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Farewell Mr. Kimishima

Hyrulian Hero

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https://kotaku.com/nintendo-is-getting-a-new-president-1825557273/amp

Nintendo has a long track record of presidents who held the title for decades, a fact which I believe likely plays into their success as a company. When Kimishima became Nintendo's President following Iwata's passing, I was worried about his advanced age. Not that there's anything wrong with being old, but Nintendo is known for holding out against technological and commercial advances at times and people often become more conservative with age.

Then he blew me away. He oversaw the greatest rise in Nintendo profits in a decade and saw Nintendo (at least as a figurehead) launch the Switch. I've been impressed with what Nintendo's done the past few years and there's no way Kimishima was entirely separated from that. Then to voluntarily step down, knowing that the company needs fresh blood, the man is honorable. Though his time as head of Nintendo was short, he has been integral to their success and I'm grateful. Thank you, Tatsumi Kimishima.
 
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Mar 26, 2018
I'm a bit disappointed they didn't pick someone like Iwata, who had a history of actually making games, but Furukawa has a good background for the position and his age and years outside of Japan make me hopeful for his ability to make the company more open-minded about the western market and honestly anything having to do with the internet. The inability to handle online services well is probably Nintendo's biggest failing.

And yes, mad props to Kimishima for handling the Switch so well to get the company back into the public's good graces. Iwata and his team were responsible for the console itself, of course, but the marketing was all during Kimishima's tenure and he would have been overseeing it very carefully after the PR cluster**** of the Wii U.
 
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The guy was a business man first, which I believe greatly helped the Switch be such a huge success right out of the gate. I hope that future CEOs realize this, and keep in mind that yes, it's okay to be fun and playful, but there's a business side of things that needs to be an aspect in higher-up decision making.
 
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The man was a craftsman and an artist and helped save Nintendo from the insanely greedy antics of the Iwata-era.... so it's a real bummer that he's going but maybe all this instability will convince Nintendo that the next person should be someone with more of an artistic impulse.

I mean it's really sad that Iwata died of all things, but he was a programmer and as a CEO he prioritized money in a way that was reminiscent of American CEOs.

Also can never forget that 2DS price drop that happened the brief period Miyamoto was basically in control.. that was great.
 

Bowsette Plus-Ultra

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A businessman was what Nintendo needed in a post-Wii U era.

Until the Switch, Nintendo's home console sales were struggling. Given how poorly the Wii U fared against even the Wii, I thought Nintendo would consider dropping out of the console race. While having creative idealism is all fine and dandy, it takes more than that to make a company successful.

I have a feeling that when Tatsumi Kimishima stepped in as company president, he decided that the next Nintendo console would eschew everything the Wii U stood for and stand as a solid gaming system. It needed to be a good console with new ideas, but it also needed to be taken seriously. For that, I'm thankful. If not, we might have seen the Wii Too or something equally dumb.
 
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Joined
Mar 26, 2018
A businessman was what Nintendo needed in a post-Wii U era.

Until the Switch, Nintendo was struggling. Given how poorly the Wii U fared against even the Wii, I thought Nintendo would consider dropping out of the console race. While having creative idealism is all fine and dandy, it takes more than that to make a company successful.

I have a feeling that when Tatsumi Kimishima stepped in as company president, he decided that the next Nintendo console would eschew everything the Wii U stood for and stand as a solid gaming system. It needed to be a good console with new ideas, but it also needed to be taken seriously. For that, I'm thankful. If not, we might have seen the Wii Too or something equally dumb.

I've seen a lot of people speculating that Nintendo may have considered dropping out of the console market after the Wii U but the idea was preposterous from the get go. You have to remember that Nintendo had just come off of five years of excellent profits thanks to the Wii and DS. Their operating profit from FY2007-2011 was roughly 1.75 trillion yen*. Even though they were in the red for three years (FY2012-2014) they only lost 14.5% (~120 billion yen**) of the Wii/DS era profits. Those three years combined don't even exceed the profits earned in the single year prior (~171 billion yen***).

Nintendo was never in any danger and they had tons of money to pour into new projects. But people love to jump to conclusions and doomsay, facts be damned.

As for Kimishima steering the Switch in a less..."Wii U" direction, my understanding is that the console was mostly finalized when Kimishima took over. He's absolutely responsible for the excellent marketing though and that's just as vital as designed a solid machine.

* 15.77 billion USD
** 1.08 billion USD
*** 1.54 billion USD
 

Bowsette Plus-Ultra

wah
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I've seen a lot of people speculating that Nintendo may have considered dropping out of the console market after the Wii U but the idea was preposterous from the get go. You have to remember that Nintendo had just come off of five years of excellent profits thanks to the Wii and DS. Their operating profit from FY2007-2011 was roughly 1.75 trillion yen*. Even though they were in the red for three years (FY2012-2014) they only lost 14.5% (~120 billion yen**) of the Wii/DS era profits. Those three years combined don't even exceed the profits earned in the single year prior (~171 billion yen***).

Nintendo was never in any danger and they had tons of money to pour into new projects. But people love to jump to conclusions and doomsay, facts be damned.

As for Kimishima steering the Switch in a less..."Wii U" direction, my understanding is that the console was mostly finalized when Kimishima took over. He's absolutely responsible for the excellent marketing though and that's just as vital as designed a solid machine.

* 15.77 billion USD
** 1.08 billion USD
*** 1.54 billion USD

I'd like to correct myself.

I didn't mean to say that Nintendo was in danger as a company due to the Wii's failure, but their future as a home console manufacturer was certainly in danger.
 
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Even then I'm not convinced. They started turning a profit (albeit small) again in 2015, before any real information on the Switch was out there and even with resources devoted to the Switch's design and production still had a healthy chunk of money to fall back on.

Now if the Switch had ended up as the Wii U 2.0, I'd be inclined to agree with you.
 

Hyrulian Hero

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Even then I'm not convinced. They started turning a profit (albeit small) again in 2015, before any real information on the Switch was out there and even with resources devoted to the Switch's design and production still had a healthy chunk of money to fall back on.

Now if the Switch had ended up as the Wii U 2.0, I'd be inclined to agree with you.
Not that I have much of an opinion on any of this but is it at all possible that Nintendo made any other changes in '15? Didn't they sell the Mariners close to then? I mean, an increase in profit doesn't necessarily mean an increase in sales. Of course, it totally might.
 

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