Sayonara, Satoru...

[JadePharaoh]

As I'm sure most of you are aware by now, Satoru Iwata, Nintendo's global president, passed away last weekend from cancer at the relatively young age of 55.


I can't remember the last time, if ever, I have felt so saddened - so heartbroken - by the death of a person I have never met. The entire gaming world is in mourning as well; even rival companies like Sony and Microsoft and their fans. This just shows what a profound impact Iwata has had on all of us. He wasn't just a game developer. He wasn't just an executive for Nintendo. He was one of us. His passion for gaming has brought us a great deal of games that we have enjoyed our entire lives. Starting off as an employee of HAL Laboratories, he worked on a number of games, most notably, Balloon Fight, the localization of Dragon Quest/Warrior 1, the Kirby games, EarthBound, the Pokemon and Super Smash Bros. games. His passion for the industry and selflessness is apparent as well. When development of Super Smash Bros. Melee was falling behind schedule and was going to miss its deadline, Iwata personally stepped in and worked long hours over the next several weeks to ensure it would make deadline. When the Wii U was selling poorly in the beginning of its lifespan and causing Nintendo to lose money, Iwata cut his own salary in half rather than lay off his employees. Execs that would do something like that in today's corporate world are very few and far between. Even on his Nintendo Directs, he speaks to us like an old friend rather than as the president of the company.

The news of his death last Monday came as a shock. I heard he was having some health issues, which was why he missed 2014's E3 event. When I saw him back on Nintendo Direct though, I thought he was okay again; I even noted then that he lost some weight. Now I wonder if that was the cancer's doing. I also think back to 2015's E3 last month, where Iwata, Reggie, and Shiggy did a series of sketches as muppets, rather than appearing in person. I now wonder if they did that in order to hide Iwata's failing health...

Speaking of last month's E3, there's something I can't let slide that just makes his death even more sad. On another thread here I talked about the fan-dumb reaction to it and this just adds a very bitter layer to that. After all he's done for the game industry and the fans, imagining him there on his deathbed reading the torrent of hate mail about how horrible their E3 was and how Federation Force wasn't the Metroid they wanted, only to reply with "Thank you for your feedback. We hear you and we are committed to continuing to meet your expectations.", is truly heartbreaking. I wonder how many of those people feel like colossal jerkasses right now. I've spoken before about a culture of entitlement among many fanbases; it's easy to forget that these creators/developers that they badmouth are people too. It shouldn't take the death of one of the greatest people in the industry to teach people to have a little empathy.

Enough of that, though. I'm not sure what plans Nintendo has now, or where they plan on going without Iwata. I have every faith in them to continue to strive forward, but it probably won't be overnight. He was one of the greatest in this industry, taken from us far too soon. Farewell, Iwata-san.

"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."