There are a lot of employees at Nintendo who have spent their entire adulthood at the company. As many of these individuals grow in experience and age, they help create more games and rise up the ranks. Recently, a number of these well-known individuals have been promoted. Nintendo's E3 2019 press website reveals new positions for Eiji Aonuma, Hisashi Nogami, Aya Kyogoku and Yoshihito Ikebata.
Aonuma will keep his role as the producer of The Legend of Zelda series but is now also a Deputy General Manager. Nogami – best known in recent times as the producer of Splatoon – moves into the same position, Kyogoku – the face of the Animal Crossing series – has taken on the "Manager of Production Group No. 5" role (Splatoon & Animal Crossing) and Yoshihito Ikebata is now with "Production Group No. 6" (responsible for the Metroid Prime and Luigi's Mansion series).
It's great to see such a talented group of individuals working their way up the company ladder while making Nintendo's beloved series better and better at the same time.
[source resetera.com]
Comments 36
Sounds like congratulations are in order!
Hisashi and Aonuma certainly deserve it.
Yes. Nothing else to say.
Aya Kyogoku becoming head manager of Group 5 is nothing to sneeze at, those two IPs have become cultural icons in Japan.
Kinda weird to refer to Hisashi Nogami by his given name and not his surname
Edit: I see it's been corrected now!
I have a theory that Nintendo will release BotW 2 this December as a surprise. Nintendo stated that all the games showed in this E3 Direct are games coming this year. With the exception of Animal Crossing (which was delayed until next year), all the games are spreaded out from now until November. The November release is Pokemon. Nothing has been mentioned about December, the critical shopping month of Xmas. Last year Nintendo released Smash Bros Ultimate in December, so which big game will they released this year? My guess is BotW Sequel.
Nintendo probably started work on the sequel after they launched the original 2 years ago. Or maybe even earlier, as they had already finished the Wii U version in 2015.
Also, BotW 2 will be a real Switch game, not a Wii U port. So it can potentially perform better and look better than the original.
Another reason why I love Ninty. Whilst companies like EA layoff 350 people despite record profits, Ninty proves its good work environment with this and the Animal Crossing delay.
@nintendolie
Footage shown in 2015 was certainly not showing finished product in my eyes.
@nintendolie Don't think so. Most probably, it will be Luigi's Mansion 3 that is going to be released in December. It's too early for the BotW sequel - next Decemeber, perhaps.
@DrLockdown You're forgetting about what happened to Mr. Resetti
@DrLockdown This is not uniquely Nintendo as it is Japanese. Its a normal practice for Japanese company's to hire fresh college graduates to mold them into something the company wants and to employ them for a lifetime. My version above is quite a short description of what is part of "Kaizen". The company, on the other hand, grooms new college students during the "shūkatsu".
Promotions in Japan are more often about loyalty to stay with a company (for decades) then it is about individual achievements.
I digress.
Promotions are good, is all im saying.
Climb the ladder Monty.
Congratulations to all of them, but especially Aonuma since I love the guy. Coolest person at Nintendo.
@nintendolie
You’re setting yourself up for disappoint with the same logic where people thought Nintendo was going to have a bunch of megatons planned for Q4 at E3 2008 when it was just Animal Crossing and Wii Music. The only surprise I can see them pulling out is Wii Sports around Black Friday
Well, I may be alone in saying this but I’d be fascinated to see a full Nintendo organizational chart.
Probably need to get out more
@nintendolie
No, they didn't state anything like that. Also, Trials of Mana, No More Heroes 3, Panzer Dragoon and Empire of Sin.
I also believe the new Zelda may come sooner as we might think, but not THAT soon.
Seeing a connection between Metroid Prime and Luigi’s mansion — that new grab a shield and rip it off mechanic in LM3 Did remind me of the early grapple in MP3. Wonder if Yoshihito Ikebata has been playing through the old Metroid Primes and liked that for LM3. Seems possible. One of.my favorite motion-controlled moves actually, very satisfying.
@nintendolie I 100 percent guarantee you it will not be launching this year. Im betting torwards a 2021 release date. Why else would Nintendo say "now in development" like they did with Metroid Prime 4 and B ayonetta 3? Also why would they keep it as a surprise? Did you not see how heavily BOTW was promoted? E3 2016 was nothing but Breath of the Wild. They were plastering that game everywhere to generate hype for it. Chances are well get a full trailer for it at next year's E3.
@BornInNorway81
You can watch Nintendo at GDC 2017, they already finished the Wii U version and was told to port the game to Switch while waiting for it to launch. The port was surprising easy so they improved a lot on the game during those 2 years, if it launched as a Wii U title, it will be very basic.
@sartorious23
Luigi Mansion 3 will be released in October, before Halloween. (As always)
@SalvorHardin @SalvorHardin @MrBlacky @patbacknitro18
It's a theory, just an observation and presumption. Just what real scientist do for a living.
To add to the theory, I think Nintendo will launch the New Switch before Xmas. It will have a BotW 2 bundle, just like the original Switch as a launch title. We'll see.
For reference:
Jun - Mario Maker 2
Jul - Fire Emblem 3 houses
Aug - Astral Chain
Sep - Zelda - Link's Awakening
Oct - Luigi's Mansion 3
Nov - Pokemon sword and shield
Dec - ???
@nintendolie and just like real scientists, your theory can (and will) be wrong. however unlike real scientists, you've based your theory on nonexistent evidence, while every piece of evidence against your theory is far too real. You say it will be released this year, meanwhile Nintendo classified it as being in development. Which the only other 2 trailers to be announced at such was Metroid Prime 4 and Beyonetta 3. And how long have they been in development since then? Also you say it will launch in december, when Nintendo has shown otherwise. Why would Nintendo not reveal a release date/year, nor show any gameplay just 6 MONTHS FROM THEN!?! Nintendo showed off Fire Emblem 3 housea gameplay last year, and it just now releasing this year. So if BOTW has no gameplay, and is only said to be in development, then how could you possibly expect it to release in 6 months?
I don't think you really can be promoted from lead Zelda developer. Not in spirit anyway.
I feel like everybody here replying to @nintendolie hasn't realized their username
Given the quality of their games I think they absolutely deserve a raise, they have made some of Nintendo's best games.
Congrats Aya Kyogoku! Splatoon and Animal Crossing have been shining examples of what younger developers and women developers can do in what has traditionally been a rigid and tradition based country of game development. I’m really excited for anything that comes out of Group 5 in particular.
@patbacknitro18 It may be kept secret because it ties to the New Switch. The new game uses the same art style, so it's the same engine. It's not building everything from scratch, development time won't be as long.
@nintendolie So you think that they would keep one of their most anticipated sequels release dates a secret, 6 months before release, just because it can be played on the new version of the Switch? Are you forgetting that Breath of the Wild was announced for WiiU, and had tons and tons of gameplay and trailers released for it before it was announced to be on the Switch? And BOTW 2 would not be any different. It's not like the game would be exclusive to the new version of the Switch. Like you said same artstyle, same engine. It would run perfectly fine on the original switch, so again your "Theory" falls flat due to the evidence.
Aonuma is headed straight for the top!
Be difficult to find a more deserved promotion than Aunoma.
“So what have you done for the company?”
“Made objectively the best video game of all time?”
“...Anything else?”
@patbacknitro18 The New Switch will probably be like the New 3DS, BotW 2 will run better on it. To have the most anticipated game optimized for the New Switch will help sell it at launch. Same engine, still runs on old Switch but better on New one.
BotW was meant to be a Wii U game, it was first announced in 2013. They already finished the game but delayed the launch because of Switch.
Although it has waned in the last few decades, Japanese business life is generally like that. People don't change companies unless there are really serious circumstances. They just move up into positions vacated as people retire or move up themselves. Not like in the US and other countries where people move around a lot both by choice or circumstance.
Thank you for your hard work!
@nintendolie I'm pretty sure if it was coming this year, Nintendo wouldn't surprise like that by keeping the date close to their chest
By that logic we should've expected Metroid Prime 4 to be released last holiday alongside Smash.
If it says, "now in development" or "currently in development", that essentially means it's in production, but not at a stage where they're ready to show off the game running in engine, let alone have it playable in some capacity.
The same thing has happened in the past with other non-Nintendo games like Cyberpunk 2077, Final Fantasy XV and VII Remake, Kingdom Hearts III and even just recently with Starfield. I expect no different here
Holiday 2020 by the absolute earliest, but my assumption is that it's either releasing in early 2021 to line it up with the release schedule of the previous game, or it will be that holiday's big Switch title.
@Heavyarms55 That's how it used to be in the US as well. I haven't and never will acclimate to that "new normal."
@nintendolie Keep in mind Aonuma said BOTW2 is partly inspired by the team playing RDR2. Which released this October. So development didn't start in earnest until 8 months ago at earliest. It takes a lot longer than a year to crank out a Zelda game even with recycled assets.
@NEStalgia That's a fair point. Though I think it has been a lot longer since it was like that in the US. I remember my grandparents talking about that sort of thing.
Also just because they mention the RDR2 inspiration, doesn't mean they weren't already working on a BOTW sequel prior to that game.
@Vectorman It was a typical. I meant to say realized
@Vectorman My autocorrect is really bad. I meant to say typo
@Vectorman Hahaha yeah
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