Thinking About Satoru Iwata

Satoru Iwata was part of a dying breed in the gaming industry, a breed that tried to focus on the fun of playing video games, instead of the financial return. Phil Spencer, head of Microsoft, was recently quoted as saying “I think our industry is better when more people who [make] decisions on games play.” The wording comes off a bit confusing, but the general idea is that the industry as a whole is made better when the people in charge of the industry are also gamers themselves. While there’s nothing wrong with trying to go for the quick buck, Satoru Iwata, and by extension Nintendo, was not about that. This is something that I wasn’t really made aware of until Mr. Iwata’s untimely passing, but when I look back at his legacy with Nintendo, I realize the folly of my thoughts.

The people behind the Game Developers Conference, or GDC, recently uploaded a keynote speech that Iwata-san made, way back in 2005. The Nintendo DS wasn’t even a year old during this speech, but it becomes evident just how much joy Satoru Iwata garnered from video games. At one point during his speech, he invites about 5 or 6 other people to come up to the stage and join him in a game of Mario Kart. While watching these people play the game, Iwata’s love of the genre begins to shine through. He and Bill Trinen (the Senior Product Manager at Nintendo of America) share quips back and forth throughout the session, and whenever the camera shows Iwata’s face, you can easily see how much he enjoys the act of playing games with others.

Further into the speech, Iwata and Trinen go on to showcase games like Nintendogs and Electroplankton, two titles for the original DS that broke the mold of what a traditional game is/should be. The design philosophy behind these types of games is to bring people that already don’t identify as gamers themselves. It is one of, if not the most important, core principles behind Nintendo’s design strategy since Mr. Iwata first became President of Nintendo of Japan. The Nintendo Wii had not come out at this point, but the motivation behind games such as Nintendogs were to get people playing again. The key word there is “playing”. Obviously companies are out to make money at the end of the day, but that was not Nintendo’s main goal. If they made money along the way, it was more of a happy accident than anything. Nintendo was (and still is) about games first and foremost. It’s something that seems to be less and less prevalent as time goes on.

The world has lost one of its great innovators, and one of its most brightest minds with the passing of Satoru Iwata. It is a hole in the industry (and at Nintendo specifically) that will be incredibly difficult, if not impossible to fill. It makes me sad that our last major interaction with Mr. Iwata, and Nintendo as a gaming community, was one of disappointment. Iwata-san would rather take a pay cut than lose people on his team, and that is something that is rare to find in this day and age. In truth, the upset lies with the fact that we believe that Nintendo can do better. We know what the company is capable of when firing on all cylinders, and our lofty expectations have not been met as of late. There’s nothing wrong with voicing our disappointment, but my reaction is still the same. I just hope that Mr. Iwata knew how much he was truly respected in this industry, with both gamers, and the people that make the games as well.

Life is often taken for granted, and in a lot of cases, taken away far too soon. We are lucky that we have people such as Iwata-san around to show us the joy in the simple things. It’s a shame that, more often than not, it is only discovered in retrospect, after it is too late.

Thank you so much for the memories, Mr. Iwata. May you rest in peace.