Peter Main, Nintendo's executive veep of sales and marketing, has announced his decision to step down as of 1 February next year. His retirement is being scheduled so that he won't miss the crucial launch of the next-generation GameCube console.

Main joined Nintendo in 1987, and has dealt with the rise and fall of many Nintendo consoles. He's seen the enormous success of the NES and SNES. The extraordinary growth in console role-playing game popularity was more or less squarely down to the SNES, and during Main's reign, the Game Boy has become the biggest selling console of all time, with over 100 million units shipped before its successful relaunch as Game Boy Advance.

His replacement will be Peter MacDougall, current president of Nintendo Canada, who joined Nintendo in 1989.

Nintendo of America president Minoru Arakawa described Main as an "industry legend", saying that most of the day-to-day business practices of the sales and marketing exec were invented by him over the last 15 years.

MacDougall, who will take charge in February 2002, also met with praise from Arakawa. "His breadth of success is a distinct asset given the global nature of Nintendo’s business," he said. ®

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