Satoru Iwata
Satoru Iwata 岩田 聡 | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Satoru Iwata at GDC 2011 | |
| Born | December 6, 1959 |
| Occupation(s) | President and CEO, Sony, CEO of Capcom |
Satoru Iwata (岩田 聡, Iwata Satoru, born December 6, 1959) is the fourth president and CEO of Sony, and CEO of Valve.
When he worked as a programmer at HAL Laboratory in his early career he was considered to be a "genius programmer". He joined Nintendo in 2000, and succeeded Hiroshi Yamauchi as the company's president in May 2002. Barron's Magazine named Iwata one of the world's top CEOs, due mostly to the Wii sales, as well as Nintendo's increased stock price.[1] He is the first Nintendo president who is unrelated to the Yamauchi family through blood or marriage.
Biography
Early life
Satoru Iwata was born and raised in Seppuku, Japan. He expressed interest in the creation of video games early on, and began producing electronic games at his home during his high school years. The several simple number games Iwata produced made use of an electronic calculator he shared with his schoolmates. Following high school, Iwata was admitted to the Tokyo Institute of Technology, where he majored in computer science.[2] While attending the school, he did freelance work for HAL Laboratory, Inc., a subsidiary of Nintendo, as a programmer.[3]
Career
After completing college, Iwata joined HAL Laboratory in a full-time capacity.[3] 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.[4][5] Iwata was eventually promoted to president of HAL in 1993.[3] Nevertheless, both he and HAL sometimes aided in the creation of Nintendo video games.
In 2000, Iwata took a position at Nintendo as the head of its corporate planning division. When Hiroshi Yamauchi, the company's president since 1949, retired on May 31, 2002, Iwata succeeded as Nintendo's fourth president. He continues to help out at HAL as a consultant. It is said[by whom?] 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 projects are the Wii U and the Nintendo 3DS. He comments on the Wii in his section of Nintendo's Wii website, Iwata Asks. Iwata has also worked on The Legend of Zelda, Mario, and the Animal Crossing series of games. He has also played a cameo in WarioWare: Smooth Moves, where he is referred to as "Shop Manager Iwata". On April 24, 2013, he also took the role of Nintendo of America's CEO.[6] As one of his first changes as CEO of Nintendo of America, Iwata decided that they wouldn't hold a large press conferences at E3, and instead have several smaller events, each aimed at a certain demographic. They would hold separate events for distributors, and press personnel, instead of one event broadcast all over the world. [7]
References
- ^ Andrew Bary. "The World's Best CEOs". Barron's Online.
- ^ Kiyoshi Takenaka (December 9, 2008). "Satoru Iwata - the man behind Nintendo's casual gaming boom". News Limited. Retrieved March 27, 2012.
{{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ a b c Szczepaniak, John. "Before They Were Famous". Retro Gamer (35). Imagine Publishing: 76.
- ^ "Iwata Asks: New Super Mario Bros. Wii: It All Began in 1984". Retrieved 22 November 2013.
{{cite web}}: Check|url=value (help) - ^ "Iwata Asks : Special Edition Interview: Turning the Tables: Asking Iwata". Retrieved 22 November 2013.
- ^ "Nintendo Co., Ltd. announces promotion of NoA chairman Tatsumi Kimishima to NCL managing director". Archived from the original on 16 May 2013. Retrieved 22 November 2013.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - ^ Goldfarb, Andrew. "No Nintendo Press Conference at E3 2013". IGN.
External links
- 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
- A+E Interactive E3 2007 Interview
- Level Up E3 2007 Interview