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Forums - Nintendo - Kimishima retires as President of Nintendo

Jon-Erich on 26 April 2018

I remember when Kimishima took the job, they initially said it was temporary, but then they had to backtrack, most likely to ease the concerns of investors over Nintendo's future. When looking for a new president, it seems like Nintendo was looking for someone who had a background in marketing and someone who understood Western markets. Kimishima was this guy, but he was already reaching retirement age and was never meant to be a successor to Iwata. Shuntaro Furukawa seems to have the qualifications Nintendo is looking for and he is far from retirement age. Based on what we know right at least, it seems like Nintendo made the right choice.



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melbye on 26 April 2018
Baddman said:
cool ..also i dont understand why folk are giving kimishima credit for just following the blueprints laid by iwata before his passing

Because he had to execute it. You can plan all you want but things are going to change and evolve over time and that requires someone who knows what he is doing to steer the ship



PwerlvlAmy on 26 April 2018

Looking at the information we have on the new CEO. I'm not seeing the overall qualifications. He can speaking english well? ok. Hes an expert at marketing. Ok. What about his business side. I don't want to see Nintendo go back to the way they were in the last generation. Guess time will tell



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Jumpin on 26 April 2018
GoOnKid said:
Jumpin said:

Furukawa was the next guy up on the totem pole - him, Miyamoto, and Shinya Takahashi were essentially the next three in command - and Miyamoto is just slightly younger than Kimishima.

Furukawa was the likely replacement for Kimishima since he is a lot younger, and basically followed the same career path Kimishima did.

I thought Kimishima came from HR, no?

 

This is their histories with Nintendo. While some of the departments are different, they played similar roles.

Tatsumi Kimishima
January 2002 Appointed as Director of Nintendo of America Inc. (to present)
June 2002 Appointed as Director of the Company (to present)
May 2006 Appointed as Director and Chairman (CEO) of Nintendo of America Inc.
June 2013 Appointed as Managing Director General Manager, Corporate Analysis & Administration Division and General Manager, General Affairs Division June 2014 In charge of Personnel Division September
2015 Appointed as Director and President (to present) Appointed as Representative (to present)

 

Shuntaro Furukawa
April 1994 Joined the Company
May 2012 Outside Director of the Pokémon Company (to present)
July 2015 General Manager, Corporate Planning Department (to present)
June 2016 Appointed as Director (to present) Appointed as Managing Executive Officer (to present) Supervisor of Corporate Analysis & Administration Division (to present) 



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VGPolyglot on 26 April 2018

Oh, so Kimishima's time is going to be called the Age of Ass then?



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160rmf on 26 April 2018
NoirSon said:
160rmf said:
People are putting too much credit on him, the switch turn around was planned and put in execution before his presidency. He just didn't screwed anything and keep the momentum rolling.

In both politics and business,  not messing up what others have set into place is a underrated talent and skill.

True dat. Now reading my post, it sounds way too douche. By no means I am diminishing what Kimishima accomplished with his time as president. What I should have wrote is that people are putting way too much weight on his retirement.



 

 

We reap what we sow

Kai_Mao on 27 April 2018

 

shikamaru317 said:
I really hope the fact that this new guy has Pokemon company experience means that Nintendo will invest more heavily in Pokemon in the future. It's time to fund a proper AAA Pokemon game.

Except that’s what they’re already doing with Game Freak.

as a footnote, I think what’s also lost in the shuffle with all these promotions and retirement is Takashi Tezuka, one of the long-time game developers who is sorta the Luigi to Miyamoto’s Mario, has joined the Board of Directors.



GoOnKid on 27 April 2018
Kai_Mao said:

 

shikamaru317 said:
I really hope the fact that this new guy has Pokemon company experience means that Nintendo will invest more heavily in Pokemon in the future. It's time to fund a proper AAA Pokemon game.

Except that’s what they’re already doing with Game Freak.

as a footnote, I think what’s also lost in the shuffle with all these promotions and retirement is Takashi Tezuka, one of the long-time game developers who is sorta the Luigi to Miyamoto’s Mario, has joined the Board of Directors.

Yes, this is worth noticing.



Cloudman on 27 April 2018

Well, it was fun while it lasted, although his position was only temporary.

I'm a bit surprised Koizumi wasn't given the position, though maybe he's better off being more involved in game development. He's been doing good with that... I do hope he'll keep hosting Nintendo Directs. He's a pretty cool guy.



 

              

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Kai_Mao on 27 April 2018
shikamaru317 said:
Kai_Mao said:

 

Except that’s what they’re already doing with Game Freak.

as a footnote, I think what’s also lost in the shuffle with all these promotions and retirement is Takashi Tezuka, one of the long-time game developers who is sorta the Luigi to Miyamoto’s Mario, has joined the Board of Directors.

I think we'll have to agree to disagree here. In my eyes the Pokemon series has always felt AA. No voice acting, minimal improvements each generation, took them until 2013 to finally go 3D, etc. I was hoping that would change with the upcoming Switch game, but if recent leaks are any indication, the next game is still AA, at least from a graphical standpoint. Hopefully they'll at least make other improvements.

My dream has always been to have a AAA Pokemon game. Open world, or at least substantially bigger routes and cities. Pokemon visible on the open world, replacing the dated random encounter system. At least partial voice acting for main story characters (parents, Professor, rivals, gym leaders, enemy team leader and admins, elite four). Huge leap in graphics with a cell-shaded art-style made to look kind of like the Pokemon anime. New and improved animations for every attack. Unfortunately, at the rate Game Freak improves with each new game, it might be another generation before we even get close to such a game. 

That’s quite a challenge, considering that you have to consider that over 800+ Pokemon have to be animated and modeled into HD, not to mention the potential new Pokemon that are being designed. Plus how to incorporate them into respectable habitats that makes sense to each species. I guess they could start small in terms of number of Pokémon but who knows. As for voice acting, I guess if they have to manage a budget, they could have actors do one liners and grunts. I can see more detailed worlds being possible.