Nintendo Undergoes Corporate Restructuring To Deal With Iwata's Passing

Following the sudden passing of Nintendo's CEO, Satoru Iwata, the company has been undergoing a restructuring in order to fill the void he left behind. Although Nintendo hasn't announced a new CEO yet, it has installed Tatsumi Kimishima as a new Representative Director President, and instituted a board of Representative Directors to take over most of Iwata's former duties.

Kimishima has worked for Nintendo for a number of years now. In December 2000, he became the Representative Director for one of Nintendo's subsidiaries, The Pokemon Company. Two years later he would transition to Nintendo Of America Inc., and would serve as the company's director.

In May 2006, Kimishima was made Nintendo's CEO, while also maintaining his position as director. In June 2013, Kimishima stepped down as CEO to take on several other management level positions including Managing Director, General Manager of Corporate Analysis & Administration Division, and General Manager of General Affairs Division. At this time, Iwata took over the position of CEO.

In June 2014, Kimishima again took on extra responsibilities, taking control of the Human Resources Division, while maintaining all previous positions with the exception of CEO. As an individual of such high standing within Nintendo, during the corporate restructuring, the company opted to grant him the position of Representative Director President.

In this new position, Kimishima will serve beside Genyo Takeda and Shigeru Miyamoto on a three-person board devised to split Iwata's responsibilities as CEO between them. Genyo Takeda and Shigeru Miyamoto were also granted the titles of Technology Fellow and Creative Fellow, respectively.

These titles help to signal the key areas of the business wherein each man will take control. Naturally, Shigeru Miyamoto will take charge of the development of Nintendo's first-party gaming IP. Genyo Takeda, who is also the general manager of Nintendo's Integrated Research & Development Division, will oversee the development of the hardware technologies used inside of Nintendo's game consoles. For his part, Kimishima will preside over the administrative side of the company.

In this way, the three men are capable of taking on the bulk of Iwata's responsibilities, with each one gaining control of the aspect of the business for which they are best suited.

With these new appointments, Nintendo effectively now has three CEOs with a wide variety of expertise, instead of just one.

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