President of Nintendo Retiring

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A new era of Nintendo is beginning. Forbes says that on April 26, 2018, Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima announced that he would retire from the position in June. Kimishima took over as President temporarily in 2015 after the previous president died. Kimishima will be replaced with a younger man, Shuntaro Furukawa, on June 28 of this year.

Satoru Iwata, who died on July 11, 2015 according to Wikipedia, was the President of Nintendo from May of 2002 until Bile Duct Cancer took his life. Iwata starred in multiple Nintendo presentations over the years, and had a part in creating a variety of popular games, his most well-known arguably being the 1995 SNES title Earthbound, which Iwata designed the main character of. Iwata also worked at HAL Laboratory, which is home to the fan-favorite game series known as Kirby. Tatsumi Kimishima (right), who has worked with the Pokemon games for much of his career, then took over temporarily to keep Nintendo afloat while they searched for a new President who could hold the title long-term.

The new president of the company, Shuntaro Furukawa (left), is a mere 45 years old and also has experience with Nintendo. He grew up playing Nintendo games, and eventually started working with Nintendo aiding the creation of Pokemon games. Forbes describes Furukawa’s respect for his peers, saying that “I grew up playing the Famicom and come from that generation. Now as a member of management with Super Mario’s creator Shigeru Miyamoto, I have a lot of respect for him.” Furukawa may appear at Nintendo’s E3 presentation on June 12 this year to make his first official statement to the Nintendo community.

Until June 28, Kimishima will still be the president of Nintendo. After Shuntaro Furukawa assumes the position, Tatsumi Kimishima and Shigeru Miyamoto will be advisers to the new president. Miyamoto will still focus on making games while advising Furukawa on the side.