Satoru Iwata

Background

Apart from his enviable technical video game programming skills, Iwata was known for his unique sense of humor. He incorporated humor into his company culture and marketing videos. This was quite uncommon in a culture where rigidity was an expected trait of company heads. One of his contemporaries once described him as a ventilator in a company with a gloomy atmosphere. Iwata was born on December 6, 1959, in Sapporo, Hokkaido Island, Japan, to Hiroshi Iwata, a local politician.

Throughout Iwata’s school days, he displayed unique leadership skills and served in various capacities. He was introduced to computers and gaming at an early age and took a keen interest in the field. He designed his first computer game when he was in high school. He would play on the game-slot machines at the local train stations with the money he earned from his part-time dishwashing job. Later, in 1974, he bought a programmable calculator and used it to develop games he could play with his classmates. Next, in 1978, he purchased a computer, a Commodore PET, which he dismantled to study how its different parts fit and worked.

In April 1978, Iwata enrolled at the Tokyo Institute of Technology to study computer science, where he became a part-time programmer at the HAL Laboratory. In 1980, he joined HAL, the company, as a part-time programmer and stayed there until 1982. It was at this job that he started to distinguish himself as an innovative programmer. He helped to design a peripheral device that allowed older computers to display graphics for newer games. In 1993, he became the president of HAL and helped elevate the fortunes of the company. In 1999, he started working with Nintendo and officially joined the company the following year. He rose to become the President of Nintendo in 2002 and held the position until his demise in 2015.