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| Kimishima Tatsumi (君島達己) |
Earlier
this summer, the president of Nintendou fucking died. His name was
Iwata Satoru, and while he wasn't necessarily the most beloved figure
in the industry it certainly came as a shock. In the wake of this
tragedy, Nintendou took the opportunity to reshuffle its upper-level
management while considering his successor. Yesterdayish, the company
released a statement naming Kimishima Tatsumi as the new head of the
company.
Additionally,
Miyamoto Shigeru has been the recipient of the newly created title of
“Creative Fellow.” Head of Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and
Development (formerly R&D1), ie the section of the company that
actually makes the games, Miyamoto is responsible for Mario, Zelda,
and other masterpieces. The new title seems to indicate more a
recognition of his contributions to Nintendou than any change in his
role within it. (Some fans expressed a desire for him to become
president, which makes no sense. Miyamoto will never be president.
Even if his creative skills were transferrable to the financial side
of the company, if he became president he'd obviously no longer be
making games.) Takeda Genyo, meanwhile, is now a Technology Fellow,
seemingly the hardware equivalent to Miyamoto's software stuff.
“Fellow” is a bit of a weird-ass ingredient to throw into a salad
full of words like “Representative Director,” but oddly enough it
kind of fits with Nintendou's style.
That
said, Kimishima's appointment is the far more interesting and
important part of the announcement. Beginning his career in banking,
he joined The Pokemon Company in 2000. (Not to be confused with Game
Freak, the development studio that actually makes most of the Pokemon
games, The Pokemon Company is mainly concerned with marketing and
licensing the franchise.) He then joined Nintendo of America for
several years before coming back to Japan, where he was responsibly
for various businessy aspects of Nintendou, like Human Resources and
the always nebulous “General Affairs.” Clearly the experience and
the skillset is there; the question now is how he will stack up to
Iwata.
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| Iwata Satoru (岩田聡) |
On
the one hand, Iwata clearly had a deep and abiding love of games,
believed in his company, and at one point appeared willing to take
the fall for lacklustre WiiU sales. He took steps to make himself
appear relatable and accessible to his company's fandom, such as
through Nintendo Direct, where he “directly” addressed fans
(customers) regarding current products and issues. On the other hand,
this also gave some the impression that he was weak and simpering,
and while “Please Understand” was a stupid, lazy meme, it did
represent many people's dissatisfaction with the direction Nintendou
was taking. Meanwhile, Iwata presided over one of the weakest periods
in the company's history, financially and artistically. If you want
to be charitable you can acknowledge that he was facing varied
challenges the best way he knew how, and that shouldering the entire
blame on one person is absurd, but you can't deny his responsibility
for the disappointment.
In
contrast to Iwata's attitude, I see one particular sentiment floating
around the Internet regarding Kimishima: “He's a businessman, not a
gamer.” There's a few things to unpack there. First of all, there's
no doubt that Iwata was a gamer, but in the sense that he lead a huge
business, how exactly was he not a businessman? I guess the answer
would be that he was not a skilled
businessman, or that his attitude towards the business was
insufficiently businesslike. Except, the implication seems to be that
having a gamer leading a games company is good and would naturally
lead to high-quality products, while a businessman will bring us
soulles cash-ins.
Sure,
having a passion for your industry and its products can potentially
be a tremendous asset. One way to put it is that as the head of a
games company, you are in a position to create the kind of games that
you would want to play. Individual tastes and all that, but you can
be reasonably sure that a certain proportion of consumers will nod
right along with you, and that whatever you make, it will at least
have artistic conviction. You may also be better equipped to read the
currents of popular feeling; how often have we heard the complaint
about company executives being out of touch?
However,
I am of the opinion that business acumen is also extremely valuable
to have when conducting business. It's also wrong to say that a lack
of personal interest necessarily equates to a lack of understanding.
Suppose I got hired at P&G tomorrow. As it stands, I do not feel
any deep emotion for household cleaning products, but if it were my
job to know about them, you can bet that for the next few weeks I
would be spending every waking moment learning. I would learn exactly
which chemical compounds are most effective at scouring stains from
carpet and the thought process that goes into Mrs MacMillan's
purchasing decisions when she's at the grocery store. Naturally,
games, which are art rather than science, are that much more
dependent on instinct, but it's not like market analysis has never
steered anybody into a bad business decision, anyway.
Personally,
I'm intrigued. I never got as down on Nintendou as a lot of people
did, because Mario and Zelda are just so much fun. Still, I feel as
though shaking things up like this could really reinvigorate the
company. Surely the gravity of his position is not lost on Kimishima.
In Shadowrun, Nintendou would be an A-ranked corporation at least,
and it is no small fixture of Japanese culture both at home and
internationally. Hopefully we get at least a few good games out of
it.
