Figure timeline
Satoru Iwata was a Japanese businessman, video game programmer and producer. Beginning in 2002, Iwata served as the fourth president of Nintendo, as well as the chief executive officer (CEO) of Nintendo of America from 2013 until his death in 2015. Iwata was a major contributor in broadening the appeal of video games by focusing on novel and entertaining games rather than top-of-the-line hardware.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
business · Japanese video game executive (1959–2015) · entrepreneur · game programmer · video game producer · engineer · computer scientist · executive producer · programmer · also Satoru Iwata, Iwata Satoru, Iwata
Born 6 December 1959 · Died 11 July 2015 · Q316013
45 published statements · 0 followers
See & hear
8 photos · 2 audio
Listen
En-Satoru Iwata-article
En-Satoru Iwata-article
Media from Wikimedia Commons, hotlinked at the source under its own licence — see each file for author and terms.
Live now
Pulling headlines from trusted outlets — this usually takes a few seconds
Checking the wires…
Feed scan
These are live links, not archived citations — they only join the timeline once a collect run verifies and archives them.
Live pulse
Most recent outstanding titles, awards, and quotes
“s engineers in line. It was hoped that the successor to the Nintendo DS would reinvigorate the company after profits began declining. However, weak sales upon the release of the Nintendo 3DS caused the company”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Public attention spiked: 6,912 Wikipedia readers in one day, 12× the usual 576, with 0 article edits.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
collider: Pokémon: How Satoru Iwata Saved an Endangered Franchise
Published “Mapping genomic loci implicates genes and synaptic biology in schizophrenia” in Nature — cited 2,691 times.
Published “Atezolizumab and Nab-Paclitaxel in Advanced Triple-Negative Breast Cancer” in New England Journal of Medicine — cited 3,778 times.
Digital Trends: 5 extraordinary reasons Nintendo fans will never forget Satoru Iwata
vg247: Games community pays respect to Nintendo's Satoru Iwata
VideoGamer: Nintendo’s Satoru Iwata dies aged 55
Died 2015-07-11.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Iwata came down with a high fever and was suspected to have influenza; a meeting with shareholders was postponed accordingly
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
After several years of decline, Iwata put a portion of Nintendo's focus into the rapidly growing mobile game market; a landmark partnership with mobile provider DeNA was established that March
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
And Iwata died at the age of 55 from its complications on July 11
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Nintendo announced that Iwata would not attend E3 2014 due to medical problems
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
That he had misread the market and had not appropriately accounted for changing lifestyles since the launch of the Wii
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
“... I believe that the era has ended when people play all kinds of games only on dedicated gaming systems.”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Acknowledged that mobile devices provided significant competition but remained confident in his company's abilities
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
The company experienced its first operating loss since entering the video game market more than 30 years earlier
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Iwata helped to institute Nintendo Direct, a series of online press conferences open to all that revealed upcoming Nintendo games and products outside of typical industry channels
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
And 2014 as apologies for the poor sales while other members of the Nintendo board of directors had pay cuts of 20–30 percent
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Nintendo revealed that Iwata earned a modest salary of ¥68 million (US$770,000), which increased to ¥187 million (US$2
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Published “mTOR-Dependent Synapse Formation Underlies the Rapid Antidepressant Effects of NMDA Antagonists” in Science — cited 2,597 times.
Despite running Nintendo full-time by this point
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Published “Loss of autophagy in the central nervous system causes neurodegeneration in mice” in Nature — cited 3,057 times.
Iwata placed focus on development of products that improved quality of life
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Published “Trastuzumab after Adjuvant Chemotherapy in HER2-Positive Breast Cancer” in New England Journal of Medicine — cited 4,148 times.
“Making games look more photorealistic is not the only means of improving the game experience. I know, on this point I risk being misunderstood, so remember, I am a man who once programmed a baseball game with no baseball players. If anyone appreciates graphics, it’s me! But my point is that this is just one path to improved game. We need to find others. Improvement has more than one definition.”
Whereby employees normally not associated with game development would submit ideas for new games
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Published “Architecture of the Photosynthetic Oxygen-Evolving Center” in Science — cited 3,052 times.
With Iwata consolidating various departments established under Yamauchi
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
“Games have come to a dead end.”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Iwata succeeded as Nintendo's fourth president with Yamauchi's blessing
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Iwata stated that he felt the gaming industry was becoming too exclusive, and he wanted to develop hardware and games that would appeal to all players rather than focusing on top of the line graphics
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Career landmark: chairperson (2002–2015).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Iwata served as the fourth president of Nintendo, as well as the chief executive officer (CEO) of Nintendo of America from 2013 until his death in 2015
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Iwata joined Nintendo as the head of its corporate planning division and took a seat on the board of directors
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Iwata helped his colleague and personal friend Shigesato Itoi establish Hobonichi by working as the company's IT Manager
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
And 1998, respectively, by Tsunekazu Ishihara
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Career landmark: chairperson (1993–2000).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
At the insistence of Nintendo's then-President, Hiroshi Yamauchi
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
At the insistence of Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi and brought financial stability
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
The time during which he helped HAL create a relationship with Nintendo so they would be able to produce games for its newly released Nintendo Entertainment System
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Becoming its fifth employee and only programmer
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Joined the game developer HAL Laboratory while attending the university
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Born 1959-12-06.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
And raised in Sapporo, Japan, where his father served as a prefectural official
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Making games look more photorealistic is not the only means of improving the game experience. I know, on this point I risk being misunderstood, so remember, I am a man who once programmed a baseball game with no baseball players. If anyone appreciates graphics, it’s me! But my point is that this is just one path to improved game. We need to find others. Improvement has more than one definition.
Connections