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Satoru Iwata (Japanese: 岩田 聡, Hepburn: Iwata Satoru, December 6, 1959 – July 11, 2015) was a Japanese businessman, video game programmer, video game designer, and producer. He was the fourth president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Nintendo from 2002 until his death in 2015.
Jul 13, 2015 · Satoru Iwata, the global president of Nintendo, has died at 55, the Japanese gaming giant has announced. Iwata was named the fourth president in the company's 126-year history in...
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Satoru Iwata (JPJapanese: 岩田聡
Romaji: Iwata Satoru) (December 6, 1959 - July 11, 2015) was the 4th president and CEO of Nintendo from 2002 until his death in 2015. Prior to this he worked at HAL Laboratory as a programmer, and he served as president of that company between 1993 and 1999.
While studying computer science at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, Iwata was one of several unpaid interns at Commodore Japan, assisting the subsidiary's general manager with technical and software development tasks. Upon graduation, he joined HAL in 1982 as a programmer and helped create major games such as Balloon Fight, Kirby's Dream Land, and EarthBound. In 1993, Iwata was promoted as the president of HAL Laboratory, at the request of Hiroshi Yamauchi, then president of Nintendo.
In June 2000, he left HAL and joined Nintendo as the General Manager of the Corporate Planning Division. In this position, he helped Nintendo grow economically and as a result Hiroshi Yamauchi elected him as his successor in May 2002, becoming the 4th president of Nintendo and the first president of the company not related to the Yamauchi family.
During his tenure as presient he saw the release of the Nintendo DS, Wii, Nintendo 3DS, and Wii U systems, and he was also a significant part of Nintendo's transition into the "blue ocean" strategy, where the company would push the release of more casual and family-friendly titles (like the Touch Generations series) unlike what most rival companies did. Iwata also hosted a set of interviews with employees and game developers called Iwata Asks, and he also hosted most of the Nintendo Direct presentations.
On April 24, 2013, Iwata announced at the year end shareholders meeting that he was taking the role of CEO of Nintendo of America, alongside his duties and Global President. Former NOA CEO Tatsumi Kimishima was given the roll of Managing Director of NCL.
In June 2014, it was discovered that a tumor was growing within his bile duct and, from which, he had to undergo surgery. Although he recovered from the illness, he relapsed the following year and passed away due to complications on July 11, 2015.
Upon his passing, Shigeru Miyamoto and Genyo Takeda assumed temporarily the roles of Representative Directors of the company until Tatsumi Kimishima was elected as Iwata's successor on September 16, 2015.
Pre-Nintendo presidency
This list contains games Iwata was involved with before becoming president of Nintendo.
Executive Producer credits
This list contains games crediting Iwata as an executive producer while he was president of Nintendo.
•For Pokémon Stadium, Iwata analyzed the original Pokemon games and developed the battle code in about a week without reference documents.
•For Pokémon Gold and Silver, Iwata generated graphic compression tools that helped the development team with optimizing the game.
•It is referenced by an NPC named after Shigeki Morimoto in Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon. The NPC can be found in the in game Game Freak office on Akala Island and will only talk about Iwata if you previously transfered a Pokémon from the Virtual Console version of Pokémon Gold and Silver in your game via the Pokémon Bank.
•For Super Smash Bros. Melee, while already being the General Manager of Corporate Planning at Nintendo, he spent the last couple weeks debugging the game so it would make it out to launch.
•Iwata did the localization programming for Dragon Warrior.
•A picture of Iwata was used among along with Olimar, some Pikmin and Villager on the demo of Stage Debut, an unreleased project.
•Iwata Asks main site
•Satoru Iwata at the Internet Movie Database
Jul 13, 2015 · Japanese video game maker Nintendo has said its chief executive Satoru Iwata has died of cancer at the age of 55. Mr Iwata underwent surgery last year and had resumed his duties after a brief...
Jul 13, 2015 · Satoru Iwata: Nintendo's late legend, in his own words. With the passing of Nintendo president Satoru Iwata, the gaming world mourns the loss of one of its most ardent supporters.
Jul 13, 2015 · A tribute to the late Nintendo president who shaped a gaming generation with his vision and leadership. Learn about his career, achievements, legacy and personality in this feature article.
Jul 13, 2015 · Satoru Iwata, who led Nintendo through the launches of the DS and Wii consoles, passed away from a bile duct growth in 2015. He was a gamer at heart who interacted with fans online and reinvented the boundaries of video games.
