Satoru Iwata, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

    

Satoru Iwata

Japanese video game programmer and businessman

Date of Birth: 06-Dec-1959

Place of Birth: Sapporo, Hokkaidō Prefecture, Japan

Date of Death: 11-Jul-2015

Profession: engineer, computer scientist, entrepreneur, game programmer, video game producer

Nationality: Japan

Zodiac Sign: Sagittarius


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About Satoru Iwata

  • Satoru Iwata (Japanese: ?? ?, Hepburn: Iwata Satoru, December 6, 1959 – July 11, 2015) was a Japanese businessman, video game programmer and gamer.
  • He was the fourth president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Nintendo.
  • He is widely regarded as a major contributor in broadening the appeal of video games to a wider audience by focusing on novel and entertaining games rather than top-of-the-line hardware. Born in Sapporo, Japan, Iwata expressed interest in video games from an early age and created his first simple game while in high school.
  • He majored in computer science at the Tokyo Institute of Technology.
  • In 1980, he joined the game developer HAL Laboratory while attending the university.
  • During his early years at HAL Laboratory he worked as a programmer and closely collaborated with Nintendo, producing his first commercial game in 1983.
  • Notable titles to which he contributed at HAL include EarthBound and the Kirby series.
  • Following a downturn and near-bankruptcy, Iwata became the president of HAL Laboratory in 1993 at the insistence of Nintendo President Hiroshi Yamauchi and brought financial stability to the company.
  • In the following years, he assisted in the development of the Pokémon and Super Smash Bros.
  • series.
  • Iwata joined Nintendo as the head of its corporate-planning division in 2000. Nintendo soon saw notable growth with Iwata's assistance and, when Yamauchi retired, he became the company's president in May 2002.
  • Under Iwata's direction, Nintendo developed the Nintendo DS and Wii video game consoles, helping the company achieve financial success.
  • As a self-declared gamer, he focused on expanding the appeal of video games across all demographics through a "blue ocean" business strategy.
  • The company attained record profits by 2009, and Barron's placed Iwata among the top 30 CEOs worldwide.
  • Iwata subsequently expanded his blue ocean strategy by defining a quality of life product line for the Wii that later evolved into a ten-year business strategy to create stand-alone products.
  • Later hardware such as the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U proved far less profitable than the Wii, and Nintendo's net sales fell by two thirds from 2009 to 2012; the company saw its first operating losses in 30 years during this time.
  • Iwata voluntarily halved his salary in 2011 and 2014.
  • In 2015, after several years of refusal, 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.
  • Throughout his career, Iwata built a strong relationship with Nintendo fans through social media and his regular appearances in Iwata Asks and Nintendo Direct, becoming the public face of the company. In June 2014, a tumor in Iwata's bile duct was discovered during a routine physical exam.
  • It was removed, and Iwata returned to work in October of that year.
  • The problem resurfaced in 2015, and Iwata died at the age of 55 from its complications on July 11.
  • Members of the gaming industry and fans alike offered tributes through public announcements and social media, and fans worldwide established temporary memorials.
  • Iwata was posthumously awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2015 Golden Joystick Awards and the 2016 DICE Awards.

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