I think it's really important that you know who Satoru Iwata is. It's incredibly vital. You don't need to have enjoyed some of his games like Mother 3 or Super Smash Bros or, heck, ANY Nintendo game.
You still need to know about him.
Iwata raised up Nintendo, the fourth person to run it and raise it, since its original creation as a playing card company in 1889. He was also the first president who was entirely unrelated to the founding Yamauchi family. That's sorta rare for Japan. They like passing on company's to their children to the point that they'll have multiple children until one of them is a boy or even adopt fully grown adults.
He championed both the Nintendo DS and the Wii. Both were absolutely groundbreaking, but, if you have a good memory, neither of them looked like they'd even make it out of the gate.
The DS looked clunky, with two screens, which confused a lot of people. It was the first touchscreen I ever used.
People were unsure.
Until they found the little slot underneath the DS for all your Gameboy Advance Games. Don't worry, you can still play all the games you used to. You don't have to blindly trust tech. In the meantime, we're going to make you Animal Crossing Wild World, A New Super Mario Brothers with incredibly addictive multiplayer, Zelda, Layton, Pokemon, all the titles you know and love and some new ones we think you'll like too!
And the DS is the second most popular console of all time.
And what's up with that Wii? Who would want one? It's so gimmicky!
Then people started playing Wii games with friends, throwing Wii parties and having a whale of a time.
The Wii console outsold BOTH PS3 and Xbox 360 because there was an ENTIRE UNTAPPED AUDIENCE of older people who might not want to be seated for hours on end and younger children who want to play with their friends and don't want to play anything gory.
Those consoles along are reasons you should not only remember, but respect Mr Iwata.
But even without those, there so much more.
Firstly, he was at an age where most CEO's are worrying about spreadsheets and charts and numbers and sales and demographics.
They'd announce games with crazy showgirls and music and whatever flavour of the month quote was around.
Here's Iwata announcing a new Donkey Kong game.
He just held those bananas for about ten seconds before swerving and continuing with the conference.
He didn't need to do anything. You saw those bananas, new Donkey Kong game. Then he just started showing gameplay and all the new features instead of showing the dreaded pre-rendered cutscene.
Here he is, at the age of 54, last YEAR, announcing Mii characters for Smash Bros for the WiiU.
The pictures don't really do it justice, but essentially he's having a physical fight with Reggie, CEO of Nintendo America.
Again, 54 years old.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdDYoCU2kv0
He wasn't a suit. I mean, sure, he had a background as a businessman and knew his tech. He was someone who loved to play video games with his two best friends.
I guess if I had to summarise, I'd say that history will remember Iwata as:
When really, he was much more:
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