Satoru Iwata passes away

[Sandman42]

Nintendo Co., Ltd. deeply regrets to announce that President Satoru Iwata passed away on July 11, 2015 due to a bile duct growth.

http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/pdf/2015/150713e.pdf

RIP to one of the truly great figures in video games.

[daniel77733]

Re: Satoru Iwata passes away

Will always love and respect Nintendo and this is just sad, period.

R.I.P. Satoru Iwata

[nate1986]

Re: Satoru Iwata passes away

Sad day in the gaming world RIP Iwata

[Flawless]

Re: Satoru Iwata passes away

Man, what a gut punch. I thought he was getting better.

Rest in peace, Iwata-san.

[thaSLAB]

Re: Satoru Iwata passes away

May Iwata-san RIP... Sad day in gaming, as he was truly a pioneer, despite the opinions as of late.

htcONE [M8] 5.0 | Tapatalk

[Cyros]

Re: Satoru Iwata passes away

[LingeringRegime]

Re: Satoru Iwata passes away

Too young.

RIP Iwatasama.

[SinisterAlex]

Re: Satoru Iwata passes away

A huge loss for the gaming industry. There will be no other CEO like Mr. Iwata.

May your Rest in Peace.

[LambertandHam]

Re: Satoru Iwata passes away

Wow, I didn't realize he was sick. I grew up as a Nintendo kid, with the NES, SNES, N64 and Gameboy, playing his games. Every time I saw him on Nintendo's E3 event, he seemed upbeat, cheerful and genuinely happy to share and to be doing what he was doing. RIP.

[Cubfan]

Re: Satoru Iwata passes away

RIP Iwata-san and thank you for all you have done for the video game industry.

[SinisterAlex]

Re: Satoru Iwata passes away

[DJ]

Re: Satoru Iwata passes away

Just heard about this. I didn't know of his health issues. What a shame. Too young. A pioneer of the industry, his legacy will live on and carry enormous weight.

R.I.P.

[Flawless]

Re: Satoru Iwata passes away

Listen to this beautiful tribute to Satoru Iwata from the composer of Dr. Mario

On his Soundcloud page, Tanaka released a new chiptunes track called simply "Dedicated to Satoru Iwata," and it's a breezy number that calls to mind some of Nintendo's best games, a number of which Iwata worked on as a programmer. In a wonderful touch, it's actually a remix of the theme from NES classic Balloon Fight; Iwata and Tanaka first met in 1983 while working on the game, and later were part of the same team on the cult role playing game Earthbound. Tanaka's tribute is part of a huge outpouring of support for Iwata, who in many ways embodied the very best of Nintendo.

https://soundcloud.com/hip_tanaka/dedicated-to-satoru-iwata

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Gamasutra - Satoru Iwata in quotes: The personality, the programmer, the leader

"I sincerely doubt employees who fear that they may be laid off will be able to develop software titles that could impress people around the world." – Iwata in 2013, explaining why he didn’t lay off workers and restructure the business amid Nintendo’s financial challenges.

"Mr. Miyamoto taught me a painful lesson: Content really is king. His games outsold mine by a huge margin. I found out then that engineering is not quite as important as imagination. To be honest, I was ashamed." – Iwata reflects on how his technically-superior games were outsold by luminary Nintendo designer Shigeru Miyamoto’s iconic games.

"Video games are meant to be just one thing. Fun. Fun for everyone." – Iwata in the GDC 2006 keynote, "Disrupting Development."

The Verge: Remembering the rare talent of Nintendo president Satoru Iwata

He reportedly coded cult classic Earthbound (Mother in Japan) singlehandedly, and even as he was transitioning to upper management, Iwata remained a virtuoso programmer, brought into thorny projects as a code whisperer. In 2001, while already working as general manager of corporate planning, he stepped in to streamline the GameCube version of Super Smash Bros, crushing bugs for three weeks so the game could hit its planned release date. While president of HAL Laboratory, Iwata ported the entire battle system from Game Boy games Pokémon Red and Blue to N64 title Pokémon Stadium on his own, without any design documentation, in a week.

To program a game is hard. To run a company successfully for 13 years is harder. To appear as the charismatic public face of that company is almost impossible. With him gone, Nintendo loses a rare talent capable of all three, and we lose a man who came to be associated with the best of Nintendo's games — bright, optimistic, and always full of joy.

Eurogamer - Satoru Iwata: a gentle revolutionary

Satoru Iwata, who has passed away at the age of 55, was once seen unboxing a Wii U in a Nintendo Direct sporting white surgical gloves: the perfect accompaniment to a man who was gentle, self-deprecating, polite and precise. Behind the scenes, however, he was also a man who was never afraid to get his hands dirty. There's a wonderful story about him patrolling the shop floor at Nintendo's Kyoto headquarters prior to the Wii U's release, being shown the line-up for the console's impending launch in his role as the company's president. He paused on Balloon Trip Breeze, a mini-game within Nintendo Land which paid tribute to Balloon Fight, the 1984 game on which Iwata acted as programmer. Noticing something wasn't quite right with the feel of the characters as they flapped their way across the screen, he astonished everyone present as he set about fixing it - the head of the company rolling his sleeves up and getting stuck into the code.

Iwata's tenure, and the affection and respect in which he is held by developers and players alike, has been defined by this hands-on approach. Speaking to Shigesato Itoi, with whom he worked to create the SNES role-playing game Earthbound, Iwata once said he never wanted to be a mere bystander. He never was.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDGUixiK5g4

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NDGUixiK5g4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

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IGN tribute:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gi89xPzjDEE

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Gi89xPzjDEE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>