It’s been a couple of weeks since the passing of Nintendo’s legendary president Satoru Iwata, and we are still no closer to knowing exactly who his official successor will be. For a while, there was a rumour that Nintendo’s pioneering game developer Shigeru Miyamoto, who is currently jointly presiding over the company while the search for an official successor continues, will be taking over the company. Now, it seems, that will not be the case.
People close to the matter say that this is unlikely to happen, owing to a combination of various factors. “Although it would be a romantic dream to have the company led by the father of Mario, I think Takeda-san has more corporate experience and really understands hardware; it was he who argued for a new interface for the Wii rather than just a faster Gamecube with better graphics,” said Nick Parker of Parker Consulting.
Dr. Serkan Toto, a mobile games industry analyst, is of the same opinion. “Iwata-san was apparently a very capable programmer and turned out to be a great leader overall. Nintendo is the most iconic game maker in the world that (at least in Japan) attracts the top talent in gaming; [it] might have people like him in the work force who could follow in Iwata’s foot steps.”
“Takeda, who helped Punch-Out and StarTropics, was one of the main developers on the Wii, and has a similar trajectory in the company as Iwata. Takeda is likely a lead candidate for the job. Nintendo also has a number of executives on its board of directors who also could step up into the spot.”said Mike Schramm of Electronic Entertainment Design and Research.
As of right now, we still don’t know who the successor is slated to be, and given that the company itself is still in a state of mourning, actually expecting them to make an announcement is just a bit insensitive. Nonetheless, for people invested in the future of the company, it is an important question that merits an answer sometime soon. We’ll keep you posted.
[Thanks GamesIndustry]
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