History Creator / SatoruIwata

* ''VideoGame/BalloonFight'' ([[UsefulNotes/NintendoEntertainmentSystem NES]]): Programmer

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Satoru Iwata (December 6, 1959 -- July 11, 2015), former global president of Creator/{{Nintendo}} and former president of Creator/HALLaboratory. He started at HAL as a staff programmer, and helped create the first ''VideoGame/BalloonFight'' and ''Franchise/{{Kirby}}'' games. More notably, he single-handedly reprogrammed ''VideoGame/EarthBound'' from scratch midway through development, rescuing the entire project at a time when all seemed lost. Iwata's tenure as head of HAL Laboratory did not slow down his developer skills; he was responsible for porting the battle codes for the original ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' games in order for them to be used in ''VideoGame/PokemonStadium,'' and compressed the code for both ''VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver'' titles to allow enough room for including the [[VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue Kanto]] region. In fact, Iwata is a large part of the reasons why the franchise was able to become the worldwide smash hit that it did, as he spearheaded the localization of ''VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue''.

Satoru Iwata (December 6, 1959 -- July 11, 2015), former global president of Creator/{{Nintendo}} and former president of Creator/HALLaboratory. He started at HAL as a staff programmer, and helped create the first ''VideoGame/BalloonFight'' and ''Franchise/{{Kirby}}'' games. More notably, he single-handedly reprogrammed ''VideoGame/EarthBound'' from scratch midway through development, rescuing the entire project at a time when all seemed lost. Iwata's tenure as head of HAL Laboratory did not slow down his developer skills; he was responsible for porting the battle codes for the original ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' games in order for them to be used in ''VideoGame/PokemonStadium,'' and compressed the code for both ''VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver'' titles to allow enough room for including the [[VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue Kanto]] region. In fact, Iwata is a large part of the reasons why the franchise was able to become the worldwide SmashHit that it did.

Satoru Iwata (December 6, 1959 -- July 11, 2015), former global president of Creator/{{Nintendo}} and former president of Creator/HALLaboratory. He started at HAL as a staff programmer, and helped create the first ''VideoGame/BalloonFight'' and ''Franchise/{{Kirby}}'' games. More notably, he single-handedly reprogrammed ''VideoGame/EarthBound'' from scratch midway through development, rescuing the entire project at a time when all seemed lost. Iwata's tenure as head of HAL Laboratory did not slow down his developer skills; he was responsible for porting the battle codes for the original ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' games in order for them to be used in ''VideoGame/PokemonStadium,'' and compressed the code for both ''VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver'' titles to allow enough room for including the [[VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue Kanto]] region.

Iwata, however, had far more serious issues to contend with: life-threatening ones, to be precise. A bile duct growth forced him to miss E3 of 2014 and is believed now to be the reason for the puppet show for Nintendo's 2015 E3 event, so that people would not to see him in a badly deteriorated state of health. When Iwata was later seen in-person during Nintendo Directs and press meetings, the media noted his far more gaunt and frail appearance as a result of cancer-induced tissue damage; Iwata seemed to take it in stride, however, publicly announcing that he had altered his official Mii avatar to reflect his weight loss, an especially unprecedented and shocking move in Japan, where cancer is seen as a highly taboo topic of discussion. Despite undergoing surgery to remove the growth in 2014, it later resurfaced in June of 2015 and [[http://nintendoeverything.com/nintendo-president-satoru-iwata-has-passed-away/ ultimately cost him his life on July 11th that same year]] at the age of 55; he will be missed dearly. He was succeeded first by former Nintendo of America CEO Tatsumi Kimishima and later by former Pokémon Company executive Shuntaro Furukawa, both of whom sought to continue Iwata's Blue Ocean strategy via his final hardware project, the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch. Following his death, Iwata's formerly divisive reputation became much more unanimously positive, owing to information about his prodigious programming skills, his earnest care for Nintendo's well-being, and especially his JustForFun/OneOfUs status as a fellow video game fan becoming more and more publicly available; nowadays he's widely considered one of the greatest visionaries in the gaming industry since Shigeru Miyamoto, with many of his former detractors regretting their previous disdain for his tenure. Iwata was later posthumously awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award at both the 2015 Golden Joystick Awards and the 2016 DICE Awards.

Iwata, however, had far more serious issues to contend with: life-threatening ones, to be precise. A bile duct growth forced him to miss E3 of 2014 and is believed now to be the reason for the puppet show for Nintendo's 2015 E3 event, so that people would not to see him in a badly deteriorated state of health. When Iwata was later seen in-person during Nintendo Directs and press meetings, the media noted his far more gaunt and frail appearance as a result of cancer-induced tissue damage; Iwata seemed to take it in stride, however, publicly announcing that he had altered his official Mii avatar to reflect his weight loss. Despite undergoing surgery to remove the growth in 2014, it later resurfaced in June of 2015 and [[http://nintendoeverything.com/nintendo-president-satoru-iwata-has-passed-away/ ultimately cost him his life on July 11th that same year]] at the age of 55; he will be missed dearly. He was succeeded first by former Nintendo of America CEO Tatsumi Kimishima and later by former Pokémon Company executive Shuntaro Furukawa, both of whom sought to continue Iwata's Blue Ocean strategy via his final hardware project, the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch. Following his death, Iwata's formerly divisive reputation became much more unanimously positive, owing to information about his prodigious programming skills, his earnest care for Nintendo's well-being, and especially his JustForFun/OneOfUs status as a fellow video game fan becoming more and more publicly available; nowadays he's widely considered one of the greatest visionaries in the gaming industry since Shigeru Miyamoto, with many of his former detractors regretting their previous disdain for his tenure. Iwata was later posthumously awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award at both the 2015 Golden Joystick Awards and the 2016 DICE Awards.

However, while revered now, it's important to note for historical purposes that Iwata was a highly controversial figure in his time. This is largely owed to his Blue Ocean strategy, which emphasized focusing on products that tapped into previously unconsidered markets, leading to the creation of the aforementioned Wii and DS. While it led to success for Nintendo and allowed them to carve a memorable new niche at a time when they were struggling to make an impact against the juggernauts that were Sony and Microsoft, hardcore gamers considered the strategy alienating towards them, due to it placing a heavy focus on accessibility and casual gaming at the cost of reduced technical power and familiarity. Others, meanwhile, argued that Nintendo's move outside of the harcore crowd and mainline console war was ultimately beneficial, by allowing them to continue as a distinct entity separate from the conventional [=PlayStation=]/[=Xbox=]/PC race. Iwata himself seemed to realize this, and aimed to make the Wii's follow-up, the UsefulNotes/WiiU, more appealing to hardcore gamers in addition to maintaining the casual niche the Wii had previously found success with. However, the console's poor performance (brought about in hindsight almost entirely by its downright ''embarrassing'' marketing) only seemed to galvanize detractors, and following Nintendo's poorly-received presentation at E3 2015, there were calls for him to resign.

His identity as Nintendo's global president was cemented through ''Iwata Asks'', where he interviewed key designers for upcoming games released on the Nintendo platform and as the host of almost every ''WebVideo/NintendoDirect'' during his lifetime, which announces new games and information. He also garnered a public image as an endearing BunnyEarsLawyer, with an eccentric and esoteric style of humor (most famously embodied by a prerecorded segment during E3 2012 where he stared at a banana bunch in his hand before stiffly turning to the camera, [[TheComicallySerious all silently and without breaking his stern composure once]]) and knack for defying convention that captivated audiences and led to Nintendo coming off as a more outgoing and self-aware entity compared to the increasingly static image they developed under Yamauchi's tenure.

Iwata, however, had far more serious issues to contend with: life-threatening ones, to be precise. A bile duct growth forced him to miss E3 of 2014 and is believed now to be the reason for the puppet show for Nintendo's 2015 E3 event, so that people would not to see him in a badly deteriorated state of health. When Iwata was later seen in-person during Nintendo Directs and press meetings, the media noted his far more gaunt and frail appearance as a result of cancer-induced tissue damage; Iwata seemed to take it in stride, however, publicly announcing that he had altered his official Mii avatar to reflect his weight loss. Despite undergoing surgery to remove the growth in 2014, it later resurfaced in June of 2015 and [[http://nintendoeverything.com/nintendo-president-satoru-iwata-has-passed-away/ ultimately cost him his life on July 11th that same year]] at the age of 55; he will be missed dearly. He was succeeded by former Nintendo of America CEO Tatsumi Kimishima and later former Pokémon Company executive Shuntaro Furukawa, both of whom sought to continue Iwata's Blue Ocean strategy via his final hardware project, the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch. Following his death, Iwata's formerly divisive reputation became much more unanimously positive, owing to information about his prodigious programming skills, his earnest care for Nintendo's well-being, and especially his JustForFun/OneOfUs status as a fellow video game fan becoming more and more publicly available; nowadays he's widely considered one of the greatest visionaries in the gaming industry since Shigeru Miyamoto, with many of his former detractors regretting their previous disdain for his tenure. Iwata was later posthumously awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award at both the 2015 Golden Joystick Awards and the 2016 DICE Awards.

* ''VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver'' (UsefulNotes/GameBoy): Helped Creator/GameFreak compress the game so they could finish it.

After attaining a high ranking position at Nintendo, Iwata became its global president after Hiroshi Yamauchi went into retirement. Both the UsefulNotes/{{Wii}} and UsefulNotes/NintendoDS were promoted under his leadership with absolute full backing. He then served as the executive producer of all Nintendo software, including outsourced projects.

His identity as Nintendo's global president was cemented through ''Iwata Asks'', where he interviewed key designers for upcoming games released on the Nintendo platform and as the host of almost every ''WebVideo/NintendoDirect'', which announces new games and information.

While revered now, it's important to note for historical purposes that Iwata was a highly controversial figure in his time. This is largely owed to his Blue Ocean strategy, which emphasized focusing on products that tapped into previously unconsidered markets, leading to the creation of the aforementioned Wii and DS. While it led to success for Nintendo and allowed them to carve a memorable new niche at a time when they were struggling to make an impact against the juggernauts that were Sony and Microsoft, hardcore gamers considered the strategy alienating towards them, due to it placing a heavy focus on accessibility and casual gaming at the cost of reduced technical power and familiarity. Others, meanwhile, argued that Nintendo's move outside of the harcore crowd and mainline console war was ultimately beneficial, by allowing them to continue as a distinct entity separate from the conventional [=PlayStation=]/[=Xbox=]/PC race. Iwata himself seemed to realize this, and aimed to make the Wii's follow-up, the UsefulNotes/WiiU, more appealing to hardcore gamers in addition to maintaining the casual niche the Wii had previously found success with. However, the console's poor performance (brought about in hindsight almost entirely by its downright ''embarrassing'' marketing) only seemed to galvanize detractors, and following Nintendo's poorly-received presentation at E3 2015, there were calls for him to resign.

Iwata, however, had far more serious issues to contend with: life-threatening ones, to be precise. A bile duct growth forced him to miss E3 of 2014 and is believed now to be the reason for the puppet show for Nintendo's 2015 E3 event, so that people would not to see him in a badly deteriorated state of health. When Iwata was later seen in-person during Nintendo Directs and press meetings, the media noted his far more gaunt and frail appearance as a result of cancer-induced tissue damage; Iwata seemed to take it in stride, however, publicly announcing that he had altered his official Mii avatar to reflect his weight loss. Despite undergoing surgery to remove the growth in 2014, it later resurfaced in June of 2015 and [[http://nintendoeverything.com/nintendo-president-satoru-iwata-has-passed-away/ ultimately cost him his life on July 11th that same year]] at the age of 55; he will be missed dearly. He was succeeded by former Nintendo of America CEO Tatsumi Kimishima and later former Pokémon Company executive Shuntaro Furukawa, both of whom sought to continue Iwata's Blue Ocean strategy via his final hardware project, the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch. Following his death, Iwata's formerly divisive reputation became much more unanimously positive, owing to information about his prodigious programming skills, his earnest care for Nintendo's well-being, and especially his JustForFun/OneOfUs status as a fellow video game fan becoming more and more publicly available; nowadays he's widely considered one of the greatest visionaries in the gaming industry since Shigeru Miyamoto, with many of his former detractors regretting their previous disdain for his tenure.

A bile duct growth forced him to miss E3 of 2014 and is believed now to be the reason for the puppet show for Nintendo's 2015 E3 event so that people would not to see him in a badly deteriorated state of health, and despite surgery to remove the growth, [[http://nintendoeverything.com/nintendo-president-satoru-iwata-has-passed-away/ it ultimately cost him his life on July 11th, 2015]] at the age of 55. He will be missed dearly.

* ''VideoGame/DragonQuestI'' (NES): North America release only. Series creator Creator/YujiHorii stated on Twitter that [[https://twitter.com/YujiHorii/status/620495404816203776 Iwata was in charge of localization programming.]]

* ''VideoGame/{{EarthBound}}'' ([[UsefulNotes/SuperNintendoEntertainmentSystem Super NES]]): Programmer

* ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' ''64'' and ''Melee'' (Nintendo 64 and UsefulNotes/NintendoGameCube): Helped Creator/MasahiroSakurai create the first game's prototype. Did bug fixing for ''Melee''.

Satoru Iwata (December 6, 1959 -- July 11, 2015), former global president of Creator/{{Nintendo}} and former president of Creator/HALLaboratory. He started at HAL as a regular programmer, and was notable for helping create ''VideoGame/BalloonFight'' and ''Franchise/{{Kirby}}'', and for single-handedly reprogramming ''VideoGame/EarthBound'' from scratch midway through development, rescuing the entire project when all seemed lost.

During his tenure as head of HAL Laboratory, he was also responsible for porting the battle codes for the original ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' games in order for them to be used in ''VideoGame/PokemonStadium'' as well as compressing both ''VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver'' to allow enough room to include the [[VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue Kanto]] region. After attaining a high ranking position at Nintendo, he became its global president after Hiroshi Yamauchi went into retirement. Both the UsefulNotes/{{Wii}} and UsefulNotes/NintendoDS were promoted under his leadership with absolute full backing. He then served as the executive producer of all Nintendo software, including outsourced projects.

'''Satoru Iwata''' (December 6, 1959 -- July 11, 2015), former global president of Creator/{{Nintendo}} and former president of Creator/HALLaboratory. He started at HAL as a regular programmer, and was notable for helping create ''VideoGame/BalloonFight'' and ''Franchise/{{Kirby}}'', and for single-handedly reprogramming ''VideoGame/EarthBound'' from scratch midway through development, rescuing the entire project when all seemed lost.

A bile duct growth forced him to miss E3 of 2014 and is believed now to be the reason for the puppet show for Nintendo's 2015 E3 event so that people would not to see him in a badly deteriorated state of health, and [[HopeSpot despite surgery]] to remove the growth, [[http://nintendoeverything.com/nintendo-president-satoru-iwata-has-passed-away/ it ultimately cost him his life on July 11th, 2015]] at the age of 55. He will be missed dearly.

During his tenure as head of HAL Laboratory, he was also responsible for porting the battle codes for the original ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' games in order for them to be used in ''VideoGame/PokemonStadium'' as well as compressing both ''VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver'' to allow enough room to include the [[VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue Kanto]] region. After attaining a high ranking position at Nintendo, he became its global president after Hiroshi Yamauchi went into retirement. Both the {{Wii}} and NintendoDS were promoted under his leadership with absolute full backing. He then served as the executive producer of all Nintendo software, including outsourced projects.

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* ''VideoGame/BalloonFight'' ([[UsefulNotes/NintendoEntertainmentSystem NES]])
* ''VideoGame/DragonQuestI'' (NES): North America release only. Series creator ''Creator/YujiHorii'' stated on Twitter that [[https://twitter.com/YujiHorii/status/620495404816203776 Iwata was in charge of localization programming.]]
* ''VideoGame/KirbysAdventure'' (NES)
* ''VideoGame/{{EarthBound}}'' ([[UsefulNotes/SuperNintendoEntertainmentSystem Super NES]])
* ''VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver'' (UsefulNotes/GameBoy)
* ''VideoGame/PokemonStadium'' (UsefulNotes/{{Nintendo 64}})
* ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' (Nintendo 64 and UsefulNotes/NintendoGameCube)

!!Tropes associated with Iwata:
* BenevolentBoss: When the UsefulNotes/WiiU underperformed and Nintendo lost a large amount of money, Iwata ''cut his own salary in half'' rather than lay off his own workers.
* BigGood: For Nintendo fans and Nintendo itself, when he was the global CEO of Nintendo.
* {{Catchphrase}}:
** In every Nintendo Direct he shows up, ''Directly to you.'' Complete with [[MemeticHandGesture its own pose]].
** "Please understand" is also associated with him.
** The Iwata Asks interviews are full of the laughter from him and the various dev teams which was all dutifully transcribed, so "[laughs]" is something else he's known for.
* DownerEnding: One of his final acts is apologizing for the disappointed sentiments towards Nintendo's E3 2015 showcase.
* DyingMomentOfAwesome:
** In his last act, he made ''VideoGame/SuperMarioMaker,'' which allows fans to make and enjoy levels inspired by all generations of {{Mario}} just like him in his youth.
** The 2015 E3 puppet show may have been done that way to not show him in a badly deteriorating state of health, but it still was pretty funny. Even as he was dying he still wanted others to have fun.
* FamousLastWords: The last time he spoke to the public was when he addressed the complaints about ''VideoGame/MetroidPrimeFederationForce'': "Thank you for your feedback. We hear you and we are committed to continuing to meet your expectations."
* GeniusProgramming:
** Including the examples above, he spent a lot of time in his youth creating games using a pocket calculator and as well as disassembling Commodore computer programs entirely through writing it down by hand.
** He fixed and refined the code for ''Pokémon Gold/Silver'' to the point where he got the size compressed down enough that Creator/GameFreak was able to add in Kanto as a bonus. Before then they were struggling just to put in the new region of Johto in the very restricted space of a Game Boy cart.
** For the first ''VideoGame/PokemonStadium'' game, he made the battle system code in the space of a week by himself without using any notes from the development of ''Pokémon Red/Green/Blue''.* {{Catchphrase}}: In every Nintendo Direct he shows up, ''Directly to you.'' Complete with its own pose, which can be seen in the picture above.
* MandatoryUnretirement: Iwata largely retired from programming after becoming Nintendo's General Manager, but before the release of ''Super Smash Bros. Melee'', Iwata discovered that the game was close to missing its launch date due to last minute complications in development. So he went to HAL Laboratory as acting head debugging, fixed most of the bugs, found the source of those bugs, and got everyone to fix the problem in little more than ''three weeks''.
* TheRival: At his time as a programmer at HAL Laboratory, he saw himself as this to Creator/ShigeruMiyamoto, though it was completely one-sided.

** TearJerker: Apparently, there was a rainbow over Nintendo HQ in Kyoto shortly after Iwata's death. [[{{MarioKart}} He took the Rainbow Road when he left this world.]] [[{{SomethingInMyEye}} Excuse me...]]

* {{Catchphrase}}: In every Nintendo Direct he shows up, ''Directly to you.'' Complete with its own pose, which can be seen in the picture above.

* BenevolentBoss: When the UsefulNotes/WiiU underperformed and Nintendo lost a large amount of money, Iwata ''cut his own salary in half'' rather than lay off his own workers.
* BigGood: For Nintendo fans and Nintendo itself, when he was the global CEO of Nintendo.
* {{Catchphrase}}:
** In every Nintendo Direct he shows up, ''Directly to you.'' Complete with [[MemeticHandGesture its own pose]].
** "Please understand" is also associated with him.
** The Iwata Asks interviews are full of the laughter from him and the various dev teams which was all dutifully transcribed, so "[laughs]" is something else he's known for.
* DownerEnding: One of his final acts is apologizing for the disappointed sentiments towards Nintendo's E3 2015 showcase.
** TearJerker: Apparently, there was a rainbow over Nintendo HQ in Kyoto shortly after Iwata's death. [[{{MarioKart}} He took the Rainbow Road when he left this world.]] [[{{SomethingInMyEye}} Excuse me...]]
* DyingMomentOfAwesome:
** In his last act, he made ''VideoGame/SuperMarioMaker,'' which allows fans to make and enjoy levels inspired by all generations of {{Mario}} just like him in his youth.
** The 2015 E3 puppet show may have been done that way to not show him in a badly deteriorating state of health, but it still was pretty funny. Even as he was dying he still wanted others to have fun.
* FamousLastWords: The last time he spoke to the public was when he addressed the complaints about ''VideoGame/MetroidPrimeFederationForce'': "Thank you for your feedback. We hear you and we are committed to continuing to meet your expectations."
* GeniusProgramming:
** Including the examples above, he spent a lot of time in his youth creating games using a pocket calculator and as well as disassembling Commodore computer programs entirely through writing it down by hand.
** He fixed and refined the code for ''Pokémon Gold/Silver'' to the point where he got the size compressed down enough that Creator/GameFreak was able to add in Kanto as a bonus. Before then they were struggling just to put in the new region of Johto in the very restricted space of a Game Boy cart.
** For the first ''VideoGame/PokemonStadium'' game, he made the battle system code in the space of a week by himself without using any notes from the development of ''Pokémon Red/Green/Blue''.

* MemeticHandGesture: Seen in the page image ([[http://abload.de/img/137789266587487int.gif animation visible here]]), done every time the word "directly" or "direct" (or in the Japanese versions, "chokusetsu", Japanese for "directly") was mentioned by him in a ''WebVideo/NintendoDirect''. (Other ''WebVideo/NintendoDirect'' hosts also do this, though.)

A bile duct growth forced him to miss E3 of 2014 and is believed now to be the reason for the puppet show for Nintendo's 2015 E3 event so that people would not to see him in a badly deteriorated state of health, and despite surgery to remove the growth, [[http://nintendoeverything.com/nintendo-president-satoru-iwata-has-passed-away/ it ultimately cost him his life on July 11th, 2015]] at the age of 55. He will be missed dearly.

* DownerEnding: One of his final acts is apologizing for the disappointed sentiments towards Nintendo's E3 2015 showcase. Many consider his death this partially because of this.

* GeniusProgramming: Including the examples above, he spent a lot of time in his youth creating games using a pocket calculator and as well as disassembling Commodore computer programs entirely through writing it down by hand.
** As mentioned above he was able to fix and refine the code for Pokemon Gold and Silver to the point he got the size compressed down enough Gamefreak was able to add in Kanto as a bonus when before they were struggling just to put in the new region of Johto in the very restricted space of a Gameboy cart and for the first PokemonStadium game he made the battle system code for that game in the space of a week by himself without using any notes from the development of Pokemon Red/Green/Blue.

* BigGood: For Nintendo fans and Nintendo itself, when he was the global CEO of Nintendo. Might qualify as a major BigGood for the industry in general, considering how many people were saddened by his death (even some of the more vitriolic developers, like Creator/HidekiKamiya).