Tatsumi Kimishima is the new President of Nintendo, and with his new position comes a great deal of change and restructuring. Although Kimishima says to Nikkei (Japanese publication) that Nintendo will be staying the course laid out for the company by the late Mr. Iwata, it’s hard not to see the massive impact this restructuring will have on the company and the products.
Kimishima has organized the company into three main divisions:
Platform Technology Development Division – Harware, Operating Systems, techy stuff.
Entertainment Planning and Development Division – Combines two previous game development divisions into one to focus on making games.
Business Development Division – Oversees the management of gaming systems, smartphones, and IP licensing.
You may be wondering what is happening to Miyamoto and Takaeda. Miyamoto will be a “Creative Fellow” and Takaeda a “Technology Fellow.” Nintendo classifies a Fellow as, “An individual selected from among the Representative Directors who has advanced knowledge and extensive experience, and holds the role of providing advice and guidance regarding organizational operations in a specialized area.”Â
While it’s a little uncomfortable to see Miyamoto stepping into more of a consulting role, it’s probably best for the company as a whole to see this shakeup. Miyamoto really shouldn’t have been in charge of the systems. He needs to focus on bringing us the games we didn’t know we wanted.
Looking at Kimishima it’s hard not to think he looks a little grumpy compared to Iwata. I’m pretty sure we won’t see Kimishima stepping out on the stage (or I guess the Nintendo Directs these days) with a big smile on his face. He looks like he’s all business. As much as I want to think of the core team at Nintendo as being all fuzzy and huggable and fun, they do need a healthy dose of change and to get back on track with making the company more, as Kimishima says, Nintendo-like again.
I hope this means we see less gimmicky weirdness from Nintendo and a return to serious core IPs that this company was founded upon. I want to see a major emphasis on system development that doesn’t lag behind the competition. I’d love to see their online play move beyond the 90’s lobby system. I want the see Mario, Zelda, and the other big franchises take major steps forward rather than fun and innovative changes to the already established norms. I think it’s possible that Kimishima could be the best thing to happen to Nintendo. Here’s hoping. Good luck, Mr. Kimishima!
I really think they need to ditch home consoles (so far theyve dropped the ball twice) and stick with the 3ds and making software.
How much money would they make with mario and zelda on xbox/ps4? Especially since they have so much more than a wii/wiiu.
On one hand I agree. I think they should focus entirely on making games. Their home consoles haven’t been at the same caliber in some respects.
On the other hand, I think their consoles dare to do things (and do them well) that the other home consoles don’t. For example, Nintendo has made their consoles about the experience of gaming — more specifically the experience of gaming as a family and a culture of being young at heart. THe other consoles, namely Xbox, fall victim to marketing themselves as the “entertainment hub of the home” and not pleasing gamers at all. Would Nintendo games even make sense on that system? No.
Would Nintendo’s core demographic even buy an Xbox? I don’t know about that either.
It’s hard to say Nintendo dropped the ball with the Wii, it made them boatloads. The Wii U has been less successful, but it’s still making money for the company and it does mean they need to refocus a bit there.
Wii succeeded in an awkward way, though. It didn’t succeed from advancing their games but rather their innovation on the technology. The reason the Wii U is less successful is because they’re turning into a one-trick pony.
Like Keen says the Wii succeeded because of the new technology but also that the new tech appealed to a whole new demographic. It was not just gamers who bought it. It became a family gaming system. My wife who does not play games loves our Wii. It is a lot of fun to play with other people. We never purchased the Wii U since we did not see a huge upgrade in games that my family would play together.
Yep, I can remember many times from 2006-2011 when I would walk into a home of people who were not gamers at all and see a Wii on their entertainment unit shelf. Every time I comment the people are like, “Ah yeah we got it for the kids. We do bowling as a family.” I smile and nod like that’s why I own one too.
The Wii did this huge detour and swept in a huge grouping of people who were not gamers, got them to buy the console and a family-oriented game or two (many probably do not realize there’s more than you can do than play Wii Sports Resort that came with it) and never touch it again. Ask them why they didn’t buy a Wii U and they’ll likely say, “Oh that thing. Yeah we used that a few times. I don’t see a need for another one.”
Interesting note: Kimishima is on record for having said the same thing about the Wii U during its development.
I suspect “fellow” in this case means, we don’t like to fire people so he has this really cool job over here now. Not extremely relevant to anything else.
But then again I only spent about 5 years specializing in Japanese business so maybe I read that wrong.
I’ve spent 0 years studying Japanese business (though I did take a semester studying many Japanese quality systems). The Japanese culture is awesome when it comes to business. Anyway, I have no experience and it’s clear this is an “it’s time to move aside” move. I think it’s necessary.