nintendo president satoru iwata dead at 55

[Kalahari Inkantation]

http://www.gamerampage.net/all/miyamoto-reggie-and-itoi-weigh-in-on-the-death-of-iwata

select eulogies:

I am surprised at this sudden news and overcome with sadness. The entire development team at Nintendo will remain committed to our development policy which Mr. Iwata and we have been constructing together and to yield the development results which Mr. Iwata would appreciate.

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 paradigmsâ€"and most of all, to engage, excite and endear our fans. That work will continue uninterrupted.

No matter the farewell, I think the most appropriate thing to say is, 'We'll meet again.' We are friends so we'll see each other again. There is nothing strange about saying it. Yeah, we'll meet again. Even if you didn't have the chance to put into words how sudden it was going to be, how far you'd be traveling, or how you went much earlier than expected, I know you went wearing your best. You always put yourself second to others no matter what, helping anyone who needed it whenever they needed it. You were that kind of friend. Although you may have been a little selfish for the first time ever by taking this journey.

The truth is, though, that I still don't believe any of it. I feel like I am going to receive a message from you inviting me out to eat at any moment. I wouldn't mind if you were to ask me like always if I had some free time. If you did, I'd ask you as well. Still, "we'll meet again." It would be great to hear from you whenever and wherever; I'll being calling to you too. I'll call if I have something to discuss or I want to tell you a great new idea I've had. We'll meet again. Then again, you're here with me now.

[Classic]

:'(

[Kalahari Inkantation]

the 17th was the date of his funeral

https://twitter.com/NintendoEurope/status/621952783005163520

[Kalahari Inkantation]

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2015/07/17/fans-remember-nintendo-president-iwata-at-funeral/

over 4100 attendees

[Kalahari Inkantation]

takeda's eulogy:

As we gather here today for a joint funeral with Nintendo Co., Ltd. and Mr. Iwata's family, I would like to share my heartfelt condolences. President Iwata, allow me to call you Iwata-san, just as I always used to.

Iwata-san, you left us far too soon. Having just chaired our shareholders' meeting the other day on June 26, the news of your sudden death has left all the employees overcome with a deep sorrow. The late Yamauchi-san passed the baton to you in naming you the president of Nintendo in 2002, and the two Senior Managing Directors of the company, Shigeru Miyamoto and I, have been assisting and working alongside you. Being rather short-tempered myself, the thing that I am most deeply struck by is that you were a true leader in every sense of the word, overflowing with compassion for people. You always maintained a two-way dialogue, even with the next generation of employees, or with much younger members of the development and marketing teams, or with employees outside of Japan whose different customs and cultures can make communication challenging â€" sometimes even admitting your own mistakes to them. You demonstrated this through your belief that people could eventually come to understand one another, and your strong conviction that the best way for us to grow is through patient communication, even if it took several times, a dozen times or even seemingly endless discussion.

You succeeded in planting the seed in employees' hearts that, in order to solve an issue, there is a fundamental cycle whereby you make a hypothesis, execute the plan, see the result and then make adjustments, and by which you have caringly nurtured these seeds to sprout and mature into plants.

Until now, our successors and the younger generation would take a few first steps and then look back at you for guidance because they could not tell if they had chosen the right path. Today they cannot ask for your guidance anymore.

However, I am sure that they have already made the firm determination that they will continue on their own, making the hypothesis, executing the plan, seeing the results and reflecting on the results to improve and adjust by themselves.

In the face of your unbelievable passing it will surely take some time before we can emerge from this deep sorrow. Please know, however, that the seeds you have planted, and the plants that have sprouted will put forth small flowers as they bring smiles to the faces of people around the world, blossom into a grand flower bigger than even you, our leader, Iwata-san. Together with Miyamoto and others of our generation, we swear in our hearts that we will continue our efforts so that, someday, we can report and present to you the blossoming of these flowers. May you continuously watch over and guide us managers, our employees and your family.

On behalf of all of us, I would like to offer my heartfelt condolences and sincerest prayer. May you rest in peace, Iwata-san.

http://www.polygon.com/2015/7/17/8996339/satoru-iwata-eulogy-genyo-takeda-nintendo

[Classic]

 

[Kalahari Inkantation]

[spoiler][/spoiler]

an image of a gaunt iwata apparently dated june 23, just 18 days before his passing

it's truly frightening how rapidly his build diminished to wasting syndrome after his health issues were first publicly disclosed

for reference, here's a picture of what he looked like in 2013:

[spoiler][/spoiler]

[Kalahari Inkantation]

[spoiler=and here's what he looked like in may of this year][/spoiler]

it's as if he aged 20 years in two years' time

[Classic]

It's so sad. :'(

[Kalahari Inkantation]

Two months after his death, Iwata finally has a replacement: Tatsumi Kimishima

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2015/09/tatsumi_kimishima_named_as_new_nintendo_president

a successor ten years his senior, as if there was a need for another reminder of just how untimely iwata's passing was

i had kind of expected takeda to eventually assume the role of full ceo, i'd never even heard of tatsumi kimishima before today

he was the president of nintendo of america from 2002-2006 before being succeeded by reggie, and prior to that he played various roles in the pokemon company (including chief financial officer and eventually president of pokemon usa)

he was apparently instrumental in cultivating pokemon's popularity in north america

before his relationship with nintendo he spent 27 years in the banking industry

an impressive resume no doubt, but nonetheless he feels like a very conservative choice

as far as i can tell he's strictly a businessman, unlike iwata who rose through the ranks as a programming prodigy inspired by a passion for gaming to eventually become ceo

not that that's necessarily a bad thing, but that together with kimishima's age (65) makes it feel as if he'll be somewhat of a stopgap while nintendo continues to search for a more permanent long-term successor

here is an image of iwata and kimishima sitting together during a conference in october 2014

[spoiler][/spoiler]

[bluaki]

Considering Kimishima is 65 years old, I really wonder how long he'll actually stay the president of Nintendo. He's already at retirement age.

Reggie is 54 years old.
Iwata died at age 55.
Yokoi died at age 56.
Miyamoto is 62 years old.
Kimishima is 65.
Takeda is 66 years old.
Hiroshi Yamauchi retired at age 74 and died at age 85.
Most of the board of directors are in their 60s.

I guess this is a natural result of being such an old company that follows Japanese customs, but Nintendo's important positions really are filled with old people. Meanwhile, Microsoft and Google are led by people in their 40s. Even Sony has much younger people than Nintendo, with a 54-year-old Kaz being one of their older executives.

[Kalahari Inkantation]

and in fact

http://nintendoeverything.com/kimishima-no-changes-to-the-basic-strategy-set-up-by-iwata/

so he is pretty much just in place to see the fulfillment of iwata's goals while the search for a more permanent successor to lead them into the future continues on

[bluaki]

as far as i can tell he's strictly a businessman, unlike iwata who rose through the ranks as a programming prodigy inspired by a passion for gaming to eventually become ceo

He appears in the credits list of a few games, but in all of them it's just as "special thanks": http://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,74244/

To be honest, it kinda makes sense for the president to not be a programming prodigy, because then their talents are wasted in a role that doesn't use the skill-set at all. But, on the other hand, it does of course help for the leader to have a good sense of what actually goes into their products; the last things Nintendo need right now are more people who might set requirements that make no sense to the developers, for example in a context like hardware development. Or online functionality.

[Kalahari Inkantation]

http://www.neoseeker.com/news/27336-nintendos-new-president-tatsumi-kimishima-advised-against-the-wii-u/

Kimishima used that business experience to advise against shipping the Wii U console, fearing it would fail because it was too similar to the Wii. While it's hard to argue that 10 million units sold is a failure, the ailing system has had trouble maintaining third party support and has been remaining afloat largely because of first party and indie titles.

[bluaki]

fearing it would fail because it was too similar to the Wii

Is it really that similar to the Wii, outside of the name? That's a marketing failure more than a product failure.

Backwards compatibility is something Nintendo always tries keeping, for very good reasons. Having the system be a small, nondescript box with a disc slot is really the way all consoles are nowadays. Keeping Wii controller support for multiplayer does raise its similarly a bit, but that makes sense from a hardware standpoint and is more of a marketing failure: they could've pushed more for the Pro Controller (or 3DS) instead of including Wiimotes in so many Wii U ads.