Last week, Nintendo officially had a changing of the guard as it were, as Shuntaro Furukawa was given control of Nintendo as its president. He replaced Tatsumi Kimishima, who had been serving as President ever since the death of Mr. Satoru Iwata. Furukawa’s appointment to President of the company is seen as an “infusion of youth”, as he’s not even forty years old. But, in several messages he’s given to the public, and to shareholders, he’s made it clear that he has the business side of Nintendo on his mind.
In a newly released statement, Shuntaro Furukawa had this to say about the goals of Nintendo with him at the helm:
We want to continue being a company that creates entertainment to bring smiles to people’s faces. We also want to expand the number of people who have access to Nintendo IP; in other words, we want more people to have access to the characters and worlds from games created by Nintendo, and thereby raise the corporate value of our business.
A worthy goal, and one that fits what Nintendo has been trying to do in recent years. Between a theme park going up, a Mario movie being made by Illumination, and more, Nintendo has been expanding their visibility.
But, don’t think that Furukawa isn’t focused on the video game side of things too, for he noted this:
Within our dedicated video game platform business, we will continue our efforts to introduce an even wider range of consumers to the unique appeal of Nintendo Switch, which can be played anytime, anywhere, with anyone. We will likewise work to continue providing software that can be enjoyed by a variety of consumers. In addition, we will work toward strengthening our digital business and building longer-term relationships with consumers through services such as Nintendo Switch Online.
We’ll have to see if Shuntaro Furukawa lives up to his words.
