Nintendo of America announced that Doug Bowser, president and chief operating officer of the video game giant, plans to retire on Dec. 31.
When he steps down on New Year’s Eve, Doug Bowser will have been the president at Nintendo of America, headquartered in Redmond, Wash., for almost seven years. He originally succeeded departing president Reggie Fils-Aimé in 2019, at which point we were all assured by Nintendo that Bowser sharing a name with the traditional antagonist of the Super Mario series (at least in English) was a complete coincidence.
Bowser joined Nintendo in 2015 as a vice president of sales and marketing, after stints at Procter & Gamble and Electronic Arts.
At Nintendo, Bowser was promoted to senior vice president of sales in 2016, where he oversaw the successful launch of Nintendo’s hybrid video game platform the Switch. Since then, the Switch has sold more than 153 million units, which makes it the third-best selling gaming console of all time.
The successor to the Switch, the Switch 2, launched in June alongside a new entry in the Mario Kart franchise. It quickly became the single fastest-selling console of all time.
“Leading Nintendo of America has been the honor of a lifetime, and I am proud of what our team has accomplished in both business results and the experiences we’ve created for consumers,” Bowser wrote in an official statement.
Bowser will be succeeded as president of Nintendo of America by Devon Pritchard, the company’s current executive vice president of revenue, marketing, and consumer experience. Pritchard’s promotion to president of the company will coincide with her 20-year anniversary at Nintendo, which she joined in 2006. As part of the move, Pritchard will also join the board of directors at Nintendo of America.
