"Even if we come from different sides of the world, speak different languages. Even if we eat too many chips, or rice balls. Even if we have different tastes in games. Every one of us, here today, is identical, in the most important way. Each one of us has the heart of a gamer."
- Satoru Iwata (Game Developers Conference 2005)
Most people may have known Satoru Iwata as the corporate big-shot at Nintendo. Some probably may have heard him from various Nintendo Directs while others may have seen him as a character from Nintendo-related internet memes. Even if you're not a close follower of Nintendo-related news, chances are, he was probably a huge part of your childhood.
To re-evaluate, here are some of his major contributions in the gaming industry:
- 1983 - Iwata joined HAL Laboratory, becoming the small company's fifth full-time employee. He was a designer, engineer, programmer, and marketer, who helped develop games such NES Pinball and those in the EarthBound, Kirby, and Super Smash Bros. franchises for Nintendo systems.
- 1984 - 1985 - In 1984, Nintendo released an arcade version of Balloon Fight, a simple game where players try to fly with the help of "easy-to-pop" balloons attached on their heads. In 1985, it arrived on the company’s new home console, the Family Computer/Famicom (also known as the Nintendo Entertainment System or NES outside Japan). Satoru Iwata, in his 20s at the time, was the game’s programmer.
- 1993 - Despite having created several notable games, HAL was in financial jeopardy. Iwata became president of the company in 1993 and helped steer it back to solvency.
- 1994 - While president of HAL Laboratories, Iwata helped the then struggling Super Famicom/Super NES project Mother 2 or EarthBound, which has already been in development for four years. Iwata told creator Shigeki Itoi, "If you are going to continue to make this game like this, it is going to take two years." He instead offered to work on the game himself, promising it would only take half a year. A month later, Iwata returned to Itoi, saying he had fixed a major problem in development: getting the map to scroll. The team was overjoyed.
- 1998 - Iwata was also credited for creating "compression tools" that condensed the graphical elements of Pokémon Gold and Silver. This allowed Game Freak to fit two regions: Johto and Kanto, and twice as much game time, into the 1998 handheld title. "I was saying things like: Is that guy a programmer? Or is he the President?" Pokémon developer Game Freak's Shigeki Morimoto said in an Iwata Asks.
- 1998 - 1999 - At HAL Laboratory, Iwata and Masahiro Sakurai developed the prototype for the original Super Smash Bros. for the Nintendo 64. The fighting game starred a cast of a dozen Nintendo characters. It became a franchise, spanning Nintendo's console and handheld systems.
- 1999 - Iwata analyzed the game logic from Pokémon Red and Green so he can bring it to the Nintendo 64 for Pokémon Stadium. While serving as president of HAL Laboratory, Iwata ported the code in about a week.
- 2000 - Iwata joined Nintendo as a nearly 20-year veteran of the industry. He arrived just ahead of the Nintendo GameCube's release and is charged with overseeing Nintendo's Corporate Planning Division.
- 2001 - Iwata learned that Super Smash Bros. Melee for the Nintendo GameCube wasn't going to meet its deadline. At the time, he was the acting head of debugging at HAL Laboratory in Yamanashi. Because of this, he did the code review, fixed some bugs, read the code and fixed more bugs, read the long bug report from Nintendo, figured out where the problem was and got people to fix those, in a matter of three weeks. Thanks to that, the game made it out on time. Iwata said it was the last time he took an engineering role on a project, but he was very happy at the time "to get back in the trenches."
- 2002 - 2015 - In 2002, Hiroshi Yamauchi announced his retirement, after having served as Nintendo's president since 1949. He named Iwata as his successor, saying that Iwata "has the instincts to survive in the business." Iwata was the first president outside of the founding Yamauchi family and only the fourth since the company was founded in 1889.
- November 2004 - Under Iwata, Nintendo released the Nintendo DS, a dual-screened handheld successor to the Game Boy Advance. Iwata specifically told the design team to make the Nintendo DS so it could survive being dropped from 1.5 meters onto concrete. Nintendo iterated its clamshell design for the next decade while selling hundreds of millions in the DS product line. As of September 30, 2014, Nintendo has sold more than 154 million DS units worldwide.
- March 2005 - Iwata began his Game Developers Conference 2005 keynote by saying: "On my business card, I am a corporate president. In my mind, I am a game developer. But in my heart, I am a gamer." He speaks of philosophy, about his belief that software sells hardware and the importance of innovation.
- 2006 - Iwata’s other significant public relations innovation aside from Nintendo Directs was Iwata Asks, a remarkable series in which Iwata interviewed members of Nintendo’s many development teams, delving into the anecdotal history of some of the company’s best loved hardware and software projects.
- November 2006 - Iwata's insights lead him to believe that games are becoming too complex to be widely adopted, and that Nintendo is in a unique position to innovate its way to help broad adoption. Released in November 2006, the motion-controlled Wii is an unqualified success. It brought video games, designed simply with less graphical fidelity and to be easily playable, to the masses and not just the hardcore audience. As of December 31, 2014, Nintendo has sold more than 101 million units worldwide, making it the undisputed sales winner of the previous generation.
- February 2011 - Nintendo released the Nintendo 3DS, the glasses-free successor to the DS handheld. In the years that follow, Nintendo released larger, XL versions, the cheap alternative 2DS, and the New 3DS XL, which improves and strengthens the hardware and includes new input methods. As of December 31, 2014, Nintendo has sold a total of 50.41 million Nintendo 3DS units worldwide.
- November 2011 - Nintendo began talking directly to its fans through periodic Nintendo Direct presentations. Iwata personally hosted most of the company’s biggest surprises, often with quirky framing twists. At Nintendo’s E3 2015 presentation last month, he appeared as a Muppet designed by The Jim Henson Company. Because of these directs, Iwata's character became an even more genial, public face for the company.
- November 2012 - Nintendo released the Wii U. In many ways, it's a console version of Nintendo's popular dual-screen line of handhelds, designed with two screens, including the tablet-like GamePad controller. Although the Wii U is struggling on its sales, Iwata's original goal for the console is to turn the living room into a playground which connects those sharing the space, as well as to "connect people living room to living room" much more effectively.
- January 2014 - Instead of cutting staff numbers, Iwata slashed 50% off from his salary for 5 months after announcing an operating loss of roughly $15 million (P680 million). "If we reduce the number of employees for better short-term financial results, employee morale will decrease," he said. "I sincerely doubt employees who fear that they may be laid off will be able to develop software titles that could impress people around the world."
- March 2015 - Nintendo announced plans to bring its characters to mobile devices, in partnership with DeNA. They won't be ports of existing games. They'll be mobile experiences designed to bring people to Nintendo's first-party hardware and software. "We will strive to expand this business into global markets at a steady pace," Iwata later says, "so that eventually we will entertain hundreds of millions of people all around the world. We are aiming to make this one of the pillars of Nintendo's revenue structure."
Satoru Iwata's legacy became apparent when fans from all over the world mourned his passing through various ways. Some Pinoy 3DS Facebook Group members made the following tributes in honor of his memory. You can submit your own tribute through this thread (submissions must be your own work):
by John Joseph Apolinar
by Kristoffer Craig
by Joed Baretto
by Arnold Janssen Ramos Nillos
by Elgin San Gabriel
by Chitose Ikeda
by Ibbo Alvorado
by Tali Bloodraven
by Ayi Catimpo
Satoru Iwata passed away last July 11, 2015 at the age of 55 due to a bile duct growth. He is survived by his wife, Kayoko. His two-day funeral service started earlier this morning.
Even in the brief span of time he had with the power to change things, he left us a legacy that will endure long past all of us.
Don't worry, we understand.
Sources:
- Nintendo's Official Statement
- Satoru Iwata's Lifetime of Accomplishments
- 5 Games You Can Play to Honor Lte Nintendo President Satoru Iwata
- The 73rd Annual General Meeting of Shareholders Q&A
- Iwata Asks
- Nintendo Directs
- Nintendo DS Sales
- Nintendo Wii Sales
- Nintendo 3DS Sales
- Satoru Iwata 2005 GDC Keynote - Part 1
- Satoru Iwata 2005 GDC Keynote - Part 2
- Satoru Iwata 2005 GDC Keynote - Part 3
- Satoru Iwata 2005 GDC Keynote - Part 4
- Satoru Iwata 2005 GDC Keynote - Part 5
- Amateru's Pokemon Silver/Gold Ending 'Band Cover'
