How to Pronounce Satoru Iwata
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Dec 06, 1959 Sapporo, Hokkaidō Prefecture, Japan Died on 11 Jul 2015 (aged 55)
Japanese video game programmer and businessman
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About Satoru Iwata
- Satoru Iwata (Japanese: ?? ?, Hepburn: Iwata Satoru, December 6, 1959 – July 11, 2015) was a Japanese businessman, video game programmer and gamer.
- He was the fourth president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Nintendo.
- He is widely regarded as a major contributor in broadening the appeal of video games to a wider audience by focusing on novel and entertaining games rather than top-of-the-line hardware. Born in Sapporo, Japan, Iwata expressed interest in video games from an early age and created his first simple game while in high school.
- He majored in computer science at the Tokyo Institute of Technology.
- In 1980, he joined the game developer HAL Laboratory while attending the university.
- During his early years at HAL Laboratory he worked as a programmer and closely collaborated with Nintendo, producing his first commercial game in 1983.
- Notable titles to which he contributed at HAL include EarthBound and the Kirby series.
- Following a downturn and near-bankruptcy, Iwata became the president of HAL Laboratory in 1993 at the insistence of Nintendo President Hiroshi Yamauchi and brought financial stability to the company.
- In the following years, he assisted in the development of the Pokémon and Super Smash Bros.
- series.
- Iwata joined Nintendo as the head of its corporate-planning division in 2000. Nintendo soon saw notable growth with Iwata's assistance and, when Yamauchi retired, he became the company's president in May 2002.
- Under Iwata's direction, Nintendo developed the Nintendo DS and Wii video game consoles, helping the company achieve financial success.
- As a self-declared gamer, he focused on expanding the appeal of video games across all demographics through a "blue ocean" business strategy.
- The company attained record profits by 2009, and Barron's placed Iwata among the top 30 CEOs worldwide.
- Iwata subsequently expanded his blue ocean strategy by defining a quality of life product line for the Wii that later evolved into a ten-year business strategy to create stand-alone products.
- Later hardware such as the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U proved far less profitable than the Wii, and Nintendo's net sales fell by two thirds from 2009 to 2012; the company saw its first operating losses in 30 years during this time.
- Iwata voluntarily halved his salary in 2011 and 2014.
- In 2015, after several years of refusal, Iwata put a portion of Nintendo's focus into the rapidly growing mobile game market; a landmark partnership with mobile provider DeNA was established that March.
- Throughout his career, Iwata built a strong relationship with Nintendo fans through social media and his regular appearances in Iwata Asks and Nintendo Direct, becoming the public face of the company. In June 2014, a tumor in Iwata's bile duct was discovered during a routine physical exam.
- It was removed, and Iwata returned to work in October of that year.
- The problem resurfaced in 2015, and Iwata died at the age of 55 from its complications on July 11.
- Members of the gaming industry and fans alike offered tributes through public announcements and social media, and fans worldwide established temporary memorials.
- Iwata was posthumously awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2015 Golden Joystick Awards and the 2016 DICE Awards.
