Yoshiaki Koizumi, producer and director at Nintendo has earned a spot in Bloomberg’s list of Top 50 Most Influential People Of 2017.
Mentioned under the Business category, here’s what the excerpt from the list says:
“Nintendo sold 7.6 million Switches in the seven months after they hit the market, helping The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, one of the console’s first titles, become the fastest-selling game in company history. The system is the biggest shake-up in gaming since the Wii introduced virtual bowling and tennis to grandparents throughout the world in late 2006, and it represents a stunning success for Koizumi, who took over as Nintendo’s creative force in 2014 from legendary designer Shigeru Miyamoto, the man behind landmark games Super Mario Bros. and Donkey Kong.”
Congrats to Koizumi-san, this is no small feat. He’s also known for being the producer behind the critically acclaimed Super Mario Odyssey for the Nintendo Switch and he played a huge role in the conception of Nintendo’s hybrid console as well. Looking forward to the direction Nintendo, the Switch and gaming in general takes under his reign, as the current creative force at the studio.