kaputt

Satoru Iwata has passed away

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This is actually pretty sad. Unlike so many of the presidents of other major gaming companies, whenever he'd show up in an outward-facing capacity (press event, Nintendo direct), it was fun. He seemed to have a goofy sense of humor, and his Iwata Asks series of interviews actually lead to a huge amount of new information out of what tends to be a very closed off company. 

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His ability to not take himself nor his job nor his company super-seriously-and-bland was so refreshing in an industry where the giants were expected to behave a certain way. I'm really gonna miss him. Rest in peace, truly.

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So devastated by this news. I'm a longtime Nintendo fan and Iwata was always such a bright spot in the company for me. Nintendo Direct and Iwata Asks were among my favourite content to watch and read, I really can't express how much he meant to me as a gamer. Rest in peace, Mr Iwata.

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He was such a unique entity in the gaming industry as a corporate leader who had worked his way up from inside the company, he worked on those early Kirby games, and even Earthbound. So much of what he did at Nintendo seemed informed by that, from his Iwata Asks interviews to a broad unwillingness to let individual development teams bear the weight for Nintendo's struggles as a company. (He had spoken about wanting the teams to feel secure in their jobs so they could be creative in a safe environment.)

 

Totally a one of a kind dude.

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The. Fucking. Worst.

 

I am so bummed about this right now. Having come of age in the Gamecube years, Iwata was the first executive I remember actually recognizing, and he was always friendly and amazing. This sucks a whole lot.

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When I woke up I just saw people posting images of Satoru and thought it was just people appreciating him, I was devastated when I found out the truth. R.I.P.

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When I woke up today, the first thing flashing in my phone was a message from a friend writing about Iwata's death.


What a sad way to start the week.  ;(

 

One of the brightest and funniest gaming industry icons has passed away.

 

A truly great leader of the company, who even twice took down his own salary just so that Nintendo would not need to let go workers in the dark times when profits were low and financial losses hit the company.

 

Iwata's quote from GDC years ago:


 

"On my business card, I'm a corporate president. In my mind, I'm a game developer. But in my heart, I'm a gamer."

 

Just read this in GAF, what a truly remarkable person Iwata was:

 

Ladies and gentlemen, meet Satoru Iwata, global president of Nintendo, former acting president of HAL Labs. When he was younger, he disassembled the programs for his home computer by writing down the memory dumps by hand. Mind you, this was before printers. Among his achievements as a game programmer, he...

... ported the battle code of Pokemon Stadium to the Nintendo 64 despite not having any access to crucial documents. And he did it all in a week.

... programmed EarthBound (from scratch) in its entirety, also with remarkable speed. At the time, the project was very close to being jettisoned due to the unmanageability of the original coding. The coding itself is a huge scripting language, so complex that, theoretically, the text system alone could be used to write an emulator, if altered somewhat.

... personally compressed Pokemon Gold And Silver, which filled the cartridge despite still being half-finished. That's the reason the setting for Pokémon Red and Blue was included (with only two locations removed) in the games—there was that much space left after he was done.

... debugged Super Smash Bros. Melee all by his lonesome. It only took him two weeks—which was all the time he had to get it out.

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These mornings when I wake and scroll back through my Twitter feed with sadness are getting more frequent now. I keep thinking about all the Iwata Asks I read in bed over a terrible wifi network, stretching desperately to get enough signal for the page to load on my rubbish phone.

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@Kolzig, that was an amazing quote. He was one smart cookie. I woke up this morning to the news, and I'm having real trouble functioning today. My wife really didn't know what hit her when she gave me the news.

 

RIP Iwata-san, you'll be missed.

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He was such a unique entity in the gaming industry as a corporate leader who had worked his way up from inside the company, he worked on those early Kirby games, and even Earthbound. So much of what he did at Nintendo seemed informed by that, from his Iwata Asks interviews to a broad unwillingness to let individual development teams bear the weight for Nintendo's struggles as a company. (He had spoken about wanting the teams to feel secure in their jobs so they could be creative in a safe environment.)

 

Totally a one of a kind dude.

It should be noted that he was the guy who, in the wake of Nintendo taking financial losses, would pay-cut himself and have other executives do the same. Because how could the regular level employees even cover such costs, let alone why should they (since the execs make the decisions)? It was a really unique way of handling business and I've never seen it done before. Or at least heard of it.

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I had to hold the tears with this last art, really heartwarming and sad homage.

He always felt to me like the only President of the big companies that was genuinely passionate about games, I believe that's why Nintendo distanced themselves from the usual hype/marketing stuff we're used to and focused on delivering content in a better, more directly and personal way.

His journey is fantastic as well, from a normal programmer to president, this alone shows how great he must have been on his career.

Only 55, damn, that's just too soon.

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A rainbow was spotted above the Nintendo building in Kyoto:

 

1338716409364420968.jpg

 

People are calling it Iwata's personal rainbow road. 

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I never really knew much about Satoru Iwata...but the more I learn, the more I realize that his passing is a great loss for the industry. He seemed like a really sweet, genuine kind of guy. And also very smart, ambitious, and creative!

 

I've been listening to a few videos at work:

His 2005 GDC Keynote (in 5 parts - this should go to a playlist): youtube.com/watch?v=w9HUMt2rrOI&index=1&list=PL38B2AD26CFE4C796

His appearance on Game Center CX: youtube.com/watch?v=63mG4k-VIyY

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