What will your reaction be? If Sotoru Iwata gets fired and will be re-placed by an American? Will you like this change? Or should Iwata get re-placed by a Japanese person who already works at Nintendo?

Howard Lincoln was really one of the best executives to ever work at Nintendo, so I don't see what nationality has to do with it.

Lincoln was primarily responsible for the acquisition of Rare, which brought Nintendo DKC, which allowed them to really pull ahead of the Genesis and then it basically saved the N64, because without GoldenEye the system probably would've withered and died between that long wait until Zelda: Oot was ready.

If the person is a good executive and brings a solid vision to the company and can actually execute on that, then I don't see what the problem is.

As long as the replacement doesn't give in to the "put their games on mobile" tards, I'm fine with it.

Erm...why would it matter?

Doubt Iwata will go though. Who knows though, I suppose it's possible now...

Another interesting FYI ... Retro Studios exists today largely because Howard Lincoln championed the idea and Yamauchi trusted him.

And Retro was supposed to be a studio that made multiple games too, unfortunately after Lincoln left that idea kinda got thrown away because Nintendo got burned by Jeff Spanenberg and then never trusted Retro with two projects at once ever again.

Lincoln also went to bat for Nintendo to get EA and other third parties to make games for the N64 even though Nintendo's Japanese HQ had hamstrung NOA with the cartridge format. 

Nintendo also branched out by taking chances on developers like Silicon Knights (Eternal Darkness), Left Field (NBA Courtside), and made a partnership for multiple Star Wars games in the 90s. 

To be honest I think Lincoln was a better game exec than Iwata is. Iwata caught lightning in a bottle with touchscreen/Wiimote casual gaming thing for a period of 4-5 years, but he's been mediocre as Nintendo's president for the other 6-8 years of his reign and has reverted Nintendo back to being an isolated Japan-centric company, whereas in the 90s they were far more balanced. 

It would be the end of Nintendo as we know it. American CEO's are wagon jumpers. Not gonna happen anyways.

It's been said so many times that it's pointless to reiterate, but still, one more time: they do need a fresh perspective and a fresh approach.

I really can't see Nintendo electing a non-Japanese replacement though; that's just not how the company works.

North american isnt a race. Its a nationality. Maybe theres an underlying asian vs white man debate? Its definitly taking liberties. 

Unless we are talking about native americans. Native american for Nintendo CEO? Ah words and concepts. How easily they get lost. ^^

As long as he understands both Japanese and the West.

This would be the worst thing that could ever happen to Nintendo, Nintendo and a short term thinking quick & dirty American management style are just not compatible. They would release unfinished DLC-loaded beta versions only or sell the company to Google, Apple or Microsoft.

Iwata should be replaced by someone like Ken Kutaragi so that all power stays in Japan.