Satoru Iwata

aka: Wahyo Iwata, Wahyo I., W. Iwata, S. Iwata, 岩田 聡
Moby ID: 52462

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Satoru Iwata (岩田 聡 - 6th December 1959 - 11th July 2015) was the fourth president of Nintendo, and was the former president of HAL Laboratory.

During high school, Iwata created simplistic games that were playable on calculators, and once he completed college at the Tokyo Institute of Technology in 1982, he joined HAL the following year. Over the years, Iwata has been heavily involved in the Kirby series, as well as other well-known video games such as Balloon Fight and EarthBound.

In 1993, Iwata became president of HAL Laboratory, Inc. In June 2000, Iwata left HAL, becoming a Director of Nintendo's corporate planning division. On 31st May 2002, Hiroshi Yamauchi, president of Nintendo Co., Ltd. for 52 years, retired from the company. Yamauchi named Iwata as his successor. In June 2013 he was appointed CEO of Nintendo of America.

Iwata passed away on 11th July 2015 due to a bile duct growth. Tatsumi Kimishima, a veteran of the operations department, succeeded him as President on 15th September 2015.

Credited on 485 games

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Swords & Soldiers II: Shawarmageddon (2018, Windows) Special Thanks to Nintendo
Membrane (2018, Nintendo Switch) Thanks for additional support, inspiration and love
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (2017, Nintendo Switch) Executive Producers
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (2017, Nintendo Switch) Executive Producers
Runbow (2016, Windows) In memory of
Paper Mario: Color Splash (2016, Wii U) Executive Producers
Metroid Prime: Federation Force (2016, Nintendo 3DS) Executive Producers
Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE (2016, Wii U) Executive Producers
Kirby: Planet Robobot (2016, Nintendo 3DS) Executive Producer
Star Fox Zero (2016, Wii U) Executive Producers
Xenoblade Chronicles X (2015, Wii U) Executive Producers
Pokémon Picross (2015, Nintendo 3DS) Executive Producers
The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes (2015, Nintendo 3DS) Executive Producer
Chibi-Robo! Zip Lash (2015, Nintendo 3DS) Executive Producer
Picross 3D: Round 2 (2015, Nintendo 3DS) Executive Producer
Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon (2015, Nintendo 3DS) Executive Producers
Super Mario Maker (2015, Wii U) Executive Producer
Devil's Third (2015, Wii U) Executive Producer
Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer (2015, Nintendo 3DS) Executive Producer
Yoshi's Woolly World (2015, Wii U) Executive Producer

[ full credits ]

Related Sites add

  • Wikipedia (en)
  • Profile: Satoru Iwata
    An article posted on IGN back in 2004 that details Satoru Iwata's history in the industry and Yamauchi's reasons as to why he chose him as his successor.
  • Nintendo's New Direction
    Satoru Iwata discusses his thoughts on technology and its applications in the video game industry, as well as Nintendo DS and Wii (which, being an older article, is referred to as GCNext at the time).
  • Iwata Asks: The Wii Console
    2006 interview with Satoru Iwata, Genyo Takeda, Junji Takamoto, Kenichiro Ashida, and Ko Shiota
  • Satoru Iwata
    VGMdb entry
  • Satoru Iwata
    Japanese Wikipedia

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