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Nintendo President Tatsumi Kimishima to Retire

Nintendo President Tatsumi Kimishima to Retire

By Rishi Alwani | Updated: 26 April 2018 13:59 IST

Highlights

Kimishima to retire on June 28
He will hold an advisory role at the company
Shuntaro Furukawa will take over

Nintendo has announced that its current president, Tatsumi Kimishima will step down from his role leading the company. In his place is Shuntaro Furukawa. He joined Nintendo in 1994 and has worked in global marketing and at The Pokemon Company. Since 2016, Furukawa has been Nintendo’s Managing Executive Officer, Supervisor of Corporate Analysis and Administration Division and Director. The reason for this change isn't due to Nintendo's results, which have been nothing short of stunning. According to a report from the Nikkei (via Kotaku), the 68-year-old Kimishima believed that the company's management needed to be younger to understand its customers. By that yardstick, it makes the 46-year-old Furukawa a decent fit for the role. Kimishima took over the role of Nintendo's president after the untimely demise of Satoru Iwata. He will remain at Nintendo in an advisory role.

Previously, Kimishima was in the news for stating that he wanted the Switch’s lifecycle to be longer than the usual five to six years seen in the video game industry. Sources speaking to The Wall Street Journal claim that the Kyoto-based company will hold off on variations in the Nintendo Switch hardware or 'Switch 2.0' as the publication calls it.

In addition to this, Nintendo revealed that the Nintendo Switch sales stand at 17.79 million sold worldwide since launch during its 2017 fiscal year earnings results with 15.05 million sold during the 2017 financial year. In addition to this, Nintendo Switch game sales have been solid. Super Mario Odyssey sold 10.41 million units, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe: sold 9.22 million units, and Splatoon 2 sold 6.02 million units. Including titles from other game publishers, a total of 12 games selling at least one million have emerged on the Nintendo Switch. The combined software sales results for this fiscal year reached 63.51 million units.

Nintendo Switch Turns One - Should You Buy It Now?

"Consumers have been very receptive to the new concept introduced by Nintendo Switch as a home gaming system that they can take with them to play anytime, anywhere, with anyone, which helped it maintain its favorable momentum during this fiscal year. Looking ahead, we plan to leverage this momentum to reach an even broader range of consumers and expand the installed base of the hardware," the company said in a prepared statement.

"Specifically, we released Nintendo Labo in April as an offering of a new way to play, and then we are slated to release Mario Tennis Aces in June, as well as the latest entry from the popular series, Super Smash Bros. (temp.) within the year. We expect to release several hit titles from other software publishers as well. Then in September, we will begin offering the Nintendo Switch Online paid service to expand the online functionality of Nintendo Switch. Our goal is to take full advantage of the platform by continuously introducing compelling new software while further increasing sales of popular titles that are already in the market."

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