Nintendo announced Monday that Tatsumi Kimishima will be taking over the reins as chief executive starting Wednesday, following the July passing of former boss Satoru Iwata, aged 55.
Executive directors Shigeru Miyamoto (creator of Mario, Zelda, and Donkey Kong, among other series) and Genyo Takeda had been temporarily tasked with running the company since the unexpected news in July.
Until now, the 65-year-old Kimishima has been Nintendo’s managing director and president and is considered to be one of the top veterans in Japan’s gaming industry. He also had a previous career as a banker with Sanwa Bank for more than 25 years.
https://twitter.com/RogersBase/status/643307918507380736
His main challenge in the new role will be to guide Nintendo through what is expected to be a tough transition into the mobile gaming space, bolstered by a new partnership announced in March with mobile games developer DeNA.
In a statement, Nintendo said it was exploring “a large-scale revision of the organizational structure of the company.”
Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal highlighted some of Kimishima’s background at Nintendo prior to today’s news:
[He] joined the Nintendo fold in December 2000 as representative director of Pokémon Co., which manages licenses and other businesses related to Nintendo’s Pokémon characters. From 2006 to 2013, he was chief executive of Nintendo of America Inc. He assumed his current post of managing director in June 2013.
Kimishima is a smart choice – Nintendo can't afford experimenting in this transitional time between 2 console generations+going mobile.
— Dr. Serkan Toto (@serkantoto) September 14, 2015
Tokyo-based games industry analyst Serkan Toto tweeted his support for the new chief exec, saying he was “a smart choice — Nintendo can’t afford experimenting in this transitional time between two console generations and going mobile.”
Nintendo stocks were trading slightly down on Monday following the lunch break in Tokyo, a day after Super Mario Bros. turned 30.