Nintendo announced today their hiring of former Starbucks vice president of Partner Resources Robyn Corr. As Nintendo of America’s new vice president of Human Resources, she will be responsible for employee welfare, compensation, benefits, recruiting, learning and development, organizational development, payroll and HR systems.

Rather that host a big press conference at E3 like they’ve done in the past, Nintendo wants to scale things back this year and break things down into smaller presentations focused on reaching specific audiences.

Their plan for E3 is to focus mainly on games for the U.S. market. There will be an event directed towards American distributors and a separate, hands-on event for members of the media.

For the Europe, Japan and other markets, Nintendo is planning to use Nintendo Direct as a primary medium of delivering information over the course of the expo.

Nintendo is still looking into ways on how to change their presentation style and will share details as they are decided upon.

Source: Nintendo IR Page

Following an approximate $434 million net loss during the last fiscal year, Nintendo has returned to profitability, albeit well below their estimates.

During the fiscal year ending on March 31, 2013, Nintendo earned a net profit of around $71 million. However, the company was expecting profits of $201 million.

A nearly $366 million operating loss played heavily into Nintendo missing their mark and it can partially be attributed to the sluggish sales of the Wii U. According to Nintendo, the system just wasn’t able to “maintain the initial sales momentum after the beginning of 2013 due to a delay in the development of subsequent software titles.”

For the next fiscal year, Nintendo hopes to make a net profit of $553 million.

Source: Nintendo Investor Relation page

Nintendo of America CEO Tatsumi Kimishima is being promoted to managing director at Nintendo Co., Ltd. in Kyoto, Japan. To fill Kimishima’s vacancy, Nintendo Global President Satoru Iwata will take on his responsibilities.

According to a recent press release announcing the reorganization, Iwata’s new role will “support the company’s unified global strategy, allow streamlined decision making and enhance Nintendo’s organizational agility in the current competitive environment.”

Kimishima will act as general manager of Corporate Analysis and Administration and general manager of the General Affairs Division at NCL beginning this summer. The positions are currently held Yoshihiro Mori and Masaharu Matsumoto respectively, but both will be retiring.

Source: Press Release

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Nintendo of America’s New York division, which is responsible for the operations of Club Nintendo, will be moving to the main offices in Redmond, Washington.

The company will be closing down its Park Avenue offices and moving the remaining staff to a smaller office closer to the Nintendo World Store.

The reason for the move appears to be one of streamlining,

“The Direct Consumer Communications (DCC) team is moving to Redmond headquarters to merge with our Network Business Department (NBD) to provide better digital offerings and services for consumers,” said company spokesperson Charlie Scibetta. “Other Nintendo staff unrelated to DCC will remain in New York in a new office location close to the Nintendo World Store.”

Despite the reorganization, Scibetta said that the move will not have any impact on consumers.

Source: Kotaku

Nintendo’s planning to take their console and handheld divisions and combine them into a new hardware development unit by February 16.

According to a report from Nikkei, which has been confirmed by Nintendo, the new unit will be initially staffed by 130 console and 150 handheld engineers, and work out of a new $340 million facility located next to Nintendo’s Kyoto headquarters. The facility is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

Source: Nikkei [via Engadget]

Nintendo published their financial forecast modifications for the year along with their third quarter earnings report today.

Even though the company saw success with Super Mario 3D Land, Mario Kart 7 and Zelda: Skyward Sword this quarter, stronger-than-expected yen appreciation and revised sales forecasts have caused Nintendo to lower their net sales forecast from 790,000 million yen to 660,000 million yen. Other changes include altering their originally forecasted operating income from a 1,000 million yen gain to a 45,000 million yen loss. The company is also expecting a net loss of 65,000 million yen.

Source: Nintendo Investor Relations page [via Andriasang]

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Nobuo Nagai, senior managing director and representative director at Nintendo, died Sunday after battling with stomach cancer. He was 66 years old.

An employee at the company for nearly 45 years, Nagai joined Nintendo in 1967. He was appointed to senior managing director and representative director in 2004.

While his name isn’t as recognizable as some of his colleagues, Nagai was an important member in the manufacturing of hardware, overseeing progress at Nintendo’s production plant in Uji city.

Japanese newspaper Nikkei reports that a funeral service will be held for Nagai on January 25 in Yamatokōriyama.

Source: Develop, Gamasutra

It was reported that Nintendo, Sony and EA backed out of supporting the Stop Online Piracy Act last week, but it turns out that they never officially endorsed the act in the first place.

The original source letter, which had the three companies listed as supporters, was actually drafted before SOPA came into existence. The companies mentioned in the letter were in favor of legislation similar to what would be later introduced in SOPA, but the fact of the matter is that it wasn’t an endorsement of SOPA itself.

While this revelation means Nintendo, Sony and EA did not specifically state they supported SOPA, it doesn’t change the fact that these companies still support the act as members of the ESA.

Source: Techdirt [via GameInformer]

EA, Nintendo and Sony were among many of the companies listed as being in support of the Stop Online Piracy Act. However, a recent revision to the supporters list no longer has the three companies listed.

While this may seem like the three companies have dropped their support for SOPA, they are still members of the Entertainment Software Association, a group that supports the act. So, unless the ESA drops its support for SOPA, EA, Nintendo and Sony are still in favor of the act. Indirectly.

In the wake of the backlash over GoDaddy.com’s support for SOPA, I’m surprised there are still companies associating themselves with the act. Protecting your interests means nothing, if you’ve alienated all of  your customers.

Source: Electronista, Destructoid