While I mostly agree, I do think its worth mentioning how radically different a direction Nintendo took after Iwata became president, despite being hand picked by the previous president. While I do think that Iwata already hand picked his successor, I'm not so sure that necessarily means that Nintendo isn't in for a serious change. That's definitely not what happened last time.

What I wonder is if this new President will also double as CEO of NOA like Iwata. I hope not. Though I'd probably rather that than Reggie become CEO.

I wouldn't think so, considering three of those four platforms which weren't as powerful as their competition sold extremely well.
And of all the things holding the Wii U back, I don't see it's lack of horse power as high up on the list.

The current "leading candidates", the two currently co-directors have went on the record at different times saying that just increasing the power of the console have diminishing returns. I don't know were the two presidents of the two major subsidiaries stand but if you are looking for a console with earth bending power I doubt you will see it come from them.

Pretty much this, I'd say. Nintendo has always made games that were purely fun and THAT is what I think of when I think of Nintendo. I don't think of how cool the console looked, or how comfortable the controller feels, or how awesome the graphics are, or how great the online works. I think of how happy I am or how alive I feel when playing a Nintendo game. 

I think that's what Iwata brought to Nintendo (besides pure innovation) and as long as they pick a CEO with that vision, I'll be satisfied. They can give me a controller that's shaped like a microwave and I'd still buy the system if the games were fun. 

Pretty sure I heard a while back that Yamauchi was in on the whole DS and Wii shift. Either that he had started the projects or that Iwata was still consulting him. Either way the differences between their philosophies likely stemmed from Iwata's background as a developer and from necessity.

In the same way, Nintendo is definitely in for a serious change. But Iwata already got that ball rolling. NX and licensing deals like the Universal park are his babies. Someone else will adopt them, they may be raised differently, but they will still have his genes.

At this point the changes to NX will be next to nothing. A small tweak here or there at the most. We won't see the next presidents vision on hardware until after NX, so we're looking at 2022 or 2023.

I think a successor that matches Iwata's love for fun and creativity is a must. A younger leader, with room to grow and adapt over time would be most beneficial. Someone in their 50s or later would be too well-steeped in the "way things are done", and not ready to face the rapidly changing world of gaming.

Ah but what if a different vision could've given you MORE fun?

As long as their philosophy and the way they make games remains intact, I suppose more powerful hardware wouldn't change that.

Or you can have a console that has both good hardware and good software (ps4 as an example).

The thing is, the controller design, the graphics limitations, the console design, and the online capabilities are all hardware decisions not software decisions. All of the work that goes into this is done by Nintendo's hardware division. Meanwhile all the fun games are being made by the software decision.

so why is the Wii u an issue? Because Nintendo's hardware division invested time and money into a gimmicky tablet over actual next generation specs. Fun games would be made regardless of the hardware, but there is no denying that forcing a gimmick at the expense of a good cpu/gpu has caused major setbacks and limitations to all developers on the Wii u.

hopefully the next CEO sees that decent specs and good development tools should be the main priority over gimmicks