Satoru Iwata Passes Much too Young

Very few individuals have their named stamped on the video game industry; Iwata is one of the few. He was known by almost everyone, whether they owned a Nintendo system or not. While many questioned the direction he was taking Nintendo since the announcement of the WII U, it is still hard to argue that he was not a major innovative player in the video games industry.

Iwata had been battling cancer for over a year, and passed on July 11th at the age of 55. The legacy that Iwata leaves behind should be mostly positive; if social media is any indication, Iwata’s only real blunders have been in the last few years, but that overall, his importance to the industry is matched by few. Thousands of tweets flooded twitter after Nintendo of Japan released their announcement, and not one person could be overly critical of the Nintendo head.

And how could you be? While his decisions may not have resonated with everyone, there is no denying that Iwata brought a number of great projects and ideas to the table. Iwata was a unique head for any video game company because he actually had coding experience. This is probably what made him an active President and CEO rather than a passive one. He was always looking to innovate, and was never satisfied with repetition. Most Nintendo Franchises experienced drastic changes under his watch.

Iwata was never one to do something normal, and even when his competitors went different directions, Iwata moved to innovate. In the video game industry, we are fortunate to have had a man such as Iwata who was never happy with what we currently had. He always wanted to innovate and be different, and he generally succeeded. While the success of all the projects can be questioned, Satoru Iwata’s desire to make the industry better cannot be.