Remembering Satoru Iwata Two Years Later

To most people, July 11^th is just another mid-summer day. Adults will go to work and kids will spend time playing outside getting the most out of the last month of their summer vacation from school. In the case of this year, it is Amazon a Prime day, a day to celebrate with savings! However, to gamers and Nintendo fans, it is a day that lives in infamy, a day of mourning. It is the day that we lost one of this industry’s best, Satoru Iwata.

It has now been two years since the passing of Satoru Iwata, which is hard to believe. It seems like only yesterday that we were getting the heartbreaking news that the man who brought Nintendo news “Directly” to us had tragically passed. As I am sure most of you know, Satoru Iwata was the fourth President and CEO on Nintendo. However, Mr. Iwata was so much more than just another man in a business suit. He was a man who was passionate about his job, Nintendo, and the video game industry in general. Nothing sums this up better than one of his most famous quotes, “On my business card, I am a corporate president. In my mind, I am a game developer. But in my heart, I am a gamer." This exact quote epitomizes just what made Mr. Iwata so special. He was a humble man who knew his roots. Despite climbing the corporate ladder to one of the Industry’s top spots, he still recognized his beginnings as simply a gamer. He was one of us, and that is what made him feel so warm and relatable every time we saw him speak.

Despite his early passing at the age of just 55, Mr. Iwata left behind a legacy greater than most who live much longer lives. Working during the infancy period of the video game industry, Mr. Iwata started developing games in the 70’s, and eventually joined the development team, HAL Laboratory. While climbing the ranks within HAL Lab, Mr. Iwata began working on games for a newly released home gaming console, the Nintendo Entertainment System (Famicom/NES). First producing a port of the arcade game Joust, Mr. Iwata worked on many other games for Nintendo, eventually bringing the beloved Kirby to life. Satoru Iwata had a hand in many of Nintendo’s games, such as their premiere fighting game, Super Smash Bros. Perhaps Mr. Iwata’s best work as a developer with HAL came in the form of the SNES cult classic, Earthbound (Mother 2).

Satoru Iwata climbed the ranks of Nintendo, eventually becoming the company’s fourth President in 2002. At this position, Mr. Iwata oversaw work on consoles such as the Nintendo DS and the Wii, and countless incredible games. He even oversaw early development of the Switch during the finals months of his life. After serving as President for 13 years, Mr. Iwata tragically died of complications from a bile duct tumor on July 11, 2015. Nintendo informed the public of Satoru Iwata’s passing the next day, and entered into mourning for the next several months, even lowering the flags at their headquarters to half-staff.

Today, 2 years after his sudden passing, we remember the life and legacy of Satoru Iwata. While his life ended far too soon, he left an impact on the video game industry that few others ever will. Today, Nintendo, the gaming industry, and gamers all over the world mourn the loss of the former President of Nintendo. Despite no longer being with us, we are still enjoying the fruits of his labor as we play on our Switches, reminisce on Kirby or Earthbound, or even play Pokemon Go. Rest in Peace Mr. Iwata, you are missed.