{"id":17758,"date":"2015-07-14T23:44:17","date_gmt":"2015-07-14T13:44:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=17758"},"modified":"2015-07-14T23:47:54","modified_gmt":"2015-07-14T13:47:54","slug":"satoru-iwata-has-passed-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=17758","title":{"rendered":"Satoru Iwata has passed away"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/tNZ0evP.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-17759\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/tNZ0evP.jpg\" alt=\"tNZ0evP\" width=\"757\" height=\"551\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/tNZ0evP.jpg 757w, http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/tNZ0evP-300x218.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 757px) 100vw, 757px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span class=\"dropcap\">O<\/span>n Monday morning, news broke\u00a0that Satoru Iwata, the fourth president of Nintendo Co. Ltd had passed away at the age of 55 from a bile duct growth.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Its tough to think of a passing in the video game industry that has resonated with and impacted so many people. \u00a0Thousands of gamers mourned through social media and message board communities. \u00a0Game developers and industry figureheads from both East and West paid their respects. \u00a0Even companies that have nothing to do with video games &#8211; Skype, Amazon, PETA to name a few &#8211; posted tributes online celebrating the life and accomplishments of Satoru Iwata.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">I count myself amongst the millions that were both shocked and deeply saddened by his passing. \u00a0Video games are one of my favourite pastimes and has been since childhood. \u00a0 Nintendo was the company that made me a lifelong fan and in the last decade, Iwata has been instrumental in not only nurturing that love of gaming but also fostering an environment that has produced some of the most entertaining, joyous and creative games the industry has ever seen.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"und\"><a href=\"http:\/\/t.co\/TDBrzS4b9M\">pic.twitter.com\/TDBrzS4b9M<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Aaron Greenberg (@aarongreenberg) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/aarongreenberg\/status\/620468176023715840\">July 13, 2015<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" async=\"\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" lang=\"en\"><p>\nI already miss Iwata. <a href=\"http:\/\/t.co\/ZJSke6ckyl\">pic.twitter.com\/ZJSke6ckyl<\/a> \u2014 Ryan Brown \u2665 (@Toadsanime) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Toadsanime\/status\/620580255019896832\">July 13, 2015<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" async=\"\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"ja\">\u4efb\u5929\u5802\u672c\u793e\u524d\u3067\u3059\u3002\u5ca9\u7530\u793e\u9577\u304c\u4ea1\u304f\u306a\u3089\u308c\u305f\u3068\u3044\u3046\u3053\u3068\u3067\u534a\u65d7\u304c\u63b2\u3052\u3089\u308c\u3066\u3044\u307e\u3057\u305f\u3002\u30de\u30b9\u30b3\u30df\u306e\u59ff\u3082\u7121\u304f\u3001\u3072\u3063\u305d\u308a\u3068\u3057\u3066\u3044\u307e\u3059\u3002\u6539\u3081\u3066\u3054\u51a5\u798f\u3092\u304a\u7948\u308a\u3044\u305f\u3057\u307e\u3059\u3002 <a href=\"http:\/\/t.co\/mSP1Z93BCM\">pic.twitter.com\/mSP1Z93BCM<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 NOCHI (@nochi0079) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/nochi0079\/status\/620410389495296000\">July 13, 2015<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" async=\"\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" lang=\"en\"><p>\nThank you for everything, Mr. Iwata. \u2014 PlayStation (@PlayStation) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PlayStation\/status\/620412765849546752\">July 13, 2015<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" async=\"\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">An incredibly sad start to the week. RIP Satoru Iwata. You had the respect of a world of gamers, including all of us at Rare. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/ThankYouIwata?src=hash\">#ThankYouIwata<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Rare Ltd. (@RareLtd) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RareLtd\/status\/620532581130371072\">July 13, 2015<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" async=\"\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Since his passing, much has been written about Iwata&#8217;s storied career. \u00a0In part, his wide-reaching appeal can be traced back to his humble every man origins. \u00a0Born and raised in Sapporo, Japan, he showed a flair for programming at a young age, even creating a baseball game on a calculator as a teenager.<\/p>\n<p>He cut his teeth in the industry doing freelance work for HAL Laboratory before joining them full time upon his graduation from the Tokyo Institute of Technology where he majored in Computer Science.<\/p>\n<p>The stories of Iwata&#8217;s programming prowess are now the stuff of legend. \u00a0A popular <a href=\"http:\/\/api.viglink.com\/api\/click?format=go&amp;jsonp=vglnk_14368797765619&amp;key=de2ccb8ca8943c06669720e0a267a9f6&amp;libId=ic3co65v0100ag8y000DAeh6olm7s&amp;loc=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.neogaf.com%2Fforum%2Fshowthread.php%3Ft%3D1078850&amp;v=1&amp;out=http%3A%2F%2Ftvtropes.org%2Fpmwiki%2Fpmwiki.php%2FSugarWiki%2FGeniusProgramming&amp;ref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com.au%2F&amp;title=What%20are%20your%20favourite%20memories%20of%20Satoru%20Iwata%3F%20-%20NeoGAF&amp;txt=http%3A%2F%2Ftvtropes.org%2Fpmwiki%2Fpmwiki.ph...iusProgramming\"><strong>TV Tropes article<\/strong><\/a> sums it up nicely:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: #808080;\"><em>Ladies and gentlemen, meet Satoru Iwata, global president of Nintendo, former acting president of HAL Labs. When he was younger, he disassembled the programs for his home computer by writing down the memory dumps by hand. Mind you, this was before printers. Among his achievements as a game programmer, he&#8230;<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #808080;\"><em>&#8230; ported the battle code of Pokemon Stadium to the Nintendo 64 despite not having any access to crucial documents. And he did it all in a week.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #808080;\"><em>&#8230; programmed EarthBound (from scratch) in its entirety, also with remarkable speed. At the time, the project was very close to being jettisoned due to the unmanageability of the original coding. The coding itself is a huge scripting language, so complex that, theoretically, the text system alone could be used to write an emulator, if altered somewhat.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #808080;\"><em>&#8230; personally compressed Pokemon Gold And Silver, which filled the cartridge despite still being half-finished. That&#8217;s the reason the setting for Pok\u00e9mon Red and Blue was included (with only two locations removed) in the games\u2014there was that much space left after he was done.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #808080;\"><em>&#8230; debugged Super Smash Bros. Melee all by his lonesome. It only took him two weeks\u2014which was all the time he had to get it out.<\/em><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/i.imgur.com\/E8qV6Yx.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Iwata stood out amongst a sea of corporate CEOs not just because he was the face of the oldest games company in the world but because he embodied so many of its best qualities.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">He was a\u00a0passionate gamer first and foremost. \u00a0He was also an accomplished and talented games developer. \u00a0Then he took what he loved about games &#8211; their creativity and ability to inspire joy in people of all ages &#8211; and made it a cornerstone of Nintendo&#8217;s\u00a0philosophy when they appeared to have lost their way with the Gamecube. \u00a0He gave a famous speech at the Game Developers Conference of 2005 where he lead a call to action to the games industry &#8211; imploring developers to reach out to a wider audience beyond the traditional &#8216;core&#8217; gaming audience of young adult males.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">He backed up his words by overseeing the release of the\u00a0Nintendo DS and Nintendo Wii, two systems that restored Nintendo&#8217;s fortunes and seemingly vindicated his highly unorthodox style. \u00a0Both games systems broke the mould, enjoyed extraordinary commercial success and laid the groundwork for gaming reaching a wider audience today than anyone would have imagined possible ten years prior.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/i.imgur.com\/rfrhu8p.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"336\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">But above all else, the reason Satoru Iwata&#8217;s passing has sparked such an outpouring of grief is that he was by all accounts one of the nicest guys in the games industry. \u00a0Iwata became a very visible leader at Nintendo &#8211; a far cry from his predecessors &#8211; thanks to his highly entertaining and informative Iwata Asks and Nintendo Direct videos. \u00a0These videos gave fans an insight into upcoming games, showed a glimpse of the inner workings at some of Nintendo&#8217;s most talented development studios and provided a perfect showcase for Iwata to show off his quirky, inimitable style. \u00a0Sight gags involving bananas, Muppets and Street Fighter spoofs were not uncommon in Nintendo Direct videos. \u00a0Iwata was not afraid to poke fun at himself, have a good time and best of all, he had an infectious enthusiasm for games that shone through. \u00a0&#8220;You want a revolution? \u00a0Because we&#8217;ve got one&#8221; \u00a0were the famous words he uttered before unveiling Project Revolution, the console that eventually came to be known as the Nintendo Wii. \u00a0Like a real life Willy Wonka, Iwata loved developing creative new products and\u00a0seemed positively giddy with excitement to unveil them to the Nintendo faithful.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/i.imgur.com\/biCYaXn.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"636\" height=\"358\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Nintendo has had a rough time \u00a0of it in the last five years with neither the successor to the Wii or the DS attaining the same level of success that the company would have hoped. \u00a0Nintendo is currently undergoing a transition phase with a new system\u00a0on the horizon (Project NX) and a change in games development policy that finally saw them break down a resistance to mobile gaming. \u00a0During this tumultuous period, Iwata was battling cancer and fighting to turn the company&#8217;s fortunes around. \u00a0Ever the humble servant to the company he loves, he took a pay cut so that other staff could avoid retrenchment.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">At 55, Satoru Iwata is gone too soon. \u00a0He should have lived to see the launch of the next system, had his hard work pay off and seen a change in the company&#8217;s fortunes for the better. \u00a0After a lifetime of work he should have lived to a ripe old age, having the opportunity to retire and bask in the knowledge that he brought so much happiness to so many people. \u00a0He was a giant of the games industry and a legend at Nintendo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A tribute to Nintendo&#8217;s visionary leader Satoru Iwata who passed away from bile duct cancer last week<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":17760,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[441,2258],"class_list":["post-17758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-nintendo","tag-satoru-iwata"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17758"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17758\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17765,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17758\/revisions\/17765"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}