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Soundwave said: To be honest I don't expect many major decisions from Kimishima. I think he just wants to ge through the next 2-3 years in decent shape and get through the shareholder votes on leadership. He's not going to win many allies within Nintendo if he just starts changing all their plans, if he over-reaches he could find himself being replaced in short order. I don't know if the Kimishima era regardless will be that long. He's already 66, I imagine by the time he hits 70, Nintendo is going to have to start grooming a replacement. |
I may be mistaken, and currently can't find a source for this, but wasn't there talk of Kimishima being a transitional leader, to see Nintendo through the launch of mobile and NX? That's why Nintendo are currently headed up by a triumvirate of Kimishima (Business Fellow), Miyamoto (Creative Fellow) and Genuya Takeda (Technology Fellow). All three men are nearing retirement age, with Miyamoto the youngest at 63 (Takeda is 67). At the time of his appointment, Kimishima said he was simply focusing on the next 12 months (which we're at the end of, he was appointed September 2015), and that he wouldn't be averse to bringing in a CEO from outside Nintendo in the future. Furthermore, Kimishima was also tasked with developing the future leadership of Nintendo.
It'll be interesting, with a shareholder vote due soon, and the end of Kimishima's first 12 months imminent, if there's another change in leadership. Personally I think any change will wait until after NX is on the market. Whichever way that goes, it would be a better time to hand over to someone new. If NX succeeds and mobile continues to bring in the money, a new CEO can guide Nintendo from a position of strength. If NX fails, new leadership can be brought in to inject fresh ideas. Eurogamer also speculated at the time that Akiro Hino, CEO of Level 5, may be a future candidate (and was potentially Iwata's preferred choice) for the next President of Nintendo:
Kimishima's temporary appointment, however, does raise the question of who comes next. Whatever structure Nintendo may operate under in the future, it still needs visionary creators and leaders. Unverified scuttlebutt suggests that the younger candidate Iwata had in mind to succeed him was an outsider like Level-5 president Akihiro Hino, who would work alongside him for a time before taking over. As a programmer first and company president second, Hino has personal similarities to Iwata (something the latter picked up on in an 'Iwata Asks'), and since founding Level-5 in 1998 has made it into one of Japan's top developer/publishers - recently saying his goal was to transform it into something like Disney.
