Satoru Iwata To Become Nintendo of America CEO

[Karloff]

Satoru Iwata To Become Nintendo of America CEO

Iwata's hoping to streamline decision making, possibly by getting closer to Reggie Fils-Aime.

Satoru Iwata will become CEO of Nintendo of America, replacing current CEO Tatsumi Kimishima, who gets a kick upstairs to general manager of the General Affairs Division. This means, among other things, that Iwata will be working directly with President and COO Reggie Fils-Aime, who now reports directly to Iwata.

This announcement comes on the heels of a return to profit for Nintendo, despite a lacklustre performance from the Wii U, which has only sold 390,000 units since Christmas. Net income for the year ending March 31st, 2013 [http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/pdf/2013/130424e.pdf] was ¥7,099 million ($71.3 million), a considerable improvement on the ¥43,204 million loss posted in the last financial year. To improve the Wii U's sales performance, Nintendo's report indicates it intends to concentrate on "proactively releasing key Nintendo titles from the second half of this year through next year in order to regain momentum for the platform."


The announcement of Satoru Iwata's move to take personal control of Nintendo of America was described, in Nintendo's press release, as a move intended to "allow streamlined decision making and enhance Nintendo's organizational agility in the current competitive environment." It made a specific point of mentioning that Reggie Fils-Aime will continue in his current role, though clearly Iwata intends to keep a close eye on developments in the North American division.

Source: Nintendo Life [http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2013/04/satoru_iwata_taking_over_ceo_role_of_nintendo_of_america]


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[EstrogenicMuscle]

possibly by getting closer to Reggie Fils-Aime.

Do you hear that? That's the sound of Iwata x Reggie fanfiction increasing.

So I do wonder what is actually going to change. I hope maybe more localizations? Something?

I guess I'll settle for Iwata and Reggie slash fiction.

 

[Andy Shandy]

I guess I'll settle for Iwata and Reggie slash fiction.

IwataxReggie?

Anyway, I'm hoping this is good news for Nintendo, but I'm not sure how much it will change anything, if any.

 

[Dr.Awkward]

Remember when Iwata was a programmer? Weren't those some great days back then?

(Really, who decides to promote a programmer to CEO of a big pub/dev in the first place?)

 

[Canadamus Prime]

Is it just me or does a bureaucrat taking more direct control of things seem like a bad idea?

 

[Colt47]

Well, given current trends I'm starting to think that Nintendo could survive the apocalypse. One of the big three actually making a profit? On the other hand I think most of their profit is from the 3ds, as I can't imagine their Wii U is doing too well.

 

[Sean951]

Well, given current trends I'm starting to think that Nintendo could survive the apocalypse. One of the big three actually making a profit? On the other hand I think most of their profit is from the 3ds, as I can't imagine their Wii U is doing too well.

Doesn't matter, made money.

 

[Scribblesense]

This should mean that Japan and America should be getting the same amount of attention from Nintendo (no more Operation Rainfall, no more decade-long waits for Virtual Console releases), and overall more simultaneous worldwide launches.

Also, it's possible that Nintendo's relationships with western third-parties could improve, if Iwata devotes NoA's resources to courting them as well as he's courted studios in Japan.

I see this as a push for the core audience they tried to attract with the Wii U; Nintendo showing greater interest in the west is a good show of faith. Iwata immersing himself in western culture should mean he can better appeal to that audience in the future and possibly tailor more Nintendo games to their tastes, or at least consider their desires.

We could see a return to the glory days of NoA in the SNES/N64 era, where they actively sought out studios and brought their talent to the platform, Rare being the most infamous.

The Japanese home console market is shrinking, believe it or not; I see Nintendo's strategy to strengthen the home console market in NA as a way to revitalize their internal efforts going forward. This is nonetheless a huge risk, but then Iwata has been known for taking Nintendo in bold new directions. They pay off sooner or later, but seeing as he's taken the personal responsibility of posting a $1 billion USD profit by the end of this fiscal year, he can't afford for it to pay off later.

 

[Teoes]

Meanwhile Capcom are shrieking "What is this I don't even" at Nintendo and trying to convince them that they should be pulling out of that stupid Western market; not getting closer to it!

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

Meanwhile Capcom are shrieking "What is this I don't even" at Nintendo and trying to convince them that they should be pulling out of that stupid Western market; not getting closer to it!

uh, that CAPCOM statement was them saying they were pulling back on outsourcing games to the West, not pulling out of the western market (which would be STUPID).

Anyway, not only has Iwata NOT resigned like some people have demanded, he's only gotten stronger. Good, he's probably the best CEO they've had in decades. Nintendo press releases also said they'd be releasing new installments in the Mario and Mario Kart series this year

 

[Covarr]

Since Reggie and Kimishima were too busy sitting on their hands to actually take any risks like ACTUALLY RELEASING GAMES, this can only be a good thing.

P.S. Thanks

 

[Terramax]

I see this as a push for the core audience they tried to attract with the Wii U; Nintendo showing greater interest in the west is a good show of faith.

I think it's less about faith, and more 'reliance'. The Wii U is tanking even in Japan, hence Nintendo can't even fall back on profits from their home turf.

Profits need to be made somewhere, and this is an indication they want to emphasis more effort on Western audiences more than before. Perhaps, also, he's going to attempt to patch things up with Western devs that appear to have forsaken the console.

 

[KoudelkaMorgan]

When I saw the title I was hoping this meant Reggie was stepping down, but I was mistaken in thinking he was the CEO of NoA.

I like Reggie as a person, but I have watched this company tank dramatically under his watch. I remember when Nintendo had trouble getting 3rd party support on the last several consoles, but these days its barely getting any 1st party titles out either.

Games are released that either underwhelm (to put it mildly) like Other M, or get passed over like Fatal Frame 3, Mother 3, and the Operation Rainfall set.

I'd like to be psyched about the Link to the Past sequel, but after looking at an extended demo of it I just couldn't ignore how unbelievably easy and dumbed down it looks. For an all new game it sure seemed like it was The Tower of Hera designed for 4 year olds. I mean it probably is designed for kids obviously, but that seems odd to release a direct sequel to one of your most popular games soooo long after its initial release and then gut any form of challenge from it so that the DESCENDANTS of the original fans can jump right in with a seemingly inferior experience.

Just from judging a direct comparison of the Tower of Hera shown in both titles. The newer one seems to have shrunk in diameter considerably as every floor is one small room encircled by a few floating platforms on the exterior. No puzzles, barely any enemies, all items sharing a recharging stamina/magic meter, and the exact same boss as the original. Only falling off no longer resets the fight, you can pop back up and finish off his completely recycled ass.

Mainly it just pisses me off when I can play fan made quests on Zelda Classic with exponentially greater challenge, cleverness, and obvious effort put into them than Nintendo's newest Zelda titles.

 

[hickwarrior]

Mainly it just pisses me off when I can play fan made quests on Zelda Classic with exponentially greater challenge, cleverness, and obvious effort put into them than Nintendo's newest Zelda titles.

LEt's hope that demo is indicative of the first 1 or 2 dungeons. Otherwise, we have a New Legend of Zelda every half year.