Last year, Nintendo shared details of a major restructuring that made significant changes to their corporate and R&D sectors. Besides the consolidation of of their hardware and software division, there was an official change of the guard with Genyo Takeda and Shigeru Miyamoto formally vacating their General Manager positions of the hardware and software divisions, in favor of new titles that suggested their focus would narrow on new ventures for the company. NCL President Tatsumi Kimishima elaborated on one of the key focus points of the restructure during the most recent Q&A session held with its investors.
"The ideas of our young employees are also key to our ability to transition to the next generation and to continue to produce exciting ideas. It is important to structure our organization so that these young people can take active roles. We have worked to establish such an organization; one that will allow our employees to reach their full potential in many different areas. It may be difficult to see from outside of the company, but we have made major changes to our organization. For example, our game developers have not had much of a public presence in the past, but we would like to create more and more opportunities for you to get to know them in the future."
While the new heads of development aren't entirely disclosed, we do know some the new R&D managers.
Software Division
Shinya Takahashi - General Manager of all Nintendo Software
Katsuya Eguchi - Deputy Manager of all Nintendo Development Groups, Kyoto Office
Yoshiaki Koizumi - Deputy Manager of all Nintendo Development Groups, Tokyo Office
Hardware Division
Ko Shiota - General Manager of all Nintendo Hardware
Takeshi Shimada - Deputy Manager of Development Technology
Kiyoshi Mizuki - Deputy Manager of Built-in Software
When discussing the ramifications of this restructure and initiative towards software, the biggest immediate difference is that the Wii and 3DS software were primarily orchestrated by Iwata and Miyamoto. Now that responsibility will fall on Takahashi, Eguchi (Wii Sports, Animal Crossing), and Koizumi (Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat, Super Mario Galaxy). They will decided what games are made for the NX and Mobile platforms.