| BasiltheBatLord said: maybe a little off-topic but press release made it sound like Takeda and Miyamoto are interim co-presidents of Nintendo? that seems weird, anyone know more about that? |
They had three "Representative Directors" within Nintendo - Iwata himself, plus Takeda and Miyamoto. Iwata passed away, so Takeda and Miyamoto are the remaining Representative Directors, and thus, I think, will be taking on duties that would normally be Iwata's, until a new President is selected. Miyamoto and Takeda also had the title of "Senior Managing Director" (as opposed to Iwata's "President").
Takeda's third title is "Chief Director of General Development", while Miyamoto's is "Chief Director of Information Development". So I expect that Takeda will become President, as Takeda's responsibilities are broader than Miyamoto's already (Miyamoto's responsibilities all laid within the software side, whereas Takeda worked with both software and hardware - incidentally, he was a lead designer of the Wii).
I somewhat hope that Takeda's current role is then replaced by someone outside of Japan. I think that Nintendo could use some fresh blood in the shift. Note that by "outside of Japan", I don't necessarily mean "not Japanese". An example of what I mean is Shibata - head of Nintendo of Europe, but Japanese (NoE is primarily a distribution/advertising arm, so I wouldn't expect him to become Chief Director of General Development, of course).
I suspect that what will actually happen is either Shinya Takahashi (currently Chief Director of Planning and Development) or Susumu Tanaka (currently Chief Director of Operation, previously Director of Overseas Business and Deputy Chief Director of Main Operation Unit) will be promoted to Chief Director of General Development, as they seem to be the ones most closely aligned with the role Takeda has been in.
I seriously hope that they don't make the mistake of making Shigeyuki Takahashi the new President. He's the Director of Finance and Chief Director of Administration, and hasn't ever had a job as a developer of any sort. Nintendo doesn't need a non-gaming guy calling the shots at all.
