Five Things Nintendo and players have to Satoru Iwata – Liberation

Since 2002 CEO of Nintendo, Satoru Iwata died Monday of cancer at age 55. In thirteen years of management of the Japanese company, it will have its mark, and launched two of the most sold in the history of video game consoles.

“In my heart, I am a player”

This is perhaps Satoru Iwata himself who best summed up his state of mind at the head of Nintendo, the company that gave birth to Mario Zelda , the Game Boy and Pokemon. In 2005, during a lecture at the Game Developers Conference, he described: “ On my map, I am a corporate president. In my mind I am a game developer. But in my heart, I am a player . “

Entered in 1983 with the developer Hal Laboratory, which almost exclusively working with Nintendo, Iwata has contributed to the development of the series Kirby , and a few Pokemon . In 2002, when he took over from Hiroshi Yamauchi, the father’s stern face and who ran Nintendo since the 1960s, so it comes as a creator and developer, but as a manager: Hal Laboratory appointed CEO in 1993, He righted the studio, which then develop the series of Super Smash Bros. Faced in recent years to the shareholders who asked for cuts in staffing pressures studios, Iwata replied: “ I doubt that employees frightened at the prospect of being fired can develop games likely to impress people around the world . ” Heir to the excellent reputation of Nintendo, it has long refused the idea of ​​using the most famous of the company on mobile phones licenses before selling. While ensuring that it will not produce copies of beasts Mario .

The Nintendo DS

When Satoru Iwata takes the lead Nintendo, the Japanese company is in a complicated situation. Certainly no deficit (it is very rarely) and still largely leading handheld market with the Game Boy Advance (GBA), she faces his biggest failure in the home console industry with GameCube . Yet with a toy library excellence (in which there is Zelda: The Wind Waker and Luigi’s Mansion ), this more powerful platform than the PS2 Sony is not sold than 20 million copies worldwide – the PS2, it will be one of the best selling console of all time with 158 million copies. It is far from 100 million previously achieved by the NES, carried by first Super Mario Bros .

In short, it is a small shape that Nintendo has , at E3 2004, its new handheld console, the Nintendo DS. On stage, Satoru Iwata out the object of his pocket and announced: “ it is different .” And for good reason. Has two screens with touch, Nintendo DS announces new ways to play, and prefigures the madness of touch that will take hold of mobile phones two years later

Reach by Excellence quality games and the usual Pokemon , the Nintendo DS, released at the end of 2004, will emerge as the next most successful of all time (with the PS2 so ), especially through educational programs, including Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training .

Wii

One year after the Nintendo DS, at the conference E3 2005, Satoru Iwata arrives on stage with a new console: the “Revolution” (that is when the code name for a while yet). This time, Iwata does not come out of his pocket console, but it still hid it in hands as it is compact. Is the Wii

After the failure of the GameCube, the Japanese manufacturer has decided to abandon the race for power: benefiting from the same architecture that GameCube, the Wii console will be the “motion gaming”. With a joystick motion recognition that everyone now knows, it is launched with a demonstration game that office, Wii Sports . Tennis, golf, bowling … Now we must move in his living room to see his gestures reproduced on the screen

The success is total. Wii will sell very quickly to 100 million copies and will be acquired, among others, retirement homes. Nintendo, who always wanted to conquer the very public, then passes through the most beautiful era in its history consolier. But focusing heavily on games-to concepts of the family ( Wii Music , Wii Fit … ), it tarnishes its image of game publisher for “gamers “. These can still benefit, Wii, several masterpieces including the two Super Mario Galaxy .

The Wii U

C is the darkest part of the career of head Iwata of Nintendo. Presented at E3 2011, and output over a year later, the Wii U is expected to announce as the perfect result of the Wii. More powerful, it welcomes a new concept: a controller with a touch screen and a motion sensor which makes the synthesis of the two most successful society. Problem: this time, the presentation of Iwata at E3 is confused. It is not known if this is an accessory for the Wii or a new console.

a lack of games (and yet there are excellent, especially Mario Kart 8 , Bayonetta 2 and Super Mario 3D World ), the Wii U is unable to position itself in a clear niche. And although she welcomes suites all cartons Wii (new Wii Sports , a new Wii Fit ), it does not take. No doubt, especially because a very large part of the public of the Wii does not see the value of investing in a platform that offers the same, while his old console still works fine. With 10 million copies sold in nearly three years, the Wii U is a party to be the biggest failure of the market for Nintendo consoles. Before his death, Satoru Iwata announced that the next Nintendo console, which is not yet known whether it will be portable or living room, NX, released in 2016.

Derision

Although recent years have been difficult, Satoru Iwata has never parted with his good humor. It has even become one of the most endearing characters in the world of video games, thanks to a program launched by Nintendo itself: Nintendo Direct . Launched in 2011, these video modules published by the company on the Internet to promote its latest games are an opportunity for the CEO to speak directly to the players, and take the stage. Soon, his gimmicks are recovered and diverted by users; in return, Iwata is amused himself, in an exercise of self-deprecating beneficial while competitors Sony and Microsoft, are assault sententious phrases. His “ directly to you ” pronounced with Japanese accent become cults. At E3 2014, for the presentation of new Super Smash Bros. on Wii U and Nintendo 3DS, it is staged in a Homeric battle against Reggie Fils-Aime, president of Nintendo America . And at the last E3, which he could not attend due to his health, he appeared as a puppet.