Creator of Super Smash Bros. Masahiro Sakurai paid tribute to the former president of Nintendo Satoru Iwata, who died 10 years ago, at the age of 55.
Iwat’s death on July 11, 2015. After a long fight against bile duct cancer, she sent shock waves around the video game industry and caused a wave of tribute to other programmers and fans.
The beloved figure in Nintendo and among many of her followers, Iwata served as the president of the company from 2002 to his death, after decades of work as a programmer. This is the background and a passion for playing video games that provided Iwata with deep knowledge and understanding of Nintendo projects when Iwata got up through ranks to become a leader and figuration of the company.
“10 years have passed since then …” he continued. “Iwata-san and I was about 10 years old and when we joined the company, and soon I would catch up at his age, right?”
Iwata began his career at Hal Laboratory, the creator of games behind the early NES hits, such as golf fight and balloon, and there he later became a friend and friend of Sakurai, after an interview with a youthful programmer for his role.
Later, moving to work in Nintendo, Iwata was elected by the previous president of Hiroshi Yamauchi to serve as his successor, and then led the company through extremely profitable DS and Wii generations. Then, during the more arduous Eras 3DS and Wii U, Iwata has been temporarily reduced her salary twice for the coming years. At the end of his life, Iwata worked on the concept of Nintendo Switch – although he gave his success.
Today’s date was not unnoticed by Nintendo fans who began to share many memories of Iwat, and from the day Nintendo announced that he lost his president. 10 years later, memories of Nintendo Direct Iwata, recognition for his Iwata, which asks interviews and management of the company, which many have a synonym of childhood.
“I was 15 when I died Iwata,” wrote one fan, Racoon, on the video game fan forum Set. “I remember that I was very vividly awakening to the door of my sister to wake her up. Like many of my age, I was a very hot believer and a defender, Satoru Iwata as a president. Reading about the triumphs of Iwata in computer programming caused me to get interested in the field and led me to the university. decade
“It may seem stupid because I have never met him, but Iwata is someone I really respected and admired,” added another fan, Zashga. “The way he got up through the ranks as a programmer, a fixedty of restless projects, and ultimately the leader who took Nintendo from their seemingly inevitable fall to the novel Golden Age, is such an anomal and inspiring history. Tearing to a real legend.”
For a longer tribute to Iwata from Sakurai, the latter video remembering various anecdotes together It is worth watching. Perhaps you heard a story about how Iwata programming was enabled by Pokémon Gold and Silver to show the entire map of Pokémon Red and Blue, but do you know that Iwata also invented “Bros” “Super Smash Bros”. To explain that the fights were friendly?
“Mr. Iwata was really a person who understood me best,” sums up Sakurai in his homage film. “He was full of virtue, constantly busy, involved in the service and a man who changed the game industry.”
Picture Loan: Bob Riha, Jr./nintendo via Getty Images
Tom Phillips is the editor of Ign. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on BlueSky @tomphillipseg.bsky.Social
