Seems like change is afoot once again at Nintendo of America. That’s because Doug Bowser has now announced his retirement as president of Nintendo of America, starting effective December 31st. Here’s the announcement he made about it on Twitter:
Today, I announced my plan to retire from Nintendo, effective December 31, 2025. Nintendo has been an integral part of my life for 44 years, starting with Donkey Kong Arcade as a kid in college. It has been an honor to contribute to this incredible company and bring our beloved… pic.twitter.com/nIzCnHjQ9E
— Doug Bowser (@thetruebowser) September 25, 2025
As well as the official documentation from Nintendo’s corporate site:
Announcement of Personnel Changes (Nintendo Website)
As you can see, the Nintendo of America president role is being handed over to Devin Pritchard, while the CEO of the subsidiary is being passed to Satoru Shibata, aka the current president for Nintendo of Europe.
Of course, this may raise a few questions as to what Doug’s legacy is at the company. After all, he joined partway through the Switch era, and is leaving at the end of its successor’s first year. He’s not watched over multiple console generations like Reggie did, nor been as much of a presence in the company’s marketing material. Heck, the last time he appeared in a Nintendo Direct might well be the famous one from back in 2019:
But it’s worth not overlooking how big of a deal this period of time was in Nintendo’s history. In those few years Bowser was NOA president, we’ve seen:
- The announcement and release of the first Super Mario Bros Movie
- Super Nintendo World opening at various Universal Studios theme parks
- The reveal of more upcoming movies for Mario and The Legend of Zelda
- Marketing deals with companies like LEGO to make more merch for Mario, Zelda and Animal Crossing
- Legions of real-life events and happenings, even during and directly after a global pandemic
- Nintendo nailing the marketing strategy for every major Switch game
- And arguably, Nintendo going from a surprise revival after years of irrelevance to a household name on par with Disney (again)
Let’s be real, this would be seen as unbelievable back in the 2010s…
We obviously can’t pin it all on Bowser himself, but as far as Nintendo of America goes? It’s been run well these last few years. They’ve kept the American branch going strong, just as their counterparts in Japan and Europe have done in those regions too.
So, while Bowser has arguably been a no nonsense, all business kind of leader rather than the internet meme fountain that was his predecessor, he’s done exactly what he’s needed to do at the company. Keep it all together while tariffs soar through the roof and the company deals with trying to market a successor to their most successful console in decades.
Meanwhile, his successors seem to have all the skills they need too. Shibata has experience from Nintendo of Europe, and can clearly run a major Nintendo subsidiary, while Pritchard’s got 19 years of experiences in the games industry plus roles in Nintendo’s marketing and publisher relations teams to go off here. They’ve definitely picked a safe pair of successors, that’s for sure.
So, here’s hoping Doug Bowser enjoys his retirement, and that his successors keep Nintendo of America as relevant as ever.
Source: