Nintendo President Re-Elected As Wii U Sales Rise

During Nintendo's annual shareholder meeting overnight, the company re-elected Nintendo president Satoru Iwata to the board of directors. Iwata was not physically present at the meeting, as he's still recovering from a recent surgery that also kept him from attending E3 this month.

The proposal to re-elect Iwata and nine others was approved as originally proposed. In addition to Iwata, iconic Nintendo designer Shigeru Miyamoto, along with Genyo Takeda, Tatsumi Kimishima, Shigeyuki Takahashi, Satoshi Yamato, Susumu Tanaka, Shinya Takahashi, and Hirokazu Shinshi, were re-elected. One additional candidate, Naoki Mizutani, was elected.

Iwata's leadership of Nintendo has not been universally adored, and it's been suggested by some that his job was at risk following Nintendo's third straight annual financial loss this year. At the time, Iwata apologized for the poor performance, but said it did not mean he'd have to leave the company.

Since then, Wii U hardware sales have been on the rise. Marquee first-party racing game Mario Kart 8 launched in late May, selling 2 million units in under a month, and helping hardware sales overall jump by a significant margin, according to Nintendo. Officially, the Wii U has sold 6.17 million units, but that figure is only accurate up to March 31, before Mario Kart 8's release.

Nintendo has a number of other high-profile projects in the works, including Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and 3DS, a toys-to-life initiative called amiibo, and a brand-new Legend of Zelda game launching for Wii U in 2015.