Gosen steps down from Nintendo Europe

Nintendo Europe managing director David Gosen is to leave the company at the end of August after five years with the platform holder, and is set to move to mobile entertainment publisher Digital Bridges as COO.

Gosen's role as managing director of sales and marketing at the firm will be partially filled by the promotion of Jim Merrick, who will become senior director of European marketing and will report directly to European president Satoru Shibata, while Tim Freystedt becomes senior European marketing manager.

"David has made a huge contribution to Nintendo over the last five years and we would like to thank him for all his hard work and wish him all the success in the future," Shibata said today in a statement.

Gosen's tenure at Nintendo Europe has covered the launch of Game Boy Advance, Game Boy Advance SP and GameCube in the territory. Most recently, he made headlines with a controversial speech at the ELSPA Games Summit in London earlier this month, where he attacked Microsoft for attempting to bring the current console cycle to a premature end.

His new role as chief operating officer at Digital Bridges, which he will assume after he leaves Nintendo on August 31st, will see him taking a leading role at one of the biggest publishers and distributors of mobile phone games in the world.