Godspeed, Satoru Iwata

It has been announced that on July 11th, 2015, Satoru Iwata, head of Nintendo Corporation, has died due to complications related to a bile duct growth. The gaming community, especially  Nintendo’s, has been wracked by this event, and has given their condolences.

Satoru Iwata, born on the 6th of December in 1959, became interested in making video games early on, and eventually joined HAL Labratory, where he was responsible in the participation of many games, including Kirby, Earthbound, and Balloon Fight. Eventually, he was promoted to president of HAL Labratory, who became responsible for bringing the company out of bankruptcy.

As the head of Nintendo, he was responsible for bringing Nintendo into its state of glory as of today, responsible for bringing back handheld games after the Gamecube. The success of these games and the concurrent uprising of the Wii console salvaged the company.

He was very adept with speaking to the community, regularly reaching out to the fanbase through social media. He set up Nintendo Direct, a online channel that directly announced games and projects by Nintendo which would be otherwise given out by the press. During this time, he assisted in the creation and improvement of the Mario series, the Legend of Zelda series, the Animal Crossing series, etc.

Rest in peace, Iwata. May your example follow suit to many others to come, that is, directly.

“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.” – Satoru Iwata