A Goodbye to Satoru Iwata

As you may understand at this point, video games have been a huge part of my life ever since I was a child. For myself and many others, we grew up with games. We played them through our child-hood and as we grew into adults.  This especially holds true with Nintendo, which is nearly a Disney equivalent of video games for many young people these days.

Just this past Sunday July 12th 2015, the gaming industry received sad news as one of the most incredible visionaries of it's ecosystem passed away. Satoru Iwata, the President and CEO of Nintendo has passed at the age of 55 due to a battle with cancer. It was very sudden and unexpected, and as we can see days later by the outpouring of tributes and kind words, Iwata was a man that made an overwhelmingly positive influence on the art form we love.

Iwatas influence on gaming and Nintendo was massive, he started as a programmer for the company HAL Laboratories in the late 80's where he would eventually be named president of the company in 1993, working on games like the Kirby, Earthbound, and Balloon Fight series. Following his career he would then be named director of Nintendo in 2000, and then finally as president and representative director in 2002, the first president of the company outside of the founding Yamauchi family. Besides his impressive resume, Iwatas lasting legacy on gaming can be seen in the wonderful experiences he helped to create and the unbridled joy he brought to the business at every opportunity.

 Satoru Iwata held a belief that video games were something fun at heart, and that everyone should be able to experience the joy that games can bring to our lives A noble sentiment to be sure, even if some may dispute the fact. Iwata always brought a smile and the feeling of joy to his work, and to fans. Throughout the years he led Nintendo through some drastic changes, Nintendo a company that had been stuck in their ways for years. Believing that what they did was best.

Since 2002, we've seen huge change out of the company under Iwatas leadership. Nintendo released the DS, changing the handheld game forever and introducing a new world of touch controls that changed how we play. A few years later they would introduce the Wii and revolutionize the face of video games, making them appeal to a broader audience than ever seen before.Even recently in the last year we've seen huge surprises from Nintendo, with Amiibo and the partnership with DeNA to make mobile games. The point is, Iwata wasn't afraid to be different to make the experiences we get from Nintendo as best as they can possibly be.

There's a quote from the late president that has been all over the internet this week, "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." Iwata understood what video games were more intimately than most people, which is why he had such dedication to what Nintendo did. We saw the advent of Nintendo Directs that usually featured Iwata heavily, he wanted fans to know he was there and that he cared. How many CEOs of billion dollar companies can we name by name, let alone feel like we knew personally? Satoru Iwata was welcoming, warm. He wanted to share Nintedo's creations with us, he was excited to share their wonderful imaginative creations with his fellow gamers. 

Nintendo games were hugely influential for me, and held some of my absolute favorite experiences of my childhood. From roaming the expanse of Hyrule field in Ocarina of Time, to blasting through asteroids and enemy ships with my Arwing in Starfox 64. These experiences helped form my identity as a gamer and a consumer of entertainment. The games that I play helped breed my imagination. During recess in elementary school my friends and I would pretend we were flying around in Arwings, shooting down bad guys while we made whooshing noises to imitate the ships.

To myself, Nintendo is so special because it captures the very essence and wonder of that childhood imagination. It reminds us all what it is to be pure fun and imagination. Just look at how fondly people remember their experiences with Mario, Zelda, Kirby, and the other titles in the incredible stable Nintendo has. These games and experiences that I had as a child, are what led me down the path I'm on today. I would be enraptured by Majora's Mask as a child, and years later come back to analyze it on the themes of sadness and grief that the game was inundated with. Game like Zelda, Star Fox, and Mario helped to breed a strong passion for gaming withing me and are definitely one of the biggest factors in my decision to work in this industry.

Games are at their best when their inventive and fun, they can be wildly immersive experiences. My ultimate goal is to make games myself after I have a wealth of experience in the industry, and with what I make I want my games to be strange and thoughtful experiences. I want them to make people feel things, and think things. Nintendo holds so many joyous experiences for so many of us, and Satoru Iwata helped get those experiences to us and make them as great as they could possibly be. He was a visionary, that taught us things about not only how we should make and experience games but what video games can mean to us and how we feel.

The industry mourns for him, and the outpouring of support and love for him as been heartwarming. He will be sorely missed, so many of us owe so much to him. As creators, as consumers, as gamers we will never forget the contributions he made. And as a small side note, the day after Iwata's untimely passing a rainbow was spotted over Nintendo's headquarters in Kyoto, Japan. A fitting tribute as we all hope Iwata made his way down the never-ending rainbow road.