to groom younger guys from the software end for the role. Smart money's on Takahashi or Koizumi. Back-end, Takahashi makes most sense as he's already a managing director, but they seem to be strongly positioning Koizumi as the front-man, so they could be pivoting toward grooming him for the role. Takahashi seems excellent as a manager, but isn't a very affable face for the company. Koizumi's becoming a very smooth corporate face since Switch.

But they could go an entirely other direction with someone even younger. Miyamoto hinted they were afraid the "younger faces" were already too old.

@ericflapjack Kimishima is a businessman pure and simple (previously worked for a Japanese bank in the US, then was CEO of Pokemon USA, then CFO, I believe (or was it COO?) of TPC, and then president of NoA before Iwata recalled him back to NCL and took on the role himself. He acknowledged at the start he really had no experience with content or direction, and thus he created the fellowship of Miyamoto and Takeda to handle that. So much as people love bashing Miyamoto, the content related decisions are most likely coming down from Miyamoto, not Kimishima. The Minis, however, are probably Takeda+Kimishima.

Kimishima doesn't seem like much of a corporate face, he's a back room policy and deals kind of guy, but he's nicknamed something about being a "grandfather" figure within the company, so he's certainly very well liked personally. Just not very PR-friendly. A second Iwata....we'll never see that again. The likable visionary with a knack for content creation and curation, and an infectious personality who can also run business.... I think we need a new frontman, whether it's a CEO or not....Koizumi seems to be our current one. I like him. I dislike his obsession with motion controls and party games (but that's Iwata-like, isn't it? ), but he speaks no English as far as I know so he still won't fit into what we expect post-Iwata.

Well, Kimishima's no Iwata, but he's getting the job done. I just wish he was more personal instead of "all business" only.
Good for Nintendo, overall.

@RainbowGazelle Iwata only passed away in 2015, literally everything you said as complaints would be a result of Iwata's reign, not Kimishima's.

Also, you may be too young to remember, but the western side of Nintendo has been censoring games going back to Punch-Out on the NES and Earthbound on the SNES. Nintendo and censorship is not a new thing.

He deserves it. Mr. Iwata can be credited with the idea of the Switch (as I'm assuming it was under development when the Wii U was around), while Mr. Kimishima can be credited with some of its success due to its advertising, release, E3, some of the upcoming games, etc.

@AlphaJaguar The increased censorship still occurred under his watch, but I take your point.

@electrolite77I don't agree with everything Iwata did, but I felt he genuinely cared about customers. I never said Kimishima started the anti-consumer stuff, but a lot of it has become much more aggressive since he took over.

@yuwarite I know censorship is nothing new, but it was becoming less frequent under Iwata, then came roaring back after Kimishima took over.

Yeah sure blame a Japanese President for American censorship. This problem has been lingering for years, we have crappy anime dubs that cut everything, crappy kid shows/cartoons, and everything else censored wise since the 2000 era or whenever they started heavily censoring everything.

@RainbowGazelle And Xenoblade only got brought over to the US after NOE did all the heavy lifting-- with the copyright on the title screen saying 2011 despite release in NA om 2012, as a Gamestop exclusive no less.

@electrolite77 I was more saying that just because it discredits the sub-30 million assumption I see people making. Yeah, the PS4 is certainly #1 by a wide margin, but compared to 5th and 6th gens that margin isn't nearly so wide.

@RainbowGazelle
Those games were ready to launch by 2015, which means almost, if not all, those decisions were made by Iwata and NoA's high executives. Even then, Iwata probably didn't make the decision alone, I wouldn't be surprised if they were topics raised by Treehouse, and they got feedback from above on whether or not take those elements out.

As for the UK receiving less localizations tailor made for them? Probably it's a decision based on cost. The U.K. Isn't a market that on its lonesome can compete with the US, so why would they lose money on doing a second localization job when the US localization is completely functional?

@RainbowGazelle do japanese movies, anime, and books have UK localizations? Just be happy we get voice actors or accurate subtitles at all for Japanese videogames in some kind of competent English. In the NES days we dealt with Gannon, Congratuation you have happy end, princess toadstool, king koopa and other gems.

@RainbowGazelle lol Nintendo are very good at making money, look at the peripherals, they are notorious mate... it was a matter of time before DLC and micro transactions if that irked you then you don't know the company.
I look at the controllers and added hard ware extras sat next to my Wii, WiiU and now Switch. They know how to get dollar out your pocket.

@RainbowGazelle To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if a bunch of them were SJWs, except Audrey. A woman who get's breast implants (and also loves Japan) can't be against a booby slider, I would think. haha

@RainbowGazelle How would that explain the whole Tharja towel situation in 2013's Fire Emblem Awakening, then?

The reality is, Iwata/Kimishima probably have little to no say (or interest) in any censorship that happens in western releases. Matters of censorship probably don't even reach their desk. They most likely leave that responsibility up to the western management/localisation teams.

And Kimishima isn't even a gamer; he's a businessman; he simply delegates responsibilities and lets those teams get on with their job.

Oh that's great! I admit I was against the idea of hiring Kimishima as the President due to Iwata's death and Miyamoto not being chosen instead but Kimishima has marvelously steered Nintendo away from an imminent failure. Iwata had great success with the DS and Wii but couldn't strike gold twice with the 3DS (to some extent) and the Wii U. One amazing fact: Kimishima had stated at the Wii U launch that 'the Wii U will most likely fail. It's message is not conveyed properly and so will fail to garner enough units' and he was right. Maybe that's why his forward approach with the Switch and Mobile gaming is working excellently. Hats off to you!

@CrazedCavalier What's your point? I was talking about Xenoblade X.

@Luna_110 @Alikan Okay, I'll accept that not all censorship is Kimishima's fault. It just seems to be increasing since he took charge. I don't know Nintendo's inner workings, so the only thing I can see that's changed is Kimishima is now in charge. Re the UK localisations: no it doesn't bother me too much, because it wouldn't be cost effective; I'm just noting something that was present, and no longer is. It's the Swapdoodle crap that really annoys me!

@Filth_Element Good point.

@yuwarite Fair point on the towel rubbish. I'm glad Europe didn't have to put up with that. Iwata wasn't perfect on the censorship stuff, but it seems more regular under Kimishima.

@RainbowGazelle So did Nintendo's market value.

@RainbowGazelle but it seems more regular under Kimishima.

It may seem that way, but you're wrong.

Firstly, Iwata passed away in July 2015.

Then, the 2 games that featured censorship: Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water and Xenoblade Chronicles X, came out in October and December, 2015.

However, Kimishima was only elected president in September 2015.

That's not enough time between him being elected president and a localisation team to radically alter a product that's about to ship in a few months. It wouldn't even have been enough time in July, itself.

@electrolite77 you cannot know that for sure. Coming from the switch it could work. Just dot fumble the ball like they did wit the Wii U.