Nintendo has promoted managing director Tatsumi Kimishima to be the games giant’s new CEO, taking over the role from long-time chief executive Satoru Iwata, who died in July.
Executive directors Genyo Takeda and Shigeru Miyamoto had been running the business following Iwata’s death.
Miyamoto, the man behind hit franchises Donkey Kong, Mario and Zelda, had been tipped for the role but Nintendo instead picked the lower profile former banker Kimishima.
The appointment is effective from September 16 while Takeda and Miyamoto will continue in their current posts, the company said in a statement.
Kimishima, who joined Nintendo in December 2000, takes over as the company continues to develop new mobile games based on its classic video game characters – a move Iwata had announced in March.
