"On my business card, I am a company president. But in my mind I am a Developer, and in my heart I am a Gamer."

Earlier this week, the gaming industry and community lost an important figure, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata passed away at age 55 from a bile duct tumor. His tragic passing is felt around the world as fans, friends, and colleagues in the industry mourns his passing

Shigeru Miyamoto:

 

“I am surprised at this sudden news and overcome with sadness,” Mr. Miyamoto said in a statement issued through the company on Monday. He said he would maintain the game-development stance that he and Mr. Iwata established and work with developers to create the kind of future successes that the late president would have wanted.

Reggie Fils-Aime

 

Mr. Iwata is gone, but it will be years before his impact on both Nintendo and the full video game industry will be fully appreciated. He was a strong leader for our company, and his attributes were clear to most everyone: Intelligence, creativity, curiosity and sense of humor. But for those of us fortunate enough to work closely with him, what will be remembered most were his mentorship and, especially, his friendship. He was a wonderful man. He always challenged us to push forward…to try the new…to upset paradigms—and most of all, to engage, excite and endear our fans. That work will continue uninterrupted

Shigesato Itoi

 

In any farewells, all you have to say is "See you again".
Friends see each other again.
There's nothing strange about it.
Yes. See you again.

 

I heard that you are going on a long journey.
It was supposed to be in the far future.
You never said it in words, but wearing your best outfit, you were saying "Sorry for it to be so sudden".

 

You always looked after somebody instead of yourself.
As such friend, maybe this journey is your first time being selfish.

 

To be honest, I still don't really believe anything.
I feel like you'll be sending me email to ask for lunch.
Just like always, you can call me and ask "If you have some free time".
Of course, I can always ask you too.

 

Anyway, "See you again".
You can call me anywhere, anytime, and I'll be calling you too.
There are things I want to discuss, and good ideas I want to tell you.

 

See you again.
No, we are seeing each other right at this moment

Masahiro Sakurai

Shuhei Yoshida

 

"I always admired his personal, easy to understand commentary on games in development in his Nintendo Direct. He was an inspiration as a leader of one of the most influential companies in the game industry, who used to make games himself and has always been a gamer. I had a couple of times I had conversations with him at some international industry events, he was always friendly and nice to talk with. I was dreaming someday to have an open exchange of Tweets or to be on a same panel session with him to talk about industry and games we play. I even tweeted when I was leaving for E3 this year with #iwatter as I saw he started tweeting Nintendo E3 news with the hashtag. I have always respected Nintendo's games, how they are super accessible and polished for everyone to play and enjoy, and I understand Iwata-san was one of the key individuals to have kept that high quality standard across all Nintendo titles. I just wish he will rest in peace. Thank you for all your work for the better game industry

Phil Spencer

 

"Honestly I wasn't a huge Nintendo gamer growing up. I grew up on Atari 2600 and PC games. When I entered the 'industry' and learned what it meant to build games, grow franchises and really become part of the industry is when I learned what why Nintendo was special. Iwata-san has been President of Nintendo really for as long as we've been in the Xbox business. I think it was GDC 2005 when he stated 'On my business card, I am a corporate president. In my mind, I am a game developer. But in my heart, I am a gamer.' It's a quote I think about daily as I make decision for Xbox. Nintendo has defined excellence, longevity and self-confidence in their own vision. In the times I've met Iwata-san I always took away someone who believed in the 'why' behind the games and platforms they built. I think this was born out of the fact that he was a gamer at heart."

Iwata was a rarity among most corporate heads in the gaming industry, becoming president in 2002, handpicked by former Nintendo President Hiroshi Yamauchi. He was incredibly humble and would take responsibility for the companies mistakes and apologize, and would take a pay cut by half so he wouldn't have to lay people off. He was also one of the very few company presidents who also understood the development side of things.

Speaking of which he was also a programming wizard. When he was working at Hal Laboratory, he was responsible for working on many beloved Nintendo titles such as Baloon Fight, Earthbound, NES Open Tournament Golf, and the Kirby series. He then became president of Hal Laboratory and turned the company around when it was on the verge of bankruptcy. He also was responsible for bringing Earthbound to life even after running into so many issues in development. He also had a hand in Pokemon Snap and Stadium, the latter of which he single-handedly ported the source code of the Red/Blue battle system to Stadium. While we're on the subject of Pokemon, he also was able to fit both the new Jhoto and Kanto regions into a single GBC Cartridge. And he and his team also had a hand in bringing the original Super Smash Bros to life, and I think that success story speaks for itself.
During his time as president he brought forth many consoles that many gamers still love to this day such as the Wii and the DS, both of which are two of Nintendo's biggest success stories of all time.

One thing that Iwata will always be known was his directness, character, and his quirky-ness. Iwata Asks was a segment where he would often interview other devs on upcoming games revealing the thought processes that went into certain game design and going in depth into the game's mechanics. The man would also often deliver news "Directly" to gamers via Nintendo Directs which are very popular in the community, and within those directs he would often present himself in very humorous and fun ways, whether it'd be holding bananas, duking it out with Reggie or doing goofy stuff with Mario and co.

The most recent instance was when he was "Muppet-fied" for Nintendo's recent E3 conference. Regardless of your feelings towards the conference, I think I can speak for a lot of people when I say the Muppet-fied Nintendo leads were among the best and most memorable parts of E3.

And I feel this shows a lot of what kind of man Iwata was, and what represents Nintendo, fun and having fun. And you could definitely tell the man had a lot of fun doing what he did, acting and doing goofy games, demoing all of the games they would have to showcase.

Nintendo and the Gaming World lost an important man, who was taken too young, but his legacy will live on in history, and in gamer's hearts. Godspeed Mr Iwata, may you rest well.