Incoming Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa officially assumed his new role following the company's 78th Annual General Meeting of Shareholders in Kyoto.Furukawa replaces Tatsumi Kimishima, who announced his retirement in April. Kimishima became Nintendo's president in 2015 after the death of Satoru Iwata. He oversaw the launch of the Nintendo Switch in March 2017, which managed to sell over 17 million units its first fiscal year.Furukawa joined Nintendo in 1994 and has served as outside director of the Pokémon Company since...
Nintendo
Shuntaro
Furukawa
President
When he became Nintendo’s sixth president in 2018, Furukawa couldn’t have foreseen the revenue 2020 would bring soon after the Switch’s third anniversary in March, but COVID-19 kept non-essential parents stuck indoors with children to distract. The result: $1.37 billion in operating profit for the April-June quarter, a 428% year-over-year increase, plus a 166% increase in console sales that boosted the Switch past 60 million consoles sold altogether. Given its penchant for family-friendly games and exclusion from the competitive release cycle of PlayStation and Xbox, which both released new consoles in November, it’s no surprise the Switch was the go-to console throughout the pandemic’s start, but the release of “Animal Crossing: New Horizons” in March was also pivotal, selling over 26 million units since launch to become the console’s second most popular title.