“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 troublesome to essentially say something that hasn’t already been expressed sooner or later within the final decade, however we predict it is clear that Iwata’s presence continues to be felt in each Nintendo circles and the gaming trade at giant. Certainly, with the latest information of in depth layoffs from Xbox and Microsoft and the turmoil at studios the world over during the last couple of years, many have recounted the phrases spoken by Iwata throughout a shareholder Q&A session in 2013:
“If we cut back the variety of workers for higher short-term monetary outcomes, nonetheless, worker morale will lower, and I sincerely doubt workers who concern that they might be laid off will be capable to develop software program titles that might impress folks world wide.”
Iwata additionally paved the best way for the Change — Nintendo’s most profitable house console of all time — having labored extensively on the system earlier than his passing in 2015. The consequences of this are nonetheless felt to this very day, with Nvidia paying tribute to Iwata in a latest video on the Change 2:
“I nonetheless bear in mind the day Iwata-san shared his dream with us. He wished 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 inconceivable, however that imaginative and prescient turned the unique Nintendo Change.
“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 legacy, and it is unusual to suppose {that a} full decade has now handed – and to contemplate how the world has modified in that point. We marvel what Iwata would make of the state of the trade, of Change’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 present with out your management, ardour, and want to ship the perfect experiences in gaming.
What are your favorite reminiscences of Satoru Iwata? Depart a remark together with your tales and ideas down under.