Nintendo Appoints New President

Nintendo has named Tatsumi Kimishima as its new president and successor to Satoru Iwata, who passed away earlier this year.

Kimishima has extensive leadership experience at Nintendo, where his previous roles have included serving as chief financial officer of the Pokemon Company and director of Nintendo of America. He was also the company's managing director and head of human resources for a period.

Before joining Nintendo, Kimishima worked at Sanwa Bank, becoming general manager of one of its branches.

Kimishima's becomes president of Nintendo effective September 16.

In addition to promoting Kimishima to president, new "Fellow" roles have been introduced to serve as a support network for him.

Genyo Takeda, creator of Punch-Out! and current general manager of Nintendo's research and development division has been appointed as a Technology Fellow. Shigeru Miyamoto, creator of Mario and currently general manager of the Entertainment & Analysis division, has taken up the role of Creative Fellow.

Nintendo explains the Fellow as "an individual selected from among the representative directors who has advanced knowledge and extensive experience." This person duties involve "providing advice and guidance regarding organisational operations in a specialised area."

Kimishima takes the role of Nintendo president as the company prepares to debut its next gaming console, codenamed the NX.

Although the hardware was announced in mid-2015, Nintendo said it would not discuss the NX until 2016. At the time, president Satoru Iwata said the NX represented a "new concept." He added the company was not thinking of it as a "simple replacement for" the 3DS or the Wii U.

The decision to announce the project so early was made as a means to affirm Nintendo's "strong enthusiasm for the dedicated game system business."

The NX reveal and Nintendo's desire to reinforce its position may have been a response to fears arising from movement into the mobile game space.

In March 2015, the company announced it had signed a deal with the global mobile games publisher DeNA, which includes the creation of "new gaming applications featuring Nintendo IP, which [both companies] will develop specifically for smart devices."