“On my enterprise card, I’m a company president. In my thoughts, I’m a recreation developer. However in my coronary heart, I’m a gamer”.
eleventh July 2025 marks the tenth anniversary of Satoru Iwata’s passing; a person who cemented himself as not solely an distinctive chief throughout occasions of each success and failure, however a figurehead that may steal the hearts of numerous followers world wide.
It is tough to actually say something that hasn’t already been expressed sooner or later within the final decade, however we expect it is clear that Iwata’s presence continues to be felt in each Nintendo circles and the gaming business at giant. Certainly, with the latest information of in depth layoffs from Xbox and Microsoft and the turmoil at studios internationally over the past couple of years, many have recounted the phrases spoken by Iwata throughout a shareholder Q&A session in 2013:
“If we scale back the variety of workers for higher short-term monetary outcomes, nonetheless, worker morale will lower, and I sincerely doubt workers who worry that they might be laid off will have the ability to develop software program titles that would impress folks world wide.”
Iwata additionally paved the way in which for the Swap — Nintendo’s most profitable residence console of all time — having labored extensively on the system earlier than his passing in 2015. The results of this are nonetheless felt to this very day, with Nvidia paying tribute to Iwata in a latest video on the Swap 2:
“I nonetheless bear in mind the day Iwata-san shared his dream with us. He needed to create one thing no-one had seen earlier than: a console highly effective sufficient for giant cinematic video games, however sufficiently small to take wherever. It sounded unimaginable, however that imaginative and prescient grew to become the unique Nintendo Swap.
“We misplaced Iwata-san earlier than the launch, however his readability, his goal, it nonetheless evokes our work on a regular basis.”
5 years in the past, former NL editor Tom Whitehead wrote about Iwata’s profession and his legacyand it is unusual to suppose {that a} full decade has now handed – and to think about how the world has modified in that point. We marvel what Iwata would make of the state of the business, of Swap’s success, and of the model new console we’re having fun with.
All that is left to say is, effectively, thanks, Iwata-san. Nintendo wouldn’t be the place it’s at this time with out your management, ardour, and need to ship the easiest experiences in gaming.
What are your favorite reminiscences of Satoru Iwata? Go away a remark along with your tales and ideas down beneath.
