Tatsumi Kimishima (born April 21, 1950 in Tokyo) is the fifth and current president of Nintendo. He was formerly the president of Nintendo of America from January 2002, succeeding Minoru Arakawa, until Reggie Fils-Aimé took his place in May 2006. He was promoted to Managing Director of Nintendo on April 2013. On September 16, 2015, he was named the fifth President of Nintendo, succeeding Satoru Iwata, who died in July 2015.
Employment:
Sanwa Bank:
Kimishima worked for 27 years for Sanwa Bank. Kimishima dealt with corporate planning, international business development, corporate communications and promotions.
During his 27-year tenure at Sanwa Bank, Kimishima was posted in New York, New York, USA; Los Angeles, California, USA; San Francisco, California, USA; Central America; and the Caribbean.
Nintendo:
The Pokémon Company:
Kimishima was The Pokémon Company's Chief Financial Officer. He was appointed in 2000.
Pokémon USA Inc.:
In 2001, Kimishima was appointed president of Pokémon USA Inc.
Pokémon games:
During Kimishima's time working at Pokémon USA Inc. from 2000 to 2002 there was a release of popular Pokémon games that found their ways onto the market and into the homes of consumers. On October 15, 2000 in North America Pokémon Gold and Silver were both released on the Game Boy Color. The Pokémon game known as Pokémon Crystal was released on July 29, 2001 also for the Game Boy Color.
Nintendo's shuffling of executive staff;
After the release of the GameCube in 2001, President of Nintendo since 1949, Hiroshi Yamauchi felt that it was the right time to step down from his position.[9] His son-in-law, Minoru Arakawa, took over the role as President of Nintendo in America but retired only one year later in 2002. Nintendo, after the release of the GameCube, found themselves in third place to Sony's PlayStation 2 and Microsoft's Xbox in relation to sales. Some would even consider the introduction of this new gaming platform as a failure, especially when compared to Nintendo's dominance in the late 80's and early 90's. Yamauchi appointed Tatsumi Kimishima to become President of Nintendo of America in 2002. He was previously working as the head of Nintendo's Pokémon division. Four years after Kimishima's promotion he was promoted again, but this time to the position of Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board. Kimishima still watches over the management of Nintendo of America to ensure continued success of the company. He serves as President of Nintendo Co., LTD.
Time at Nintendo (2002–present):
After the GameCube's release it was a struggle for Nintendo to create something new and innovative. Many gamers were worried about Nintendo slipping, thinking that the company now only made games for children excluding the hard core gamers that the company had possessed once before. However, this negative attitude didn't stop the company and under Kimishima's leadership Nintendo achieved great success after the release of the Wii in November 2006. The company was gearing up for the holiday shopping season and the Wii was quickly sold out around the world. As of September 2012, the Wii had put Nintendo back on top in the video game world due to total units sold amounting to 97.18 million. At this time, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 possessed similar sales of 70 millions units sold. Under Kimishima's leadership the company was able to relive the success that it had in the late 80s and early 90s. In April 2013, he was promoted to Managing Director of Nintendo Co., Ltd., and Satoru Iwata took his place as CEO of Nintendo of America. On September 16, 2015, after the death of Iwata in July 2015, Kimishima was named President of Nintendo. On May 15, 2016, Kimishima announced that Nintendo are going to start their own film production and are looking for filmmakers for their projects.