Nintendo to change president, Kimishima out, Shuntaro Furukawa in

[Master Disaster]

This is very breaking news, it's less than an hour old.

 

According to Japanese news outlet Nikkei Nintendo will be shortly changing president. The current president, Tatsumi Kimishima, took control after Saturo Iwata died in 2015. Nikkei reports that he will remain at Nintendo as an advisor but he is to be replaced as president by Shuntaro Furukawa. No word on when the transition will happen.

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After Satoru Iwata passed away in 2015, Tatsumi Kimishima took the helm as President of Nintendo. However, this is soon going to change. According to a Nikkei report, the House of Mario will yet again change presidents. While the report notes that Kimishima will continue as a consultant at Nintendo, it is Shuntaro Furukawa who will hold the position of President. The 46-year old joined Nintendo in 2012 and held several positions since, including Outside Director of the Pokémon Company. He was also involved in the marketing and sales of the Nintendo Switch.

The change apparently isn't because of performance but a move to help Nintendo "rejuvenate the management in order to better adapt and provide in the rapidly changing video game industry".

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Nikkei also mentions that the change is not due to 68-year-old Kimishima's performance but rather to "rejuvenate" the management in order to better adapt and provide in the rapidly changing video game industry.

English source - https://gbatemp.net/threads/nintendo-to-change-president.502094/

Japanese Source - https://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXMZO29874760W8A420C1000000/

 

Interesting, I remember watching a documentary on Breath of the Wild where they said almost all the old Zelda team were replaced with fresh faced youngsters to try and rejuvenate the franchise, it's safe to say that worked out OK.

 

I wonder if this will bring forward actual change at Nintendo, they could be so good if the management weren't living with dinosaurs.

[Bcat00]

Well, i'm not that surprised here. Its pretty clear, especially to the company, that new blood needs to be inserted to keep up with the times. Besides, 68 years old is pretty old for someone that's been heading the company for so many years beside the founder. 

After the success of the Switch, i can imagine the guy is content and wants to hand the baton to the new generation while overseeing the successors grow to take over their shoes.

 

Who knows how many years the guy even have left before he hits the bucket.

 

[Taf the Ghost]

Given the corporate structure will have "generations" within many Japanese businesses, it looks like the board would like to move onto another entire group of management. 

 

https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/pdf/2018/180426_5e.pdf

 

Per some of the filings, after the end of the current terms, they're replacing practically everyone at the top-level. We should probably expect some serious shifts in the way Nintendo is operating.