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It's incredibly hard to believe that one year ago today, former president of Nintendo, Satoru Iwata, passed away. And yet here we are, a year has passed, and the days continue to fly by.

Satoru Iwata was a businessman, a gamer, and a great man. Say what you will of his business acumen, the man brought so much success, so much passion and so much joy to his company and his consumers.

He was a futurist and an idealist. He set the pathway for Nintendo's future in ways they had never thought to go before. He was brilliant, strategic, and caring.

And he is still missed to this day.

I hope everyone will keep this man in your thoughts today, maybe play a little Balloon Fight or Pokemon Go today in his memory.

Thank you Iwata. For everything you did for us. Rest in peace.

 

[Foxi4]

Excellent designer, terrible businessman. The best years of Nintendo were definitely the ones with Iwata in charge of game development, the downfall began when he stopped working with games and started working with money - in many ways that's probably what contributed to his untimely departure. He'll be remembered, forever.

 

[The Catboy]

I can't believe it's already been a year since his passing. I am sad now.

 

[JustAKirby]

How many epic quotes does this guy have?
Seriously though, no one will ever be the humorous, talented and fun-loving president that Satoru Iwata was.

 

[Swiftloke]

"Goodbye, Iwata. You'll always be Earthbound in our hearts."
-some guy on Miiverse
But really, Nintendo is clearly going to die without him around if something doesn't happen quickly.

 

[Foxi4]

"Goodbye, Iwata. You'll always be Earthbound in our hearts."
-some guy on Miiverse
But really, Nintendo is clearly going to die without him around if something doesn't happen quickly.

The paradoxical thing is that Nintendo is going to flourish without him around because Iwata was too focused on idealistic thought and too blind to market trends. I suspect that the next great Nintendo platform, which will come after the NX, will be in-line with what the competition is doing because Iwata was simply miscast and deep down wanted to make "experiences" rather than competent machines. I think the next golden age of Nintendo is coming and Iwata's talents were, for the most part, wasted. He was great at crafting meaningful game systems (not to be confused with hardware or marketing), not so much with the minutiae of running a multibillion international company. He was a passionate programmer, not an economist or market analyst, and we should remember him for his great achievements, not his flaws.

As far as Earthbound is concerned, people know what I think about it already. It sucks and belongs in the garbage can, so the parallel is insulting in and out of itself. ;O;

 

[WiiUBricker]

I can't believe how fast one year has passed.

 

[Arecaidian Fox]

A year already... Wow... I tend to agree with @Foxi4 regarding his tenure as Nintendo's President, but no matter what you have to say about the man, you can't deny he had a great passion for the work he did. A passion that, no matter what, is indeed missed.

 

[Foxi4]

A year already... Wow... I tend to agree with @Foxi4 regarding his tenure as Nintendo's President, but no matter what you have to say about the man, you can't deny he had a great passion for the work he did. A passion that, no matter what, is indeed missed.

Oh, I agree that Iwata was a great man, I just feel that his potential was wasted. His strong points laid in game design, and this was true even before he became the president of the company. I would be an idiot to ignore Iwata's influence on gaming - in many ways Nintendo shaped the way we game today, but I sincerely think that his most prolific years were the ones when he dealt with games, not the years when he dealt with running the company. There's a reason why the NES or the Game Boy were top dogs while the Gamecube or the Wii U were underdogs. I really think that he would've been more suitable in a more hands-on position and I revere him for what he's done in the 80'ties, but his performance in late 90'ties and early 2000's left much to be desired - he was a fish out of the water, and I feel bad for him because he found himself in a position where his creativity had to be curbed by financial and market constraints. Iwata was a brilliant artist and making a businessman out of him hurt the company as a whole, at least in my opinion. His role did not play into his strengths.

 

[HaloEffect17]

I still remember that banana on the GBAtemp banner... wow, time has gone quickly.

 

[anhminh]

Excellent designer, terrible businessman. The best years of Nintendo were definitely the ones with Iwata in charge of game development, the downfall began when he stopped working with games and started working with money - in many ways that's probably what contributed to his untimely departure. He'll be remembered, forever.

So he wasn't the guy who behind Wii and NDS success? Or save 3DS from falling down the ground from smartphone trend?

 

[DinohScene]

Beautifully fitting quote.
Hard to believe it's been a year.

 

[nero99]

Why must you resurrect such painful feels? Without him, nintendo will never be the same

 

[Foxi4]

So he wasn't the guy who behind Wii and NDS success? Or save 3DS from falling down the ground from smartphone trend?

The 3DS *is* failing against the onslaught of smartphones, have you seen the recent list of releases? The platform is dying, it has been dying for months now. The Wii was a fluke due to a gimmick of motion controls that it offered at a low entry fee, just like the NDS which combined affordability and a touchscreen interface - something most low-end devices at the time didn't offer. None of those machines are particularily good or innovative - two of them just happened to fall into an unexpected market niche. There's no denying that the PSP was superior to the NDS in every way or that the PS3/360 were superior to the Wii in every way, that's why the PS3/360 still sell well today while the Wii is in the realm of obscurity. We love those machines, but by all metrics they suck. They're nothing like the NES or the SNES which were cutting edge when they came out, even when compared to consumer PC's. Iwata was a great man, but I choose to remember him for what he was great at - games, not running a company.

 

[grossaffe]

Don't turn this into another debate on Nintendo's direction, please.

 

[CeeDee]

Don't turn this into another debate on Nintendo's direction, please.

But we simply must continue whining on how Nintendo is surely doomed!

 

[Deleted User]

Wow, I remember hearing about his death and when I did. But it just doesn't feel like a year has passed. Damn

 

[Yarott]

Excellent designer, terrible businessman. The best years of Nintendo were definitely the ones with Iwata in charge of game development, the downfall began when he stopped working with games and started working with money - in many ways that's probably what contributed to his untimely departure. He'll be remembered, forever.

He was a far better programmer than he was a designer. Nevermind as a businessman.

 

[Coto]

He was a far better programmer than he was a designer. Nevermind as a businessman.

This is the karma of most great programmers you know

 

[Yil]

"Goodbye, Iwata. You'll always be Earthbound in our hearts."
-some guy on Miiverse
But really, Nintendo is clearly going to die without him around if something doesn't happen quickly.

Kimashima is much more business oriented, but let's hope he understand what nintendo is about.
Pokemon go's design was ingenius, even the battle system. Pokemon's complex battle and strategies are too much for a mobile game but punch out gameplay is still very good for the platform.
I dislike Japan for historic reasons but Nintendo is always there to shine.