Top US Nintendo PR exec resigns

Nintendo of America is losing one of its most prominent point people for publicity. Today, the US subsidiary of the Japanese game giant announced that its vice president of corporate affairs, Denise Kaigler, has left the company. Her last day was Friday, November 20. She assumed the position in January 2008 following a major shake-up that saw most of NOA's sales, PR, and marketing teams relocate to New York City and the San Francisco Bay Area.

As a result, many longtime staffers accepted severance packages rather than pull up stakes, including high-ranking executives like Beth Llewellyn, George Harrison, and Perrin Kaplan. Kaigler replaced Kaplan as one of Nintendo's main spokespersons in the US, along with another new hire, executive vice president of sales & marketing Cammie Dunaway. Her first major public appearance was to play Wii Music at Nintendo's presentation at the 2008 Electronic Entertainment Expo (see video below).

"Denise Kaigler has been a valuable part of the Nintendo of America team for the last two years," said Dunaway in a statement. "She's made a personal decision to spend more time with her family in New England. We wish her all the best in this next chapter of her life." Dunaway and her boss, NOA COO and president Reggie Fils-Aime, will remain in their positions, and a successor for Kaigler has not yet been named.

Kaigler's departure comes as Nintendo is facing challenges unprecedented for it in the current-console generation. Sales of the Wii have slowed, causing the company to drop the motion-sensing console's price in September--an initiative which Kaigler helped tout in a GameSpot interview only a few weeks ago.