Tatsumi Kimishima Given Position as President of Nintendo of America

It’s been about two months since Satoru Iwata passed away at the age of 55, a man who helped define Nintendo as a company and a long-time merchant of fun and innocence in its most pure, distilled form. While we miss him dearly, and know he can’t be replaced, inevitably Nintendo has to--they can’t go without a president.

And today, that finally happened. On the 14th of September, Nintendo promoted former head of Nintendo of America Tatsumi Kimishima to the role.

Previously, Tatsumi worked as the top dog at Nintendo of America,  but was soon promoted to president of Nintendo of America, where he worked between 2002-2006. Since then, he’s been Managing Director of Nintendo Co. Ltd, and now he’s going to be the new President.

But here’s where the news gets a little sour: Unlike Mr. Iwata, who was by all accounts a gamer and a coding god, Tatsumi… isn’t. He got his start in banking, and has never once worked on a team of game designers to actually make a game. I don’t know if he enjoys games in his free time, but he certainly doesn’t have the background that Mr. Iwata had, which as part of what made him such an excellent leader.

It’s too early to say if he’ll be a good or bad leader for Nintendo, of course. A man doesn’t need that history in game development to be a good man on top. But he has very big shoes to fill, and the eyes of the gaming world will be watching him very carefully as he takes his first steps.