Nintendo president: Tatsumi Kimishima succeeds Satoru Iwata

Nintendo has announced that Tatsumi Kimishima will succeed the late Satoru Iwata as company president. Kimishima was president of Nintendo of America between 2002 and 2006. He will begin his new role on Wednesday 16 September.

The announcement comes two months after the tragic death of Mr Iwata, who passed away on 11 July after complications arose with a tumour on his bile duct. In his stead Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto and Wii hardware designer Genyo Takeda took temporary control of the company.

Prior to his time at Nintendo of America (NoA) Kimishima worked at Japan's Sanwa Bank for three decades. After leaving NoA he was followed by Reggie Fils-Aime, who remains in the job today. Kimishima meanwhile became Chief Financial Officer of The Pokémon Company and later president of their US arm. He has also been Nintendo's Managing Director and is currently Nintendo's Human Resources head.

The announcement was made in a press release on Nintendo's website, which said: "We aim to strengthen and enhance the management structure of the Company following President (Representative Director) Satoru Iwata's passing on 11 July, 2015 and a large-scale revision of the organizational structure of the Company on 16 September, 2015."

Both Miyamoto and Takeda meanwhile are being handed roles as Senior Managing Directors and Representative Directors. Shigeyuki Takahashi, Satoshi Yamato and Shinya Takahashi will become company directors.

Kimishima's arrival in the position during the development of its next piece of dedicated games hardware - codenamed NX - which will be announced properly some time next year. He also arrives as the company embarks into the mobile games market with a partnership with DeNA and other games like Pokémon Go.

Nintendo are looking to turn around their fortunes after the dismal commerical performance of the otherwise fantastic Wii U. The company is far from in trouble, but a turnaround is still needed from the beloved firm.

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