Satoru Iwata 1959-2015

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jawafour
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PostRe: Satoru Iwata 1959-2015
by jawafour » Fri Jul 17, 2015 1:51 pm

Ad7 wrote:Amstrad Action supremacy! Dat demo tape.

I subscribed to both Amstrad Action and Commodore Format right up to the very end... they were down to sixteen (yep, 16 :lol: ) pages but still included a tape / disk :wub: .

NOM was massively pro-Nintendo - a bit too much so, even for me - but the writers seemed to genuinely enjoy gaming. After the huge dullness of stuff like Edge and Official PlayStation (which became way more interesting in latter years) it was fresh and different. ONM continued the enthusiastic style, but reigned in some of the silly stuff and started to mark games in 'better' fashion (i.e. they used the whole review scale rather than 7 through 10).

In a tenuous link to get back on track, Shiggsy did a drawing for the cover of ONM issue 100... and it was *bad* :lol: . ONM had bigged up that he would be producing some exclusive artwork but it turned out to be a throw-away one minute sketch. It was only used for subscription copies and a better Zelda picture was hastily put together for shop copies!

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PostRe: Satoru Iwata 1959-2015
by Herdanos » Fri Jul 17, 2015 2:14 pm

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jawafour
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PostRe: Satoru Iwata 1959-2015
by jawafour » Fri Jul 17, 2015 2:18 pm

Dan. wrote::?:

...yep, that's it! It was so disappointing. I suspect that Shiggsy hadn't realsed that the drawing was gonna be for the cover.

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PostRe: Satoru Iwata 1959-2015
by Qikz » Fri Jul 17, 2015 2:52 pm

It was the funeral today, apparently 3000 people attended and he had a good send off. Nintendo of Europe sent out a string of nice tweets too thanking everyone for their kind words about Iwata and how he'll be sorely missed and to not worry as Iwata's legacy and vision will continue on with the future of Nintendo.

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PostRe: Satoru Iwata 1959-2015
by The Watching Artist » Fri Jul 17, 2015 4:33 pm

People leaving things at the Nintendo World Store- http://imgur.com/a/O4kdH The bananas :lol: :wub:

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still
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PostRe: Satoru Iwata 1959-2015
by still » Fri Jul 17, 2015 5:37 pm


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PostRe: Satoru Iwata 1959-2015
by Qikz » Sat Jul 18, 2015 2:13 am

Nintendo released Genyo Takeda's eulogy about his dear friend.

As we gather here today for a joint funeral with Nintendo Co., Ltd. and Mr. Iwata's family, I would like to share my heartfelt condolences. President Iwata, allow me to call you Iwata-san, just as I always used to.

Iwata-san, you left us far too soon. Having just chaired our shareholders' meeting the other day on June 26, the news of your sudden death has left all the employees overcome with a deep sorrow. The late Yamauchi-san passed the baton to you in naming you the president of Nintendo in 2002, and the two Senior Managing Directors of the company, Shigeru Miyamoto and I, have been assisting and working alongside you. Being rather short-tempered myself, the thing that I am most deeply struck by is that you were a true leader in every sense of the word, overflowing with compassion for people. You always maintained a two-way dialogue, even with the next generation of employees, or with much younger members of the development and marketing teams, or with employees outside of Japan whose different customs and cultures can make communication challenging — sometimes even admitting your own mistakes to them. You demonstrated this through your belief that people could eventually come to understand one another, and your strong conviction that the best way for us to grow is through patient communication, even if it took several times, a dozen times or even seemingly endless discussion.

You succeeded in planting the seed in employees' hearts that, in order to solve an issue, there is a fundamental cycle whereby you make a hypothesis, execute the plan, see the result and then make adjustments, and by which you have caringly nurtured these seeds to sprout and mature into plants.

Until now, our successors and the younger generation would take a few first steps and then look back at you for guidance because they could not tell if they had chosen the right path. Today they cannot ask for your guidance anymore.

However, I am sure that they have already made the firm determination that they will continue on their own, making the hypothesis, executing the plan, seeing the results and reflecting on the results to improve and adjust by themselves.

In the face of your unbelievable passing it will surely take some time before we can emerge from this deep sorrow. Please know, however, that the seeds you have planted, and the plants that have sprouted will put forth small flowers as they bring smiles to the faces of people around the world, blossom into a grand flower bigger than even you, our leader, Iwata-san. Together with Miyamoto and others of our generation, we swear in our hearts that we will continue our efforts so that, someday, we can report and present to you the blossoming of these flowers. May you continuously watch over and guide us managers, our employees and your family.

On behalf of all of us, I would like to offer my heartfelt condolences and sincerest prayer. May you rest in peace, Iwata-san.

---

Really powerful words.

The Watching Artist wrote:I feel so inept next to Qikz...
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PostRe: Satoru Iwata 1959-2015
by Super Dragon 64 » Sat Jul 18, 2015 8:07 am

Powerful words indeed :wub:

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PostRe: Satoru Iwata 1959-2015
by jawafour » Sat Jul 18, 2015 8:20 am

Lovely words.

A thought that I've had during the days following Iwata's passing is that I'd like to get better at giving recognition and appreciation whilst people are alive. It can be amazing to read eulogies after someone has passed on... but perhaps it could be even better to share these views whilst a person is with us.

How inspiring it is to read of peoples' love and respect for another human!

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PostRe: Satoru Iwata 1959-2015
by still » Sat Jul 18, 2015 12:56 pm

Just started playing Earthbound as a tribute. So far it is utterly charming, hilariously written if not downright wacky. A game with real personality.

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Suffocate Peon
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PostRe: Satoru Iwata 1959-2015
by Suffocate Peon » Sat Jul 18, 2015 4:33 pm

Dan. wrote:I only recently watched the e3 muppets videos after hearing about this. Thought they were brilliant. If Iwata was too ill to appear in person (likely) then going for muppets instead was an inspired choice.

Made me think, what other company has execs like Nintendo? Plenty of games companies have directors and key staff who become iconic in their own right (not just through their creations like you'd say Naka was iconic but only through/because of Sonic - for example Molyneux is an industry icon not just through one game or series), but not in the same way as those three (Reggie, Shigsy and Iwata), and I think it isn't just because Nintendo are better-loved or more popular than most other games companies from within the 'gaming' community.

I think a lot of it is their outlook (which you could argue shines through from their software too) - fun above all else. Whereas other execs might believe themselves to be iconic and want to be represented in a certain way, Nintendo's key staff don't care how they come across as long as it's fun. They were happy to take the mickey out of themselves, parody their own sayings and idiosyncrasies, dress up as their characters, depict themselves as muppets, stare at bananas, talk embarrassing smack etc. - whatever, so long as it entertains.

Actually, you definitely would argue it shines through from their software. Because regardless of what's cool or in, Nintendo will just make games that are fun, even if the subject matter is bizarre or deeply unfashionable. Cleaning robots and plant-men and goo fighting and conducting an orchestra and a game made entirely out of yarn or wool. I'd imagine Nintendo have never done a day's market research in their lives, instead building concepts around playability and then finding any old subject or theme that would fit the concept.

So maybe it is because they're Nintendo execs. But not just because people love Nintendo and therefore they love their main players. It's because those main players are so lovable. And they're lovable for the same reason that Nintendo's software output is so often adored - because of an overriding commitment to fun, entertainment and playability. And a lack of interest in what anyone else is doing or considers to be 'cool' or 'right'.

The Yamauchi family were Nintendo. But that was the Nintendo of old - brilliant, brilliant games, but with a public image that didn't want to look you on the eye, that drip-fed information and releases. And that made sense when combined with the personality of the last Yamauchi. Iwata's time in the top job was when the programmers - those responsible for those brilliant, brilliant games - took over the business side of things too. The madmen took over the asylum, if you like. And so not only were Nintendo's games brilliant and unique and great fun to play - everything about Nintendo became that, their approach, their hardware, their marketing, their business model...

You could argue that this has now hurt them - a lack of business ruthlessness (like in the Yamauchi days) has seem them go too far in this quest to be unique and different while simultaneously brilliant, the result being the Wii U, adored by its owners, of whom there are so few. Iwata's replacement has a big task: ideally they need someone with the business acumen of a Yamauchi, able to view the whole industry coolly and with a calculated mind and see opportunities to profit. But they also need a bit of Iwata: that heart of a gamer influencing everything they do and how they connect with the people who play their cames, which came as such a refreshing change from the 90s era of clear disconnect between player and company. (Other than through their games of course - which were developed by people like Satoru Iwata.)

I'm rambling now. But anyway. This whole thing is very sad. RIP Iwata, what a legacy. :(

This was a good read, and maybe more interesting to me because it's from the viewpoint of someone who seems in love with Nintendo. I've always thought that the reason Yamauchi was good for Nintendo was precisely because he didn't care about games, because he seemed to let the designers make the games they wanted to. I don't think Nintendo of now would pursue anything deviant like Metroid and F Zero, anything that isn't ultra palatable and able to make as much money as possible.

Nintendo are purely corporate, they won't make another F Zero because it won't make them as much money as Mario Party 10, even if it is what the fans demand, even if it is what videogames as an entertainment artform demands, 30 racers online should have happened by now if videogames continued their course of constant innovation. Pokemon 3D online should exist. I believe that Satoru Iwata believed in wanting to deliver 'fun' to everyone, but at the same time it wasn't enough for him that there would be a limit to who plays games, the right idea in terms of how we interactive with games wasn't matched with a creativity in terms of design, they softened and sanitized their style even more, and sought to establishment a new level of blandness with the Miis.

Maybe I don't realise that they couldn't have continued with more consoles in the same vein as the N64 and Gamecube, but the Wii just aligns itself with how the mainstream were becoming more and more accustomed to digital technology, I think only technology allowing for people to be more social would mean they become accepted by the masses. So the mobile phone and then Facebook for the internet. Since then it's the hardware that is the draw, not the software, as long as the same franchises are being milked it's alright.

There will always be a limit to how many people find the time away from all other pressures and distractions to play a game or watch a film, i think 1 million people experiencing the same thing is amazing, it's not like some failure because it's not 2 million. But that doesn't fit the capitalist ideology and isn't accepted, constant growth is like some kind of validation of an existence that has lost its soul and its reason for being. Nintendo represent more that than fun for me now.

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PostRe: Satoru Iwata 1959-2015
by TheTurnipKing » Mon Jul 20, 2015 12:49 am

I don't know. To my eyes, what made Nintendo successful was a keen understanding of the console format, which can mostly be traced back to the "lateral thinking with withered technology" philosophy. Which is directly opposed to where Sony and Microsoft sit on the tech curve, which is always "max hardware grunt". Because yes, there is a demand for that, which they fill quite ably.

What Nintendo have usually done, with the notable exception of the N64, is take cheap, low value hardware and substantially increased the value of it with well chosen software that attempts to take full, or innovative use, of it in a way that hasn't been done before. And that to me is why I love them. Because they don't always deliver the obvious, expected or iterative. Sometimes, they deliver the thing I didn't even realise I wanted.

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PostRe: Satoru Iwata 1959-2015
by Suffocate Peon » Mon Jul 20, 2015 6:57 pm

TheTurnipKing wrote:I don't know. To my eyes, what made Nintendo successful was a keen understanding of the console format, which can mostly be traced back to the "lateral thinking with withered technology" philosophy. Which is directly opposed to where Sony and Microsoft sit on the tech curve, which is always "max hardware grunt". Because yes, there is a demand for that, which they fill quite ably.

What Nintendo have usually done, with the notable exception of the N64, is take cheap, low value hardware and substantially increased the value of it with well chosen software that attempts to take full, or innovative use, of it in a way that hasn't been done before. And that to me is why I love them. Because they don't always deliver the obvious, expected or iterative. Sometimes, they deliver the thing I didn't even realise I wanted.


I'm never viewed them like that, not with the SNES (which was more capable than the Megadrive, no?), and Gamecube which like the Dreamcast seemed to imbue its games with gorgeously bright graphics. Exclusive games had a particular colour palette I've always loved, just look at Crazi Taxi and Fur Fighters and Power Stone. There were innovations in terms of control pad design but it seemed to stem from necessities in the game design outwards, like we want Mario to be controlled naturally, how do we do it? We want you to feel the sensation of being attacked in Lylat Wars, how do we do it? Nintendo didn't invent the Wii because they had some incredible game idea that couldn't be done without it. I think the Gamecube pad and the console itself represented Nintendo at their most ...I dunno, straightforward? The games needed to be the star of the console and it seems like Nintendo, despite promises of smaller titles that maybe try different things with established franchises, like Luigi's Mansion and Wind Waker and Super Mario Sunshine, and then something original like Pikmin, they lost interest. If Nintendo were going

I think it's only since the Wii where they've moved away from graphics being a draw to people. But I think they still are, to me at least, a well presented game is no different to a well presented film, the visuals, mood, use of music can be what distinguishes it, give it personality. Look at Drive, or Killer 7. The style is the substance, you can't just detract all the elements that add to the experience, something evoking nostalgia, chills. Nintendo don't seem to value that. Mario was always representative of their most family friendly games, but they at least allowed alternative ideas to flourish in Metroid, Majoras Mask, F-Zero. The 'lets embrace new gamers and allow them to explore deeper into the varied complex world of videogames at their own pace' would be like giving someone a cook book and hoping by next week they'll be reading a novel. Or the film Minions and then hoping they'll move on to some czech animation. Ultimately it should be the goal of any entertainment company to pursue it's creative desires and use popular titles to fund them. I don't think Nintendo have the right balance, or any balance really.

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PostRe: Satoru Iwata 1959-2015
by TheTurnipKing » Tue Jul 21, 2015 11:00 am

The NES used a custom 6502 cpu rejigged to remove some features in favour of extra registers, some 8 years after the first introduction of the chip, successfully squeezing a whole lot of extra gaming potential out of the venerable processor.

The SNES used a 16bit CPU that offered backwards compatability with that. It would be wrong to call the SNES more powerful than the Megadrive. What the SNES was, was more efficient with a well designed PPU and audio subsystem designed by Sony that in most cases more than compensated for the lack of raw speed.

The Gamecube was based on the PowerPC architecture, which had never been particularly successful and was beginning to fall out of vogue with Apple moving towards x86, and they decided they weren't done with it when it came time to create the Wii and later, the Wii-U

The N64 is the interesting odd-man-out, based on their work with silicon graphics.

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PostRe: Satoru Iwata 1959-2015
by jawafour » Thu Mar 17, 2016 8:04 am

A lovely tribute to Iwata-san that was shown at the Game Developers Conference.



You'll have to excuse me, I think I have something in my eye.

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PostRe: Satoru Iwata 1959-2015
by Dandy Kong » Thu Mar 17, 2016 4:47 pm

That Iwata... just throwing bubbles in the air while other people do all the work :x








Just kidding. That was very touching. Iwata :wub:

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