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Satoru Iwata

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Satoru Iwata
岩田 聡
Satoru Iwata at GDC 2011
Born(1959-12-06)December 6, 1959
Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan
DiedJuly 11, 2015(2015-07-11) (aged 55)
Kyoto, Japan
Cause of deathBile duct tumor
Alma materTokyo Institute of Technology
Occupation(s)President and CEO of Nintendo (2002–2015)

Satoru Iwata (Japanese: 岩田 聡, Hepburn: Iwata Satoru, December 6, 1959 – July 11, 2015) was a Japanese businessman and game programmer who served as the fourth president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Nintendo. He worked as a programmer at HAL Laboratory early in his career, helping to develop games in the Super Smash Bros., Kirby, and Pokémon series, before joining Nintendo in 2000. He succeeded Hiroshi Yamauchi as the company's president in May 2002. Iwata directed the company to pursue development of the Nintendo DS and Wii consoles in 2004 and 2006, respectively, helping the company to become financially successful among other game console manufacturers. He served as company president until his death in July 2015.

Early life

Iwata was born on December 6, 1959, and raised in Sapporo, Japan; his father was a municipal mayor.[1] He expressed interest in the creation of video games early on, and began producing electronic games at his home during his high school years. The several simple number games Iwata produced made use of an electronic calculator he shared with his schoolmates. Following high school, Iwata was admitted to the Tokyo Institute of Technology, where he majored in computer science.[2] While attending the school, he was one of several unpaid interns at Commodore Japan, assisting the subsidiary's general manager with technical and software development tasks.[3] He also did freelance work as a programmer for HAL Laboratory, Inc., a game developer that often collaborated closely with Nintendo.[4]

Career

HAL Laboratory

After graduating from university, Iwata joined HAL Laboratory in a full-time capacity.[4] He became the company's coordinator of software production in 1983. Some of the video games he worked on were Balloon Fight, EarthBound, and the Kirby games.[5][6] With the company on the verge of bankrupcy, Iwata was promoted to president of HAL in 1993 and helped to turn the company around and stablize its finances.[4][1] Iwata assisted in the founding of Creatures Inc., which was established in 1995 by Tsunekazu Ishihara.[7] Although not part of Nintendo at the time, Iwata assisted in the development of Pokémon Gold and Silver, which were released for the Game Boy Color in November 1999. Simultaneously, he aided in the programming of Pokémon Stadium for the Nintendo 64 by reading the original coding in Pokémon Red and Green and reworking it for the new game. Iwata also created a set of compression tools utilized in Gold and Silver.[8]

Nintendo

"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."

Satoru Iwata in his keynote speech at GDC 2005[9]

In 2000, Iwata took a position at Nintendo as the head of its corporate planning division. When Hiroshi Yamauchi, the company's president since 1949, retired on May 31, 2002, Iwata succeeded as Nintendo's fourth president with Yamauchi's blessing, and Yamauchi would advise Iwata over the next few years.[10] He was the first Nintendo president who was unrelated to the Yamauchi family through blood or marriage.[11] Iwata continued to help out at HAL as a consultant.

At the time of Iwata's promotion, Nintendo was not performing as well as other console makers, with its latest release the GameCube performing poorly compared to competitors. Iwata had stated in 2006 that he felt that the gaming industry was becoming too exclusive, and wanted to develop hardware and games that would be appealing to all players.[1] Under his charge at Nintendo, he helped to lead a revitalization of their handheld system, transitioning from the Game Boy to the Nintendo DS with a unique form factor that allowed for more novel games to be played on it. He also pushed on the development of the Wii platform which introduced the use of motion control-based video games.[12] Both units proved highly successful to the company, with the release of the Wii in 2006 helping to nearly double the stock price of Nintendo.[12] Iwata's former experience as a programmer, a rarity for technology CEOs, was said to help contribute towards his leadership of the company.[13][14] Due to his success, Barron's included Iwata on their list of the 30 top CEOs worldwide from 2007 to 2009.[12][15] Subsequent hardware units under Iwata's tenure, including the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, were not as successful as the DS and Wii, and Nintendo's finances took a downward turn in 2009. Iwata voluntarily cut his salary in half to help Nintendo's poor finances and to better compete against Microsoft and Sony Computer Entertainment.[16][17] In 2015, Iwata put part of Nintendo's focus on the growing mobile game market, creating a partnership with mobile provider DeNA to publish titles, as traditional hardware console sales began to falter.[10][18]

Iwata helped Nintendo to improve public relations with its fans, regularly responding to them through social media,[14] and commented on Nintendo games in his section of Nintendo's Wii website, Iwata Asks.[13] In 2011, he helped to institute "Nintendo Direct", a series of online press conferences open to all that revealed upcoming Nintendo games and products outside of typical industry channels, and often done in a quirky, humorous manner, such as a mock battle between him and Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aimé.[14] In June 2013, he took the role of Nintendo of America's CEO;[19][20] As one of his first changes as CEO, Iwata decided that they would not hold large press conferences at E3, and instead have several smaller events, each aimed at a certain demographic.[21]

While at Nintendo, Iwata worked on The Legend of Zelda, Mario, and the Animal Crossing series of games.[17] He also has a cameo in WarioWare: Smooth Moves.[22]

Illness and death

In 2014, Nintendo announced that Iwata would not be present at E3 2014 due to medical-related reasons.[23] It was later revealed that he was undergoing surgery to remove a tumor in his bile duct.[24][17] On July 12, 2015, Nintendo announced that Iwata died the previous day at the age of 55 due to complications with this tumor.[20] He is survived by his wife Kayoko. Funeral services are planned to be held on July 17.[10]

Flags at Nintendo's headquarters were lowered to half-staff. Members across the gaming industry and fans alike expressed their sadness on social media over Iwata's passing and gratitude for his accomplishments.[25][26] Shuhei Yoshida, president of SCE Worldwide Studios, stated "He has given a great contribution to the development of the gaming industry. I will pray for Iwata's soul."[27] Composer and director Junichi Masuda, most known for his work with the Pokémon games, tweeted "He was a man who understood Pokémon, and a great leader. When I visited the other day, he was well. I will pray for his soul from the bottom of my heart."[28] Nintendo of America took a day of silence on July 13 across all of its social media accounts in remembrance of Iwata.[29]

References

  1. ^ a b c Martens, Todd (July 12, 2015). "Nintendo's Satoru Iwata dies at 55; under him, Wii created hordes of new gamers". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved July 12, 2015.
  2. ^ Kiyoshi Takenaka (December 9, 2008). "Satoru Iwata - the man behind Nintendo's casual gaming boom". News Limited. Retrieved March 27, 2012. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  3. ^ Bagnall, Brian (2006). Commodore: A Company on the Edge, Variant Press. ISBN 0-9738649-0-7
  4. ^ a b c Szczepaniak, John. "Before They Were Famous". Retro Gamer (35). Imagine Publishing: 76.
  5. ^ "Iwata Asks: New Super Mario Bros. Wii: It All Began in 1984". Retrieved 22 November 2013.
  6. ^ "Iwata Asks : Special Edition Interview: Turning the Tables: Asking Iwata". Retrieved 22 November 2013.
  7. ^ "Iwata Asks - Pokémon HeartGold Version & SoulSilver Version: Just Making The Last Train". Nintendo. 2015. Retrieved July 12, 2015.
  8. ^ "Iwata Asks - Pokémon HeartGold Version & SoulSilver Version: Just Being President Was A Waste!". Nintendo. 2015. Retrieved July 12, 2015.
  9. ^ Matt Casamassina (March 10, 2005). "GDC 2005: Iwata Keynote Transcript". IGN. Retrieved July 12, 2015.
  10. ^ a b c Kageyama, Yuri (July 12, 2015). "Nintendo President Satoru Iwata Dies of Tumor". Associated Press. Retrieved July 12, 2015.
  11. ^ Stack, Liam (July 13, 2015). "Satoru Iwata, Nintendo Chief Executive, Dies at 55". New York Times. Retrieved July 13, 2015.
  12. ^ a b c Reimer, Jeremy (March 28, 2007). "Nintendo boss levels up to "top 30 CEO"". Ars Technica. Condé Nast. Archived from the original on December 1, 2012. Retrieved July 12, 2015. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  13. ^ a b Kohler, Chris (July 12, 2015). "Nintendo President Satoru Iwata Dies at 55". Wired. Retrieved July 12, 2015.
  14. ^ a b c Peckman, Matt (July 13, 2015). "Why Nintendo President Satoru Iwata Mattered". Time. Retrieved July 13, 2015.
  15. ^ "The Best CEOs". Barron's. March 11, 2010. Retrieved July 12, 2015. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |subscription= ignored (|url-access= suggested) (help)
  16. ^ "Nintendo's Satoru Iwata dies at 55". BBC. July 12, 2015. Retrieved July 12, 2015.
  17. ^ a b c Kreps, Daniel (July 13, 2015). "Satoru Iwata, President and CEO of Nintendo, Dead at 55". Rolling Stone. Retrieved July 13, 2015.
  18. ^ Peckham, Matt (March 18, 2015). "Exclusive: Nintendo CEO Reveals Plans for Smartphones". Time. Time Inc. Retrieved July 13, 2015.
  19. ^ Martin, Matt (April 24, 2013). "Iwata becomes CEO of Nintendo of America". GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved July 12, 2015.
  20. ^ a b "Notification of Death and Personnel Change of a Representative Director (President)" (PDF). Nintendo. July 12, 2015. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 13, 2015. Retrieved July 13, 2015. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  21. ^ Goldfarb, Andrew (April 23, 2013). "No Nintendo Press Conference at E3 2013". IGN. Ziff Davis. Archived from the original on June 11, 2015. Retrieved July 12, 2015. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  22. ^ Parkin, Simon (July 13, 2015). "Postscript: Satoru Iwata (1959-2015)". The New Yorker. Condé Nast. Retrieved July 13, 2015.
  23. ^ Humphries, Matthew (June 24, 2014). "Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata missed E3 because he had a tumor". Geek.com. Retrieved February 24, 2015.
  24. ^ "The 74th Annual General Meeting of Shareholders: To our shareholders". nintendo.co.jp.
  25. ^ Plunkett, Luke (July 12, 2015). "The Video Game Community Pays Tribute To Satoru Iwata". Kotaku. Gawker Media. Retrieved July 12, 2015.
  26. ^ Bowman, John (July 13, 2015). "Nintendo fans pay tribute to Satoru Iwata". CBC. Retrieved July 13, 2015.
  27. ^ Shuhei Yoshida [@yosp] (July 12, 2015). "ゲーム業界の発展に多大な貢献をされた岩田さんのご冥福をお祈りします。" (Tweet) (in Japanese) – via Twitter.
  28. ^ Junichi Masuda [@Junichi_Masuda] (July 12, 2015). "任天堂の岩田社長が逝去されました。ポケモンの理解者であり、素晴らしいリーダーでした。先日お会いした時はお元気だったのに。。心よりご冥福をお祈り致します" (Tweet) (in Japanese) – via Twitter.
  29. ^ Saira Mueller (July 13, 2015). "Gaming Industry Pays Tribute To Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata, Dead At 55". International Business Times. Retrieved July 13, 2015.
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