Monday, July 20, 2015

Satoru Iwata




Hey, so it's 3 a.m. and I realized it's been nine days since Satoru Iwata, the president of Nintendo passed, and I haven't shared my thoughts on him, so here we go.


     Satoru Iwata, during his time at Nintendo, helped shaped the gaming industry in a great way. His decisions at Nintendo would not only affect the company but the gaming industry as a whole. It is no doubt Satoru Iwata has affected more than just the gaming industry, his developments and creations as president (Wii, Wii U, and the Nintendo DS and its multiple variations) helped many gamers' childhoods.

     A true innovator of fun, Satoru Iwata didn't want his games and consoles to revolve around gaming norms of his time (top of the line graphics and online gameplay), he would rather make his games and consoles "novel and entertaining". He followed in the footsteps of Yamauchi (Nintendo's president before Iwata) by pushing consoles he thought were new and creative, like the Wii introducing motion controls to household game consoles and the Nintendo DS introducing the touchscreen. Even though his latest console, the Wii U was considered a failure, and Iwata apologized personally for the market performance of the Wii U and took a 50% pay cut due to its lack of sales.
Quick Aside: The DS also helped revitalize the handheld market.

     Satoru Iwata's passing affected many, and social media was filled with nothing but good words of his legacy at Nintendo, his innovations in gaming affected the  game industry and gamers personally. His position in the development of many iconic games like Metroid, Mario, Pokemon, and the Legend of Zelda series shaped the childhood of gamers like myself and many others.

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