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Analysts believe that Genyo Takeda is the man most likely to be named as the new president of Nintendo.

The vacancy has yet to be filled following the death of former boss Satoru Iwata earlier this month. Two directors currently serve at the company – Mario creator and development legend Shigeru Miyamoto and integrated research division boss Genyo Takeda.

However, while for many outsiders Miyamoto would seem to be the fairy tale appointment, analysts speaking to Games Industry feel that Takeda would be arguably a safer pair of hands.

"I am pretty sure that the candidate will come from within the business; the very essence of Nintendo games draws from decades of management recognising a market desire for mass market fun,” Parker Consulting’s Nick Parker said.

The obvious two choices are Takeda-san or Miyamoto-san, the former a hardware technology company veteran, the latter, the king of Nintendo first party content. Although it would be a romantic dream to have the company lead by the father of Mario, I think Takeda-san has more corporate experience and really understands hardware; it was he who argued for a new interface for the Wii rather than just a faster Gamecube with better graphics.”

EEDAR’s Mike Schramm agrees: "Genyo Takeda, has a similar trajectory in the company as Iwata [and] is likely a lead candidate for the job. Nintendo also has a number of executives on its board of directors who also could step up into the spot.

It’s very unlikely that the company would hire someone from outside Japan or from another corporation, as Nintendo doesn’t need to (and shouldn’t want to) make waves with this appointment. Most likely it’ll be a senior Japanese executive at the company, ideally someone who has had a hand in game development at some point."

Takeda has worked on all Nintendo hardware since 1981, although he also has a number of successful software credits to his name including Punch Out and Pilotwings 64.