Who shall lead Nintendo?

With the passing of Satoru Iwata, it has shocked and sadden everyone in the game industry as he left a big legacy. Iwata-San was chosen by Yamauchi, who also became the first person that's not part of the Yamauchi clan to run the 100-year old business. The blueprint of the new NX console is already in placed, but who shall now run Nintendo?

Shigeru Miyamoto - Seems like the first choice as he has a history of making every hit titles for Nintendo such as Popeye, the Original Donkey Kong, Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, ect. He was once part of the nomination list in the 2000's but Yamauchi ultimately went with Iwata.

Genyo Takeda - Not much known is about him, but according to SJW site Polygon, he did worked on classic arcade games, such as EVR Race. He was also responsible for the Punch-Out!!! Arcade games as well as Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!! Now, he is along with Shiggy co-running as Interim CEO.

Reggie Fills Aime - It will be strange if they added a Western person on a Japanese traditional company. However, Nintendo is now a Global company and building western relationships with third-party developers is important as well as building trust with a much bigger Western gamers base compared to Japan.

Other - This is where the gamers come in, who do you think is fit to run Nintendo? Give your reasons and explain how he/she can turn the company around.

I think Reggie will be a great choice as we need better leadership in the west, but I think he'll be promoted to CEO in Nintendo of America. There maybe a higher chance that Miyamoto will take over the company.

Was there a similar thread on this already?

Someone new and young.

From what I understand, Morimoto is the frontrunner right now.

I guess I have the free time.

I'm on my way to Japan!!!

Dun worry guyz....I'll get Ninturndo back on track!!!

Knowing how to make good games doesn't necessarily equate knowing how to run a large company well.

Bobby Kotick is probably the best example. Hated by much of the gaming community, but exceptionally good at doing what he does - running a company well, whatever it takes.

Someone new would be the only way of turning Nintendo for the better. If its Reggie... RIP Nintendo.

Reggie would be great, I bet he knows the importance of 3rd party games and proper hardware. He's been just a pawn until now, it would be interesting to see what he would be able to do.

There's no Earthly possibility a Westerner will ever, ever be appointed the CEO's seat of a Japanese company such as Nintendo. It's not going to happen. Miyamoto is a creative minded person at heart and I believe that can become an impediment when ascertaining and addressing foreign markets (which I found to be a flaw of Iwata's leadership), so I don't find him to be a good fit. Takeda, he is the driving force behind their hardware philosophy, which I vehemently disagree with also as I believe this is a technology driven industry. Takeda and Miyamoto are also in their 60s, nearing retirement age so I doubt they desire the responsibility.

I've no idea of specific choices for a CEO, but I can say what I'd like to see in general approach and attitude.

1) first and foremost, I want someone who is willing to bring this company to competition. Who is not afraid to take Sony and MS head-on with all the effort it can muster, because it has the resources and potential to do so. And no, this isn't synonymous with copycatting as many seem to see it. Nintendo can remain different while also deciding to go for the jugular. It would take a few years to get Nintendo back into fighting shape, but I believe it possible.

2) relevant to the above, this requires someone with immense ambition. All due respect to Iwata, I've never felt such complacency and what felt like laziness with Nintendo as I did under his tenure.

3) I want Nintendo to become less conservative. This probably won't happen, but the mini-game shit has got to go. Starfox, one of Nintendo's proudest IPs looks like a budget title, and that's because it is. So does Federation Force, another legendary property relegated to the bargain basement. These games need to be accorded the backing they truly deserve.

Anyways, just a few thoughts.

^ This

Not sure if want Miyamoto. Wouldn't that mean he'd be working on games less?

Miyamoto I think is out of the question. Because I think he said he couldn't see himself as leader.

I think they might pull Satoru Shibata out of Europe and have him take charge. Especially after reading the first part of Mirko's post.

It already happened to Sony. They had a Western CEO before, Howard Stringer. He was Sony's CEO from 2005 to 2012, just before Kaz Hirai took over. But it was during Stinger's era that Sony declined, so that could make other Japanese companies wary.

Good point. This is Nintendo though, a Kyoto based company. Family based and very traditional. I'm hard-pressed to think of another company that takes such pride in their culture and seems to instill it in every aspect of their business and products (for better or worse) as Nintendo does. I'd be shocked if a Westerner was ever even considered, much less chosen.

Too bad about Shenmue. 60 hours to go and still 50k away from 5 mil. Unless someone drops a major bomb, 10 ain't happening. They can make a pretty decent game for that though and perhaps the news about Sony not aiding towards developmental costs isn't entirely accurate. We can hope.

It won't be Miyamoto pretty sure he's said that he just wants to make games nothing else.

They need somebody new and fresh, they desperately need some new, modern ideas

You make a lot of great points, but there is also a logical explanation why Miyamoto might be chosen, but it's his decision to decline.

I’ll let you in on one thing I know: the president needs to be able to travel. This is partially why Yamauchi retired and why a younger Iwata was given the responsibility. Miyamoto travels all the time. That ability to travel may be the most important requirement.

Miyamoto will retire soon. But if you are going to go out, you want to go out on top. Miyamoto has done nearly everything else at the company. Why not be president? The employees would accept it. The investors would be thrilled with it. And the public would love it. Miyamoto is also very good at talking to the press which a president would do often.

It may not be Miyamoto. The business world is about probabilities. The most probable new Nintendo president, from what I know, would be Miyamoto. Yamauchi used to call Miyamoto ‘son’. I don’t see anyone protesting him becoming president. From my limited perspective, he is the most probable successor.

You guys just watch.. Hideo Kojima will be the next CEO of Nintendo!

Someone within the company already with a clear vision. Should be someone no older than their 40's.

Miyamoto has stated a long time ago that he isn't interested in becoming President. He's planning his retirement soon anyways.

Genyo Takedo is in his late 60's. Way too old and set in his ways.

Reggie isn't Japanese, nor can he speak Japanese fluently, so by default he won't be considered.

That is some creative thinking there. The Metal Gear series started on the NES.

True, but then again, I can't remember the last time Bobby Kotick's company made a game that I wanted to purchase. I don't really care about how Nintendo fares as a company. I want them to get somebody who understands games and puts quality of the product above all else.

Correction, it started on the MSX2 computer.

And I want somebody who can understand the different markets across the globe, and that means understanding both Eastern and Western tastes.

I want nothing to do with anyone at NOA. They have refused to publish too many quality games over the years for me to trust them to run the company.

I didn't know that. At least it was on the NES afterwards.

I know it is wishful thinking but deep down inside my heart I feel Kojima is the right candidate for this position :)

Kojima doesn't acknowledge the NES games as being canon to the series. They weren't direct ports of the MSX2 games and he had no input on them at all. He actually despises them.

Kojima would want Nintendo to create very powerful hardware which goes against Nintendo's hardware design philosophies. He would be the total antithesis of Nintendo.

@emgesp: They had always had pretty "strong" hardware before Iwata. Wii and Wii U are the only severely underpowered consoles they made. So it would be more like the "antithesis" of Iwata since that's when that started.

Too bad! We need someone that will run as the CEO of NoA anyways and it looks like it maybe in favor for Reggie.

Ken Kutaragi

Exactly my thoughts .. I think Kojima can guide Nintendo into the correct path of competing against MS and Sony and one of the points to achieve that is by letting the company return to their original ways when they were competing head to head with others in the hardware department ..

Speaking of which they need to fire Reggie.

Cobra commander!

They need to hire someone from outside the company.

They really need to shake things up and that's one of the best ways to do that.

@kenakuma: yeah who better to uphold the values of the company that iwata spent 15 years of his life to than some random suit

If upholding the same values means the continuing plummet of hardware sales and revenue than ok.

What values are you talking about exactly, that's such a broad statement it could literally mean anything and everything Nintendo does/has done. And if upholding some undefined/broad "values" are more important than allowing Nintendo to evolve and grow, than the company is as good as dead.

@kenakuma: what do you think all the plans for the NX and the deal with dena were for? Iwata had that roadmap planned even when he probably knew he didn't have much time left. If anyone takes over it should be someone familiar with how they were planning to do things so the transition is as easy as possible

I'm sure they'll have an interim CEO in place to handle the transition and those two projects seeing fruition and it will be someone from within the company now. But during that time they should be carefully deciding who to hire as the new permanent CEO. They need someone who can bring something new to the table.

the one person i would like to see head up nintendo is michael ancel. he has the right kind of crazy for the job but he also knows the importance of nuts and bolts game mechanics. it could be a breath of fresh air for the company to be led by someone with many of the same values but with a different background. he also has more exposure to the wider industry than many of nintendos higher ups i would imagine. ancel also seems to be very subdued at ubisoft so it could be win win.

0 chance of that happening though.

reggie is unsuitable. he is all about marketing...he has no business leading nintendo. under his reign mario would be absolutely pillaged (seriously....you think its bad now?) and games like xenoblade would not get made. i dont want to see that nintendo.

miyamotos time is, sadly, coming to retirement (another reason to get ancel on board). the NX may very well be the last platform where he is involved. so it would be a short presidency.

i cant really think of anyone else that i would think suitable.

Genya Takeda and Shigeru Miyamoto are both Interim CEO's as of now

....and that's precisely why it's a risk to put a game designer in charge. I wrote a long post about this if you'd like to see it, though it's kind of OT. I'll just take a relevant excerpt:

"Now, presently here you have Iwata and Miyamoto in the highest of executive roles. Both game makers by trade, yet both now for years in positions that are making determinations as to what worldwide audiences desire contingent upon their own biases in how they view game development philosophy. We have had them throughout the years make statements on why they feel their games are 'correct' in their approach to the medium over others in "Ask Iwata's", developer interviews, and in general articles around the net. Miyamoto's articulated his feelings on what he's seen for the past few E3s, going so far in-depth on particular formulas such as cinematic themed games and how he finds them to be a flawed design, for one example."

Miyamoto has himself expressed discontent towards certain game philosophies he disagrees with. Which is his right as a game designer, but that's not his role as a CEO. You do not want someone that is so biased in their creative vision overseeing worldwide markets and making decisions on what type of games they'd like, because worldwide audiences span every taste out there. For one, the market for cinematic games is massive. Miyamoto heavily disagrees with them. Would it be wise to have him at the top?

You know who is recently out of work and probably looking for a cushy director job?

Hideo Kojima

He would shake things up a bit.

Akio Ōtsuka would be a great candidate.

As terrible as him dying was, does anyone think a positive will come from it? Nintendo has been stagnant and stuck in their archaic ways for an extremely long time, do you think that could now change with someone new in charge?

Miyamoto is a creative guy.. that doesnt make him the right person to lead the business side of Nintendo

I'm available. First order of business would be to make all SNES games available on the 3DS for $3.00 each.

Yeah that's what I would've thought...

I can't see him taking over. Doesn't seem like his thing.

They decide this the way the decide everything at Nintendo board meetings: Smash Bros Tournament Mode.

Miyamoto seems to be spiritually best choice- but he is in his 60's and just seems like he wants to be a creator and drift off into retirement. Takeda is also in his 60's...

Who are the other big names? Saturo Shibata? (Nintendo Europe) Satoshi Tajiri? (pokemon)