During a Q&A meeting with investors, Nintendo’s president Tatsumi Kimishima elaborated on one of the key focus points of the restructure. According to Mr Kimishima, Nintendo is planning to put a lot of their younger talent in lead positions and have them be at the forefront of the upcoming Nintendo NX platform and for the development of mobile games as well.
If this move is done right, this could definitely bring a new light in terms of content and direction to Nintendo, a move that it desperately needs to recapture the audience that it has lost due to Nintendo’s own conservative approach to video games and also heated competition from Sony and Microsoft.
This is what Mr Kimishima had to say to the investors during the Q&A:
“The ideas of our young employees are also key to our ability to transition to the next generation and to continue to produce exciting ideas. It is important to structure our organization so that these young people can take active roles. We have worked to establish such an organization; one that will allow our employees to reach their full potential in many different areas. It may be difficult to see from outside of the company, but we have made major changes to our organization. For example, our game developers have not had much of a public presence in the past, but we would like to create more and more opportunities for you to get to know them in the future.”
While the new heads of development aren’t entirely disclosed, we do know some the new R&D managers.
Software Division
Shinya Takahashi – General Manager of all Nintendo Software
Katsuya Eguchi – Deputy Manager of all Nintendo Development Groups, Kyoto Office
Yoshiaki Koizumi – Deputy Manager of all Nintendo Development Groups, Tokyo Office
Hardware Division
Ko Shiota – General Manager of all Nintendo Hardware
Takeshi Shimada – Deputy Manager of Development Technology
Kiyoshi Mizuki – Deputy Manager of Built-in Software
When discussing the ramifications of this restructure and initiative towards software, the biggest immediate difference is that the Wii and 3DS software were primarily orchestrated by Iwata and Miyamoto. Now that responsibility will fall on Takahashi, Eguchi (Wii Sports, Animal Crossing), and Koizumi (Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat, Super Mario Galaxy).
Source – Neogaf
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