Iwata Satoshi, a native of Sapporo, Japan, became very interested in electronic games when he was a student and tried to write computer programs to make electronic games. Later, he entered the Tokyo Institute of Technology, and during his studies, he joined the HAL Institute, a research center under Nintendo, and became a formal employee after graduating from university.
It can be said that Iwada Satoshi devoted half of his life to Nintendo. Before becoming president, Iwada Satoshi was the core figure of the company's strategic planning and played an important role around the GC period. The concept of "developing simple and fun games" he advocated brought generous rewards to Nintendo.
In May 2002, Satoshi Iwada became the new president of Nintendo Company. He is also the fourth president since Yasujiro Yamauchi founded Nintendo Company in 1889. Although he has not taken office for a long time, Iwada Satoshi has already drawn a special blueprint for Nintendo's long-term stability.
Where the dream begins
As a programmer, Satoshi Iwata has developed many games for HAL and NCL, but his most famous works are undoubtedly the "Star Kirby" series. This cute character originally created by Masahiro Sakurai released a huge amount of energy in Iwada's hands.
Iwata Satoshi put in great effort for this project and finally created the first work in the series. This is "Star Kirby: The Story of Dream Spring". This work corresponds to the Game Boy platform. It is a game designed for those who are original intent. Players of any rank can easily pass it to the end. The friendly operation and cute character make "Star Kirby" a huge success, and Iwada Satoshi gradually became a new star that has attracted attention in the industry.
In the following time, Iwada Satoshi played an important role in many famous Nintendo games, such as Mario 64 in the Sky. He is found in a series of well-known masterpieces such as "Star Firefox", "Mitrod", "The Legend of Zelda" series.
Status set sail
In 2000, Iwata Satoshi switched from HAL to NCL and was appointed as the director of Nintendo's planning department, mainly responsible for planning Nintendo's global strategy. This new work undoubtedly provides Iwada Satoshi with a broader stage to show his strength. Iwada Satoshi does not disappoint everyone's expectations and brings Nintendo a different kind of vitality.
One day in May 2002, the premiered president Hiroshi Yamauchi called Iwada Satoshi to the office for a lecture. After this two-hour meeting, Hiroshi Yamauchi finally decided to abdicate. At a press conference in August 2002, Hiroshi Yamauchi officially announced his decision to leave and chose Satoshi Iwada as his successor.
"The reason I chose Iwada Satoshi was because he was attracted by his knowledge and his full understanding of Nintendo's software and hardware" - Yamauchi Hiroshi
As Iwada Satoshi took office as the president of NCL, there were two major tasks in front of him. First, he remembered Hiroshi Yamauchi's sense of crisis about the current gaming industry. Second, Satoshi Iwata is determined to say less and do more, and he hopes to realize Nintendo's ambition to dominate the industry in an all-round way - from hardware to software.
A beautiful turnaround
Nintendo released the NDS console in 2004, which is a beautiful turnaround tide played by Nintendo. Iwada Satoshi successfully dragged PSP off the altar with his keen insight, precise judgment and perfect business operation ability.
NDS is launched closely with the time when Sony launched the PSP grandly. This is a very adventurous move. Because in the eyes of most people at that time, PSP's market plan was almost perfect and there were no blind spots. Sony chose to enter when the Nintendo camp was weakest, and Sony was obviously full of confidence in its own strength.
Just when the father of PS, Ken Kutaraki, was full of confidence, Iwada Satoshi took action. Sony released the details of the NDS console launch one hour ahead of schedule, and its destructive pricing caught Sony off guard. The original plan to release was temporarily suspended, which is the famous "blank 17-minute event."
Next, Sony had to modify the pre-sale price positioning of PSP to a dangerous cost critical point. Due to the disruption of the situation, PSP missed great business opportunities and was always restrained by Nintendo. It was unable to achieve the expected scale of mass output and lost the initiative to "counter with quantity and price".In terms of product quality issues, Nintendo's free return and exchange were in sharp contrast with Sony's negative attitude towards treatment, which made Nintendo's reputation rise to a higher level.
Simple is the most beautiful
"Develop simple and fun games" Iwada Satoshi has always emphasized the word "simple". In his opinion, "really interesting creativity" and "simple concept" are the key to attracting users. This seems a bit out of place today when games are becoming more and more complicated, but Iwada Satoshi did it.
In an interview with Satoshi Iwata, when asked, "Before Brain Training, what is the reason why you can develop in the direction of 'expanding the game population'?", Satoshi Iwata said, "The small opportunity is "Made in Wario" on GBA and "Nintendo" by DS."
"Nintendo" first appeared in people's eyes in the battle between PSP and NDS at the end of the year. PSP was a "big bet" by Sony after all. In addition to the super performance hardware specifications that he spared no expense, he also had a group of carefully prepared masterpieces. NDS has only a few Nintendo's own games and third-party works in this regard, which cannot compete with them at all.
Nintendo maintained an amazing calm in the face of this disadvantage. They just continue to promote and hype an electronic pet breeding game called "Nenten Dog" through various channels, and have published a new NDS work plan for local Japanese locals called "Touch! Generation".
"Nentong Dog" strictly follows Iwata's requirements in design: simple design, interesting creativity, allowing people who do not play games to play, and actively expand their market share. At the same time as it was launched, Nintendo also set up thousands of NDS download and trial service windows at major sales points in Japan, which helped fuel the explosion of NDS. In 2005, Nintendo sold 6 million copies worldwide, and Nintendo made more than $800 million that year. This epoch-making work in the history of the game not only broke through the sales bottleneck for Nintendo, but also attracted a large number of new players such as the elderly and middle-aged and young women.
Business Empire
NDS and PSP, or this showdown between Nintendo and Sony begins here the victory or defeat. Afterwards, the "Touch! Generation" series of masterpieces such as "Adults' Brain Training", "Mario Kart DS", "Animal Forest" were released, setting a victory for NDS. Iwata Satoshi did not give his opponent a chance to breathe. In early 2006, the improved version of the console NDSL was launched, setting off a trend again and again. The sales record was refreshed, and the Japanese local market became Nintendo's personal stage.
The advent of the next-generation home console Wii has set off a "revolutionary" storm. The development of somatosensory games has made rapid progress, turning a whole new chapter. It can be said that Nintendo was at the forefront of somatosensory games at that time.
In March 2015, Nintendo and DeNA jointly held a press conference, announcing that the two companies will carry out strategic capital support, and the two parties will jointly develop games suitable for mobile platforms and launch new generation integrated membership services. At the meeting, Satoshi Iwada confirmed for the first time that he is developing a new host codenamed NX. Everyone is looking forward to the next spring of Nintendo.
Hai Yamauchi was successful. He chose a successor like Satoshi Iwata for himself and a wise leader for Nintendo. Iwata Satoshi was even more successful. During his time in office, Nintendo gradually grew from loss to profit and grew into a business empire.
Iwata Satoshi’s comparison before and after treatment
It’s a pity that God is jealous of talent. In early 2014, Iwata Satoshi was exposed to physical problems and received treatment at the suggestion of a doctor. Therefore, he missed a number of important activities and meetings such as the 2014 E3 Game Exhibition and Nintendo shareholders’ meeting. In Nintendo's online program in early September, Satoshi Iwada, who had not appeared in four months, appeared in front of the camera. Although he said that "healthy physical strength has recovered well", his thin figure still worried fans.
Today, we unfortunately received the news that Nintendo President Satoshi Iwada died of illness on July 11 at the age of 55. Uncle Cong is leaving!
