- Wikipedia

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In this Japanese name, the surname is Iwata.

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Satoru Iwata
\u5ca9\u7530 \u8061
$\"Satoru$ Iwata at GDC 2011
Born	(1959-12-06)December 6, 1959 Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan
Died	July 11, 2015(2015-07-11) (aged 55) Kyoto, Japan
Alma mater	Tokyo Institute of Technology
Employer	HAL Laboratory (1980\u20131999)
Notable work	EarthBound Balloon Fight Kirby Pok\u00e9mon Super Smash Bros.
Title	President of Nintendo (2002\u20132015)
Board member of	Nintendo (2000\u20132015)
Spouse(s)	Kayoko Iwata (\u5ca9\u7530 \u4f73\u4ee3\u5b50, Iwata Kayoko)
Signature

Satoru Iwata (Japanese: \u5ca9\u7530 \u8061, Hepburn: Iwata Satoru, December 6, 1959 – July 11, 2015) was a Japanese businessman, video game programmer, video game designer, and producer. He was the fourth president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Nintendo from 2002 until his death in 2015. Iwata was a major contributor in broadening the appeal of video games by focusing on novel and entertaining games rather than top-of-the-line hardware.\n

Born in Sapporo, Iwata expressed interest in video games from an early age and created his first simple game while in high school. He majored in computer science at the Tokyo Institute of Technology. In 1980, he joined the game developer HAL Laboratory while attending the university. At HAL, he worked as a programmer and closely collaborated with Nintendo, producing his first commercial game in 1983. Games to which he contributed include EarthBound and many games in the Kirby series. Following a downturn and near-bankruptcy, Iwata became the president of HAL in 1993 at the insistence of Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi and brought financial stability. In the following years, he worked in the development of the Pok\u00e9mon and Super Smash Bros. series. Iwata joined Nintendo as the head of its corporate planning division in 2000.\n

Nintendo saw growth under Iwata and, when Yamauchi retired, he became the company's president in May 2002. Under Iwata's direction, Nintendo developed the Nintendo DS and Wii game consoles, helping the company achieve financial success. As a self-declared gamer, he focused on expanding the appeal of video games across demographics through a \"blue ocean\" business strategy. Nintendo attained record profits by 2009, and Barron's placed Iwata among the top 30 CEOs worldwide. Iwata expanded his strategy by defining a quality-of-life product line for the Wii that evolved into a ten-year strategy to create standalone products. Later hardware such as the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U proved far less profitable than the Wii, and Nintendo's net sales fell by two thirds from 2009 to 2012; the company saw its first operating losses in 30 years during this time. Iwata voluntarily halved his salary in 2011 and again in 2014. In 2015, after several years of refusal, Iwata put a portion of Nintendo's focus into the rapidly growing mobile game market; a landmark partnership with mobile provider DeNA was established that March. Throughout his career, Iwata built a relationship with Nintendo fans through social media and his regular appearances in Iwata Asks and Nintendo Direct, becoming the public face of the company.\n

In June 2014, a tumor in Iwata's bile duct was discovered during a routine physical exam. It was removed, and Iwata returned to work in October of that year. The problem resurfaced in 2015, and Iwata died at the age of 55 from its complications on July 11. Members of the gaming industry and gamers worldwide alike offered tributes through public announcements and social media, and fans worldwide established temporary memorials. Iwata was posthumously awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2015 Golden Joystick Awards and the 2016 D.I.C.E. Awards.\n

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Nintendo net sales by fiscal year (2006\u20132015).^[a]
Fiscal year		Sales (mil \u00a5)
2006^[84]	508,827
2007^[85]	966,534
2008^[86]	1,672,423
2009^[68]	1,838,622
2010^[87]	1,182,177
2011^[88]	1,014,345
2012^[89]	647,652
2013^[90]	635,422
2014^[35]	571,726
2015^[91]	549,780
Nintendo's annual net sales in millions of yen Note: Green indicates an operating income while black indicates an operating loss.

v t e Kirby series
\n Nintendo \n HAL Laboratory \n
Main series	\n Kirby's Dream Land \n Adventure \n Dream Land 2 \n Super Star\n Ultra \n Dream Land 3 \n 64: The Crystal Shards \n The Amazing Mirror \n Squeak Squad \n Return to Dream Land \n Triple Deluxe \n Planet Robobot \n \u200eStar Allies \n The Forgotten Land \n
Spin-offs	\n Pinball Land \n Dream Course \n Avalanche \n Block Ball \n Star Stacker \n Tilt 'n' Tumble \n Air Ride \n Canvas Curse \n Epic Yarn \n Mass Attack \n Rainbow Curse \n Blowout Blast \n Battle Royale \n Super Kirby Clash \n Fighters 2 \n Dream Buffet \n
Collections	\n Dream Collection \n
Characters	\n Kirby \n Meta Knight \n
Media	\n Kirby: Right Back at Ya!\n episodes \n Kirby of the Stars \n
People	\n Masahiro Sakurai \n Makiko Ohmoto \n Satoru Iwata \n Shigeru Miyamoto \n Shinya Kumazaki \n John Kirby \n Jun Ishikawa \n
Related	\n Super Smash Bros. \n NES Remix \n Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition \n Kirby Caf\u00e9 \n
$\"\"$ \nCategory

v t e Super Smash Bros. series
Games	\n Super Smash Bros. \n Melee \n Brawl \n 3DS and Wii U \n Ultimate \n
Characters	\n Banjo & Kazooie \n Bayonetta \n Bowser \n Byleth \n Charizard \n Chrom \n Cloud \n Daisy \n Donkey Kong \n Fox \n Ganondorf \n Hero\n III \n IV \n Ike \n Isabelle \n Jigglypuff \n Joker \n Kazuya \n Ken \n Kirby \n Link \n Little Mac \n Lucario \n Lucina \n Luigi \n Mario \n Marth \n Mega Man \n Meta Knight \n Mewtwo \n Mii Fighters \n Mr. Game & Watch \n Ness \n Pac-Man \n Peach \n Pikachu \n Piranha Plant \n Ridley \n R.O.B. \n Robin \n Roy \n Rosalina & Luma \n Ryu \n Samus \n Sephiroth \n Shulk \n Simon \n Snake \n Sonic \n Sora \n Squirtle \n Steve \n Terry \n Wario \n Yoshi \n Zelda \n
Companies	\n Nintendo\n Satoru Iwata \n HAL Laboratory\n Masahiro Sakurai \n Game Arts \n Bandai Namco \n
Fan games	\n Project M \n Super Smash Flash \n Super Smash Land \n
Related	\n Platform fighter \n Super Smash Bros. in esports \n Slamfest '99 \n Smashboards \n The Smash Brothers \n
\n $\"\"$ Category \n

v t e Mother series
\n Nintendo \n Ape \n HAL Laboratory \n
Games	\n Mother (EarthBound Beginnings) \n Mother 2 (EarthBound) \n Mother 3\n development \n fan translation \n
People	\n Shigesato Itoi \n Satoru Iwata \n Keiichi Suzuki \n Hirokazu Tanaka \n Nobuyuki Inoue \n Marcus Lindblom \n
Characters	\n Giygas \n Ness \n Porky Minch \n
Related	\n Fandom\n Megalovania \n Music \n Super Smash Bros. \n
\n $\"\"$ Category \n

v t e Year of Luigi
\n Luigi \n Nintendo \n Next Level Games \n AlphaDream \n Arika \n
Games	\n Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon \n New Super Luigi U \n Mario & Luigi: Dream Team \n Super Mario 3D World (Luigi Bros.) \n Dr. Luigi \n
People	\n Satoru Iwata \n Shigeru Miyamoto \n Reggie Fils-Aim\u00e9 \n Danny Wells \n
Related	\n Chicago Transit Authority (Chicago \"L\", Clark/Lake station) \n Super Mario Bros. 35th Anniversary \n Luigi's Mansion 3 \n Luigi franchise \n

Authority control databases $\"Edit$
International	VIAF
National	Germany Japan
Academics	CiNii
Artists	MusicBrainz
People	DDB

Early life

HAL Laboratory

Nintendo

Early years (2000\u20132002)

Revitalization of the company (2003\u20132009)

Nintendo DS

Wii

Quality-of-life products

Financial downturn (2010\u20132014)

Mobile market and Switch (2015)

Public relations

Other projects

Illness and death

Influence and legacy

Video game tributes

Bibliography

See also

Notes

References

Sources

External links

Satoru Iwata

Talks

14 September, 2015