With current Nintendo president, Tatsumi Kimishima, set to retire in June the new honcho is looking to come to the head of the prolific gaming company on a high note. in a recent interview with Nikkei, Shuntaro Furukawa laid out his plans for the future of Nintendo.
In short, he wants Nintendo to step into the mobile market like they never have before. Shuntaro Furukawa has big plans for the Japanese company, and it’s all about cutting a slice of the multi-nillion dollar mobile industry popularized by titles like Pokemon Go.
Furukawa congratulated the entire Nintendo family on the success of the spin-off Pokemon Go, but cautioned against being too optimistic in terms of hoping for that kind of bombshell success again. He also admitted that there were no similar title in the works for Nintendo.
Furukawa also said that he wishes to expand the sale of Switch and its titles to a more global scale, like within regions in the Middle East or Southeast Asia. It seems like he wants to get away from the Japanese and Western markets and push for global reach for the company. And given that Chinese markets for mobile gaming rake in billions on their own, it sounds like a pretty good diversification strategy.
The incoming president will likely spend the next year or two reorganizing the dev teams and other aspects of the company to maximize productivity on future projects. So it’s possible we could see some internal restructuring going on at the company in the coming months.
One major change being made focuses on how games are greenlit within Nintendo. While Furukawa didn’t detail how it currently works, the new Nintendo head is changing it so the executive board looks at game ideas and makes the decision on whether the company will proceed with development.
And it isn’t just the mobile scene that’s getting love from Nintendo, Steam recently added support for the Switch Pro controller via a beta release. And with upcoming releases like Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze on the way, the transition looks pretty rosy overall.
Whatever the outcome of the plans being laid by Shuntaro Furukawa, let’s just hope that Nintendo can help upend this current trend of trash mobile games like Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery that are likely just choking cash out of kids with wait timers and bad game design.
