http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/pdf/2015/150713e.pdf
In a time when executives of video game companies are all businessmen who are all about maximizing profit, Iwata stood out as a man dedicated to video games. He left his mark on the industry before he earned his position as Nintendo President. As President of HAL Laboratories, he continued to get his hands dirty putting in the work to get games out the door.
He came in when Earthbound was caught in development Heck having been a work-in-progress for 4 years and wasn't making much progress. He told the team that they had two ways to move forward: Work with what they have and they may be able to finish in two years, or toss out all of the programming and start from scratch with him and he can get it up and running in half a year. They chose the latter and true to his word, the game was playable in half a year re-built from the ground up.
He played a pivotal role in the localization of the Pokemon series to bring it out of Japan, working as a middle-man between Gamefreak and Nintendo. Shigeki Morimoto once related how he had spent a long time putting together the battle-system for Pokemon Red and Green, and was blown away when Iwata, a President, looked over the game's source code and ported it to the n64 and had it up and running in a week. Iwata said that the last project he got his hands dirty on before he finally relinquished programming was Super Smash Bros. Melee. By then he had worked his way to President of Nintendo, but he still rolled up his sleeves and got to work to make sure that important title would make its deadline. He may not have done any of the grunt work since then, but he always prided himself on being the most programming literate president of a listed Japanese company.
Beyond his work in games themselves, Iwata changed the way Nintendo interacted with their fans. The company had always been one to play their cards close to their chest, and they still do. But Iwata introduced a new way to get information out when they were ready; instead of putting out a press release and going through the media, he introduced the Nintendo Directs where he spoke directly to Nintendo's fans. For those of us who were interested in what goes into making the games we love, he also introduced a series of interviews called Iwata Asks where he sits down and talks with various key people integral to the making of games on their systems.
Iwata will be missed.
In a time when executives of video game companies are all businessmen who are all about maximizing profit, Iwata stood out as a man dedicated to video games. He left his mark on the industry before he earned his position as Nintendo President. As President of HAL Laboratories, he continued to get his hands dirty putting in the work to get games out the door.
He came in when Earthbound was caught in development Heck having been a work-in-progress for 4 years and wasn't making much progress. He told the team that they had two ways to move forward: Work with what they have and they may be able to finish in two years, or toss out all of the programming and start from scratch with him and he can get it up and running in half a year. They chose the latter and true to his word, the game was playable in half a year re-built from the ground up.
He played a pivotal role in the localization of the Pokemon series to bring it out of Japan, working as a middle-man between Gamefreak and Nintendo. Shigeki Morimoto once related how he had spent a long time putting together the battle-system for Pokemon Red and Green, and was blown away when Iwata, a President, looked over the game's source code and ported it to the n64 and had it up and running in a week. Iwata said that the last project he got his hands dirty on before he finally relinquished programming was Super Smash Bros. Melee. By then he had worked his way to President of Nintendo, but he still rolled up his sleeves and got to work to make sure that important title would make its deadline. He may not have done any of the grunt work since then, but he always prided himself on being the most programming literate president of a listed Japanese company.
Beyond his work in games themselves, Iwata changed the way Nintendo interacted with their fans. The company had always been one to play their cards close to their chest, and they still do. But Iwata introduced a new way to get information out when they were ready; instead of putting out a press release and going through the media, he introduced the Nintendo Directs where he spoke directly to Nintendo's fans. For those of us who were interested in what goes into making the games we love, he also introduced a series of interviews called Iwata Asks where he sits down and talks with various key people integral to the making of games on their systems.
Iwata will be missed.
