Do we know anything about that large-scale corporate restructuring mentioned in the press release?
According to the old and new titles, the following seems to be happening:
– Miyamoto is stepping down from his managerial role at EAD towards a purely advisory role on the board of directors. No successor has been announced.
– Same for Takeda who is stepping down as general manager of the IRD division. No announcement of a successor here as well.
– Are EAD and SPD (and IRD?) being merged? Because Shinya Takahashi seems to have gotten a BIG promotion from General Manager of SPD to General Manager of an apparently new division called “Entertainment Planning & Development Division” – which could be the name for the newly merged Entertainment & Analysis Development and Software Planning & Development divisions. This would be pretty big news. After all, he takes over Miyamoto’s old managerial position while, at the same time, remaining the boss of the other major game development division within Nintendo.
– Also, Takahashi has been appointed as supervisor of the “Business Development Division”. Another new division? Something along the line of Iwata’s Corporate Planning Division (of which he was the general manager in the years before he became president), perhaps?
If you ask me, Takahashi is the crown prince in this arrangement. He’s being groomed to take over in a few years, while Miyamoto and Takeda are slowly stepping back and settling in a purely advisory role until their eventual retirement. Kimishima is taking the reins in the meantime as the more experienced manager for the next couple of years (until after the NX launch, etc.). Just my two cents on the matter.
