Satoru Iwata named Nintendo of America CEO

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has expanded his duties to head up Nintendo of America.

Iwata will take over the Nintendo of America CEO role from outgoing Tatsumi Kimishima, who is being promoted to general manager of parent company Nintendo Co. Ltd pending shareholder approval.

Nintendo of America president and COO, Reggie Fils-Aime, will report to Iwata.

Nintendo hopes the move will allow the company to more easily share a global business strategy for the Wii U and 3DS. Speaking in a statement, the publisher said it hopes to increase its "organisational agility in the current competitive environment."

Sales of the 3DS and in North America and Europe have failed to match the success seen in Japan, and Nintendo is also gearing up to a vital E3 showing where it will attempt to entice customers worldwide to adopt its Wii U hardware.

Kimishima's new role is expected to begin from this summer, where he will relocate from Redmond to Nintendo's headquarters in Japan. He was promoted to CEO of Nintendo of America in 2006.

Nintendo today announced it has returned to profit despite weak sales of the Wii U.