Nintendo’s Satoru Iwata was undoubtedly the most innovative and unconventional CEO of the company. Unlike most CEOs of video game companies who are either vilified or ignored, Iwata received much love and admiration from both gamers and developers. Eight months after his death, the GDC Awards in San Francisco, cast the star of a four-minute animated video drawn by Brain artist David Hellman in remembrance of Iwata.
In the video, Iwata appears as a pencil drawing and is seen alongside Nintendogs, Brain training, the Wii’s motion controller remote, and the DS. These were some of the most famous Nintendo products released during his time in charge.The video has definitely given Iwata a bit more credit than is entirely accurate. But not for the effort of Nintendo’s workforce the idea of DS may not have been materialised – but Nintendo’s previous boss was not beneath such innovation.
Iwata died of cancer at the age of 55. He rose to the position of CEO from a background in game development. This was quite new as most of the CEO’s of Nintendo came from business side of the industry. Iwata had a programmer’s eye for detail, a gamer’s approach to video games and lovable turns on his company’s Nintendo direct videos, and so, he won the hearts of Nintendo fans within a short span of time.
