It has been announced that Hirokazu “Hip” Tanaka has stepped down as President of Creatures Inc. and will instead be taking on the role of Creative Fellow. This news comes a month after it was rumoured there would be significant changes in the company’s leadership.
Creatures Inc. is one of the owners of the Pokémon franchise alongside Nintendo and Game Freak. However, in April Serebii webmaster Joe Merrick spotted that the company may be seeing upcoming changes in management. Now it has been confirmed via the official website that Tanaka would be making perhaps the biggest career change.
Oh wow
Tsunekazu Ishihara and Hirokazu Tanaka have stepped down as CEO/President of Creatures Inc.
The new President & CEO is Yuji Kitano, with Tomotaka Komura as Executive Vice President pic.twitter.com/et3cREFD04
— Joe Merrick (@JoeMerrick) April 5, 2023
Tanaka is not the only member of the company who will be stepping down from their role. Former CEO Tsunekazu Ishihara is now being replaced by Yuji Kitano and Tomotaka Komura will be taking on the role of Executive Vice President.
The website goes onto list the current management team for Creatures Inc:
Yuji Kitano,President & CEO
Tomotaka Komura, Executive Vice President
Hiroyuki Jinnai, Senior Executive Director
Noriyuki Kita, Senior Executive Director
Masamichi Anazawa, Executive Director
Atsuko Ujiie, Executive Director
Muneaki Ozawa, Executive Director
Eisuke Kasejima, Executive Director
Masami Hatanaka, Executive Director
Atsushi Nagashima, Executive Director
Kengo Nakahiro, Executive Director
Hajime Shibahara, Auditor
Despite many changes in the company’s management, it is unlikely it will lead to major changes to day-to-day operations. More specifically, the Pokémon franchise won’t be in danger. However, it will be interesting to see how the change up will contribute to the future of the series.
It will be a shame to no longer see Ishihara as the face of major Pokémon Presents showcases but we wish him all the luck for the future. As for Tanaka, his role as Creative Fellow will allow him to keep focus on his creative side. This makes sense considering he worked on creating the soundtracks for well-known games such as Metroid and EarthBound.
What do you think of this change-up for Creatures Inc.? Let us know in the comments and stay tuned to GameLuster for more gaming news.
