Reader Response - Iwata's Legacy

Published: July 21, 2015 12:00 PM /

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Reader Response

Welcome back to Reader Response, our new name for Raptor Talks as after talking with the branding department, they pointed out this was more consistent. This week we reflected on the recent passing of Satoru Iwata and his legacy both on individuals and gaming as a whole. Here are some of the responses we got:

A Grue

Often seen as a controversial president for his choices regarding the Wii U and 3DS, he was also the one during the Wii and DS time period. While many may debate the quality of the Wii as a console, no one can debate it's success. Iwata was all in on video games being fun, sadly this concept is becoming less and less mainstream. His passion and personality shone true in each the Nintendo Directs. You can easily tell that he loved and fully believed in the products he was talking about. His passion and enthusiasm will be greatly missed.
Roseluck
While I didn't know much about him before his death, I have learned that he was the Nintendo President during the Wii and Wii U eras. I feel that he lead Nintendo in the right direction when his competitors at Sony and Microsoft decided to stop focusing on both fun and games. I would prefer a console with fun "Casual" games to one with nothing a lack-luster lineup, and some silly added features. In addition to this I have in the last two days found out just how amazing a coder he was as well as how fun and funny a person. While I knew little about him while he lived I am saddened by his death and gaming and the world has lost a great contributor.

Now that he is gone I worry for the future of Nintendo as I fear they will either fall prey to how Sony and Microsoft are run or they will move more towards the mobile market, neither of which I want to see for such a great company with so much history in gaming.

LinksOcarina (Robert Grosso)
This was a man who cut his own pay as CEO instead of firing whole studios, when the Wii U and the 3DS under performed.

Iwata was truly a unique individual. He was in charge of one of the biggest companies in gaming, yet it seemed like he never took it seriously. He put himself out there for the people, something companies tend to hire spokespersons for, and for the past three years has been on our PC screens directly.

It is a testament to all of the fan art and tributes you see how important this man was to a lot of people. I don't think any CEO in gaming will ever reach that level of respect by the community at large. We saw one of the men responsible for the world of Nintendo pass away. Love or hate Nintendo, this is a significant loss.

Mark Richard
It shouldn't be weird when a CEO or high level executive knows what they’re selling and can relate in some way to the people who buy it on even the most basic level, yet that is the world we live in. Iwata is a great loss to Nintendo and the gaming industry in general. Who can forget his famous words ‘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.’
 

My take on all of this is that gaming has lost one of its giants and a great man in general. Satoru Iwata is responsible in many ways for what gaming became, from his work on many things through the 80s and 90s to his leadership of Nintendo throughout the 2000s. In an era when games have often become more about what looks cool, or how to milk the most pennies out of someone, he remembered what it was that brought him into the field originally: a sense of fun. More than that, as a business man it is notable that he was able to translate that sense of fun to the business side and make it work, something that few can do, which deserves applause. Without Iwata, Nintendo would not be the company it is and the history of gaming would be vastly different.

I never had the chance to meet him, but in these last few years he got to talk with his fans in many ways with the Nintendo Directs. In an era when companies opt to play it safer, Iwata was always willing to innovate and try new ideas.

If you have any thoughts you want to share on Iwata, or want to read the rest of the responses, go read our thread on it and post!

This week's question is thankfully a lot lighter. We're tying it into this week's TechRaptor Theme week, and while our writers will be writing on and streaming some of their choices for best games of generation 7, we want to hear your choices for it! So what do you think is the best game of Gen 7 as that storied and long lived generation has its curtain call? Share your thoughts on the forum and  get a chance to win

Have a tip, or want to point out something we missed? Leave a Comment or e-mail us at tips@techraptor.net


Don Parsons
| Senior Writer

A longtime lover of speculative fiction, in almost all its forms, Don joined TechRaptor in 2014 on a whim sending in an application as he was looking for… More about Don