R.I.P. Iwata-sachou of Nintendo

[Nintendo]

Iwata Satoru


At 55, you were gone too soon. You were a loving husband, father and Nintendo's president.


Nintendo will never be the same without you. You will be missed.


My thoughts go out to all tou family, friends and fans.


A restructuring is incoming.

http://kotaku.com/nintendos-president-has-passed-away-1717386412

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bile_duct

 

[Jumpman]

WOW, I just read this on some other sites, and I really thought it was a joke at first. While I didn't agree with his running of Nintendo over the years, I offer him a safe journey and well wishes and prayers to his family. He had a lot left to give, and 55 is to soon for anyone, RIP.

Chris

 

[Nintendo]

I know it's too soon to say this but...


Now is the chance for Nintendo to make better gaming and business decisions.

 

[Majin Wamu]

This is awfully sad and very surprising. I wonder what direction this put Nintendo in.

RIP Iwata Satoru, you will be missed by many.

 

[Kev2442]

Oh dear...

I feel sorry for his relatives along with Nintendo fans.

I wasn't really a fan of Nintendo (still own my DS Lite though), but this shouldn't have happened.

He was there when Nintendo lived one of its most glorious moments (DS and Wii supremacy in casual gaming), and this probably was the accomplishment of a lifetime.

It's kinda strange now that I think about it, but Nintendo never truly had a perfect platform since the NES.

The Game Boy had to wait for a color screen as it used too much power, the SNES lacked a 16/32 bits CPU, the Virtual Boy came one year before mass-produced color LEDs, the N64 lacked support capacity, video memory and custom microcodes came too late, the GBA came at a time where batteries were becoming mainstream and lacked a bit of 3D power, the Gamecube lacked DVD support, including its bigger storage size, the NDS Fat was a little weird and lacked a bit of screen size and resolution, the Wii lacked HD support, the 3DS' only big feature was kinda scary (3D not recommended below 6) and the Wii U lacked innovation to compete with more powerful systems.

And most of all, most of the later platforms' good games are Nintendo-made.

Nintendo was once a name of great third-party games running on impressive hardware. Let's hope such a loss won't make it disappear. It's the only old-school brand still living.

 

[Jumpman]

I'm sure the board of directors will use this as a "positive" to the companies future. I've long hoped for Iwata's resignation or removal, and while this isn't the way I hoped it would happen, it's a chance for "change". Depending on how long he may have been sick, maybe there's a successor already to be put in place, or maybe no plans at all. I guess time will tell.

Gaming is just very different as a whole currently. Strong hardware is not necessarily a guarantee of success, no more than a weak handheld like the 3DS is one for failure. I really hope this situation can be used to lift "N" up, but it may just be the final nail in their coffin if a clear direction isn't taken, and if things begin to fail from the inside out.

I wish everyone involved in the company well, and hopefully after their mourning period, they get back to what they do best, and honor Iwata in the best way they can, by getting back to being a great video game company.

Chris

 

[Mygames19]

...Only on the Pandora boards do I see people using his death as an excuse to complain about his and Nintendo's business practices and not treat him like a actual human being.

Rest in Piece Iwata. He had a great passion for his work, his coworkers and his consumers. A man who believed in making games that were fun, but also the act of having fun. Despite the polarizing opinions on the Wii and DS, they have most certainly had an impact on our industry and the world.

 

[ekianjo]

Only on the Pandora boards do I see people using his death as an excuse to complain about his and Nintendo's business practices and not treat him like a actual human being.

It means you don't check the net very much then.  

they have most certainly had an impact on our industry and the world.

Not really.

Shares of Nintendo are back to where they were pre-Iwata era. Basically they have not grown the company at all, just a "Wii-DS" bubble happened while he was there.

And third parties could not care less about Nintendo. They are out of the spectrum for most developers now. (and many gamers too).

 

[Foxgod]

Way too young

 

[iprice]

I'm genuinely shocked and saddened by his passing.

R.I.P.

 

[Mr_Loon]

RIP Iwata Soturu, 55 is far too young.

...

It's kinda strange now that I think about it, but Nintendo never truly had a perfect platform since the NES.

...

Not sure there is such a thing as a truly perfect platform, but they came pretty close with the DSLite IMHO.

 

[Night]

RIP Iwata Satoru -san you did good.

Hopefully he doesn't forget to get that well deserved pat on his back from Hiroshi Yamauchi -san on his way.

EDIT:

 

[ekianjo]

RIP Iwata-san

Just a note but you don't refer to him as Iwata-"san" in Japanese at all.

You would call him Iwata-sachou (president) - san if too "casual" for the kind of position he had. 

 

[fusion_power]

Oh dear...

I feel sorry for his relatives along with Nintendo fans.

I wasn't really a fan of Nintendo (still own my DS Lite though), but this shouldn't have happened.

He was there when Nintendo lived one of its most glorious moments (DS and Wii supremacy in casual gaming), and this probably was the accomplishment of a lifetime.

It's kinda strange now that I think about it, but Nintendo never truly had a perfect platform since the NES.

The Game Boy had to wait for a color screen as it used too much power, the SNES lacked a 16/32 bits CPU, the Virtual Boy came one year before mass-produced color LEDs, the N64 lacked support capacity, video memory and custom microcodes came too late, the GBA came at a time where batteries were becoming mainstream and lacked a bit of 3D power, the Gamecube lacked DVD support, including its bigger storage size, the NDS Fat was a little weird and lacked a bit of screen size and resolution, the Wii lacked HD support, the 3DS' only big feature was kinda scary (3D not recommended below 6) and the Wii U lacked innovation to compete with more powerful systems.

And most of all, most of the later platforms' good games are Nintendo-made.

Nintendo was once a name of great third-party games running on impressive hardware. Let's hope such a loss won't make it disappear. It's the only old-school brand still living.

But somehow, Nintendo always managed to make profit an compete with it's rivals pretty successfuly.

I never was a Nintendo Fan or owned one of their Consoles (but borrowed of course) but I respect what they achived with their great games that were able to find a huge audience even without High End Hardware.

Remember the "weak" Gameboy Hardware back then compared to the "strong" Atari Lynx Handheld.

 

[Kev2442]

But the Game Boy and Lynx came at a time there weren't both high-power batteries and energy-efficient color screens. It made a point with its monochrome screen.

I like Nintendo for its games and for their consoles, but it's surprising that they came so close to having a perfect platform that many times. The SNES, had it a modern CPU like the 68k, would have completely defeated SEGA by then. But the fact is that numerous mistakes made in otherwise impressive hardware (SNES and N64 mainly) allowed for the competition to survive and have a great share of the gaming market.

Had those mistakes not been made, history would probably be much different by now. Heck, maybe some of us would have forgotten the Playstation by now.

Nintendo always had the power to rule the game. Let's hope that Iwata will see them succeed, be it with or without him. Nintendo folks, go ahead and make him proud of you.

 

[Night]

Just a note but you don't refer to him as Iwata-"san" in Japanese at all.

You would call him Iwata-sachou (president) - san if too "casual" for the kind of position he had. 

Oh, so that's what it was.

I always got the feeling the "-san" affix was more universal in that regard, sort of like "Mr." in english.

Sorry if that made me sound rude or anything.

Eitherway, i did want to address him directly as a person rather than by his former title, but is doing so considered uncommon (and possibly disrespectful) in Japan?

 

[ekianjo]

Sorry if that made me sound rude or anything.

Nope it's not rude or anything, it's just not the way you would address it, that's all

-san is not the equivalent of mister in English at all, there are many suffixes used in different situations -sama, -sensei, -buchou, -kachou, -sachou, etc... depending on your level, who is addressing you and so on.

-san makes it sound you were at the same level as him, which would be very improper in Japanese

PS: if you were a colleague of his, you would not even use the -san or any suffix at all, and just call him "iwata". So there are tons of rules on how you adress folks properly in Japan - there are BOOKS about that

 

[DaMummy]

This is getting too damn close to having to wipe tears. I was never even an Iwata fan, always more of a Miyamoto guy. But I don't remember the last time I had no desire to play video games like today. Rest in Peace you glorious banana presenting bastards. Know that we always Understood.

 

[TheTeaGuy]

He will be dearly missed. Iwata has cleared the game, time to move on to the next one. Rest In Peace.

 

[Night]

-san makes it sound you were at the same level as him, which would be very improper in Japanese

That's what i thought, i will refer to him fully in English instead then.