A couple of months ago, the gaming world was shocked by the sudden and tragic death of the legendary Satoru Iwata. The man oversaw Nintendo's resurgence with the DS and Wii, turned the 3DS from a failure to a massive success, and became the celebrated face of the company in the process. We were all saddened to hear of Iwata's passing, and he will not be forgotten.

Following Iwata's death, Shigeru Miyamoto and Genyo Takeda took over his duties on a temporary basis until the company could name a new president. Now Nintendo fans no longer have to wonder who will be leading the company into the future, as a permanent successor to Iwata has finally been named.

Tatsumi Kimishima is the new president and representative director of Nintendo. For those unfamiliar with Kimishima, he has quite an impressive resume, working as CFO for The Pokemon Company to start his career in video games. He was also the first president of Pokemon USA, and he previously served as the president of Nintendo of America from 2002 to 2006 as well.

It was in 2006 that Reggie Fils-Aime replaced Kimishima as president of Nintendo of America, and so Kimishima became CEO and Chairman for the company instead, eventually relinquishing that position to Satoru Iwata in 2013. Kimishima worked in a number of other capacities with Nintendo as well, but these aforementioned job titles are his most significant with the company.

Clearly Kimishima is more than qualified for the job. He has been a prominent figure at Nintendo for well over a decade, with his tenure as Nintendo of America president dating all the way back to the GameCube days. He helped launch the system in North American markets, and with the upcoming launch of the Nintendo NX system on the horizon, Kimishima will no doubt prove to be a valuable asset for the Big N.

Kimishima certainly has big shoes to fill, being the one to succeed Satoru Iwata. It will be interesting to see how Nintendo will change moving forward with Kimishima at the helm, and if he will continue some of the popular traditions started by Iwata. After all, Iwata is the one that spearheaded the popular Nintendo Direct video series, designed to bring the latest gaming news "directly" to gamers, and he also hosted the popular Iwata Asks series, which allowed game developers to speak at length about their latest titles in a more personal manner. Whether or not Kimishima will continue these traditions or forge his own remains to be seen.

The next Nintendo system, codenamed NX, is set to be revealed next year, with a rumored release date of summer of 2016. Between the new console, the continued support of the 3DS and Wii U, and Nintendo's new developments in the mobile space, the company definitely needs a strong leader. Hopefully Tatsumi Kimishima will lead Nintendo to many more years of success.

How do you feel about Tatsumi Kimishima being named the new president of Nintendo?

Source: Game Informer