Satoru Iwata

Satoru Iwata
Occupation(s)	President and CEO, Nintendo Co., Ltd.

Satoru Iwata (岩田 聡, Iwata Satoru), born December 6 1959, is the fourth president and CEO of Nintendo succeeding to the long-standing previous president of the company, Hiroshi Yamauchi in 2002. Satoru Iwata was responsible in great part for defining Nintendo's strategy both before and during the release of its GameCube video game console in 2001, a vision which helped Nintendo generate a forty-one percent increase in sales at the end of the 2002 fiscal year.^[1]

Biography

Early years

Iwata was born in Sapporo of the Hokkaido Prefecture of Japan. He expressed his interest in the creation of video games early on, and originating in an environment with a tradition of computer programming, he produced electronic games at his home during his high school years. The several simple number games Iwata produced, which made use of an electronic calculator, he shared with his schoolmates.

Education

Following high school, Iwata was admitted at the prestigious Tokyo Institute of Technology, where he majored in computer science. Such an environment allowed Iwata's technical expertise and passion for video games to be recognized and as such, he was hired as a part-time games programmer at HAL Laboratory, Inc., a subsidiary of Nintendo, while still pursuing his tertiary studies until graduation.

HAL Laboratory, Incorporated

In 1982, after succeeding at college, Iwata was recruited by HAL Laboratory, Inc. for a full-time position. He became the company's coordinator of software production in 1983. Some of the video games he helped create while he worked there were Balloon Fight, EarthBound, and the Kirby games. Iwata was eventually promoted to president of HAL in 1993. Nevertheless, he and his branch sometimes aided in the creation of Nintendo video games, himself on a freelance basis.

Nintendo

In 2000, Iwata took a position at Nintendo as the head of its corporate planning division. When Hiroshi Yamauchi, then the company's president since 1949, retired on May 31 2002, Iwata succeeded as Nintendo's fourth president and the first unrelated to the Yamauchi family through blood or marriage. He continues to help out at HAL as a correspondent. It is said that Iwata still works as an artist there, assisting in creating concept art of Kirby characters for use in the Kirby series of video games. His latest project is the Wii. He comments on the Wii in his section of Nintendo's Wii website, Iwata Asks.

Quotes

• "Nintendo has strong views on how we should run our company. We consider ourselves, above all else, as a gaming company. We believe other companies (in the console marketplace) see themselves primarily as technology companies.” [2]
• "Although many believe that technology automatically enables more realistic expression, I believe that is just not correct." [3]
• "Our competitors are always saying that Nintendo is just for children. To counter that, what we really need to do is explain to customers and potential customers [that we do not just make games for kids]." [4]

E³ 2004

• "Nintendo was proud of when we introduced the D-Pad with the NES, instead of arcade joysticks. Proud of two-player gaming on the NES and four-player gaming on Nintendo 64. Proud of the analog sticks, and rumble pak, and true 3D. We are proud we established portable gaming with Game Boy. All these advances are now industry standards. All make us proud. But I think we are most proud of this." - About DS

• " Better technology is good, but technology's not enough. Today's consoles already offer fairly photorealistic expressions. Simply beefing up those graphics will not let most of us see a difference." - About the strategy for Wii, code-named "Revolution" at the time

• "Nintendo is working on our next system, and that system will create a gaming revolution. Internal game development is underway. When the impact of the new home machine comes, our revolution will be there."

• "I suppose I could give you a list of the technical specs. I believe you would like that, but I won't for a simple reason; they really don't matter. The time when horsepower alone made an important difference is over."

E³ 2005

• "And my name is Iwata. I'm about making games and I'm about playing games. Last night, I played Super Smash Bros. That's my game. I kicked some... you know what and I took his name. His name was Reggie. As Nintendo president, I'm also all about asking questions. So Reggie, I have a question for you. Who's your daddy?" - Referencing Reggie Fils-Aime's famous opening words at E³ 2004

• "We gave you DS, a new Game Boy, and new games to play on them, and now you say "we want a revolution". Well, we've got one."

• "When you turn on Revolution and see the graphics, you will say "wow"."

• "One or two Wi-Fi games will be ready for launch. And, I am pushing our team to make sure Smash Bros. is one of them. That way, no matter where Reggie is, I can always beat him."

• "The key here is not what you are playing, but how you'll be playing."

• " This is the console where the big ideas can prevail over big budgets."

• "It is my job to run a global company, but within my job, what still gives me the most satisfaction is seeing someone pick up a controller and finding surprise and delight. What touches their heart still touches my heart."

E³ 2006

• "I am busier, busier than ever and if I have to wait 30 seconds or 40 seconds or more for a game to load, often, I get frustrated. And sometimes, I just can not wait. And now that I know I can instantly stop or start playing my DS by just closing or opening the top, I think I am spoiled."

• "Expanding the game audience with Wii means increasing the number of people in any household who are involved with games. Today, there are people who play, and people who do not. Wii will help destroy that wall between them."

GDC 2005

• "The name came from the computer in the movie 2001: Space Odyssey. We thought that name was very cool. Also, this is what I looked like back then. [Points to picture of self, much younger, on a motorcycle] Like all game creators, I was extremely cool, too." - Talking about the origin of HAL Laboratory's name.

• "People sometimes ask me what I did when I was hired at HAL. The answer is that I was a programmer. And an engineer. And a designer. And I marketed our games. I also ordered food. And I helped clean up. And, it was all great fun."

• "One thing that has not changed - and will not change - is our nature as a form of entertainment. Like any other entertainment medium, we must create an emotional response in order to succeed. Laughter, fear, joy, affection, surprise, and - most of all - accomplishment. In the end, triggering these feelings from our players is the true judgment of our work. This is the bottom line measurement of success."

GDC 2006

• "As any game developer knows, the three basic food groups are Fritos, Cheetos, and Doritos."

Trivia

• A common rumour concerning Satoru Iwata states that he owns many Kirby T-shirts, and is often seen wearing one outside of work. However, there is no widely known evidence to back up this claim.
• Iwata is the only president of Nintendo unrelated to Nintendo founder Fusajiro Yamauchi.
• He appears in two of the Wario Ware games. In the original, WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$!, he can be seen on Wario's TV in a break between microgames in the Introduction stage. In Wario Ware: Smooth Moves, he is the manager of a videogame store, and also appears as a Mii in the ending credits.

References

• ^ "N-Sider: Profile: Satoru Iwata". Retrieved July 16. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)

External links

• Satoru Iwata Keynote given at Tokyo Game Show 2005
• Seattle Post Intelligence: Satoru Iwata Interview
• Satoru Iwata Kikizo Video Interview
• Gamespy: Nintendo's New Direction - A discussion with Nintendo President Satoru Iwata
• Heart of a Gamer speech at GDC '05