January 11^th, 2006 (1:53pm) - Jim Merrick had left Nintendo of Europe just over a month ago and it had been rumored that Merrick would be returning to North America to take up a position at Nintendo of America, but it seems that Merrick has left Nintendo entirely.

"After nearly 12 years with Nintendo, the last three of which were at Nintendo of Europe, Jim Merrick has left the company to pursue other opportunities," a spokesperson from NOE said. "We will be announcing the new European marketing director the coming weeks."

Merrick had worked for 4D Graphics as a software engineering manager prior to joining Nintendo. At Nintendo, Merrick had spent six years as technical director at Nintendo of America and then later took the role of marketing director. In 2003, he moved onto Nintendo of Europe and had responsible for the company’s marketing efforts in the territory and had a hand in the successful Nintendo DS and Wi-Fi Connection launches.

In recent months, Merrick had been one of the most outspoken individuals in regards to Nintendo’s next-generation game console, the Nintendo Revolution. He would let a few important details slip that were previously unknown and would even make challenges to disbelievers such as Epic Games’ Mark Rein in effort to prove to the gaming industry that the Revolution’s control interface is truly revolutionary and the next "big thing" in gaming.

It is rumored that Merrick may have also been the person who let word slip to NGC Magazine that The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess would be playable on the Revolution using a exclusive control method which would feature the manipulation of the pointer to control Link’s sword attacks and other actions, and because of this may have been prematurely let go by Nintendo. However, this is purely speculation.