Satoru Iwata to be honored with Lifetime Achievement Award from D.I.C.E.
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Wii U | 3 Comments
Late Nintendo president Satoru Iwata will be honored at the 19th D.I.C.E. Awards ceremony. When the event takes place on February 18, Iwata will be remembered with a Lifetime Achievement Award.
A few Nintendo games have also been selected as nominees for various awards. Those are as follows:
Action Game of the Year
Destiny: The Taken King
HELLDIVERS
Just Cause 3
Star Wars Battlefront
Splatoon
Family Game of the Year
Guitar Hero Live
LEGO Dimensions
Rock Band 4
Super Mario Maker
Tearaway Unfolded
Handheld Game of the Year
Earth Defense Force 2: Invaders from Planet Space
HELLDIVERS
Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon
Yo-Kai Watch
Outstanding Achievement in Online Gameplay
Destiny: The Taken King
Halo 5: Guardians
Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Rocket League
Splatoon
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Street Fighter, Dead or Alive, Sony Japan Studio producers reflect on Iwata’s passing
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 8 Comments
Recently, Japanese website 4Gamer caught up with a few developers to reflect on the passing of Satoru Iwata. Producers from Capcom, Team Ninja, and even Sony Japan Studio talked about the late Nintendo president, and in some cases, shared some of their memories with him.
Here’s an overview of what the different developers spoke about:
Capcom producer Yoshinori Ono (Street Fighter)
– Remembered several anecdotes, happened after the two had several chances to meet after the launch of the 3DS
– Iwata told stories about old gadgets, or about the era of old PC programmed in assembly
– Iwata responded courteously when Ono asked him to sign a cartridge of Balloon Fight he had brought from home
– Another memory: on a return flight from San Francisco, they sat side by side on the plane, talking about games, movies and the entertainment system
– He won’t forget the memory of sharing Iwata’s ideas and thoughtfulness
– Ono was shocked when he heard the news of Iwata-san’s passing,
– Will keep their conversations and the moments in which they dined together and had a chat engraved in his memory, holding them in mind for his life and work in the future
Pokemon president recalls how Iwata helped localize the series’ first games
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 9 Comments
In a new interview with 4Gamer, Tsunekazu Ishihara talked about how late Nintendo president Satoru Iwata’s vital work helped bring the original Pokemon games to the west. You can read up on the full excerpt below, courtesy of Siliconera’s translation.
4Gamer: I believe there may be more people now that don’t know that Iwata-san was involved in Pokémon.
Ishihara: I think there are even people within Nintendo that don’t even know. 1998 was around the time Iwata-san was working as President of HAL Laboratory.
More: Game Freak, interview, Satoru Iwata, top, Tsunekazu Ishihara
Happy 56th birthday to Satoru Iwata
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 9 Comments
It’s now December 6 in Japan. That means, had he still been with us, Satoru Iwata’s 56th birthday would have been today. Although he’s passed on, we can take a moment to remember him as a person as well as all of the things he contributed to the gaming industry.
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Shigesato Itoi on Earthbound’s continued popularity, Mother 4, Iwata’s passing, more
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 4 Comments
Japanese outlet Game Watch interviewed Shigesato Itoi at an Earthbound event in Japan. The discussion has since been translated by Tuxedo Unmasked.
We’ve posted some of Itoi’s comments below. He addressed Earthbound’s continued popularity, Mother 4, Iwata’s passing, and several other topics. If interested, you can also read the full interview here.
More: interview, Mother 4, Satoru Iwata, Shigesato Itoi, top
Satoru Iwata honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at Golden Joystick Awards, Splatoon picks up a couple of wins
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Wii U | 19 Comments
The 33rd Golden Joystick Awards were held at the indigO2 at London’s O2 Arena. During the event, the late Satoru Iwata was honored with a Lifetime Achievement award.
Here’s the news on that front:
Satoru Iwata, the Nintendo CEO who sadly died in July this year at the age of 55, was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award. A revered man of the gaming industry, Satoru was the driving force behind many of Nintendo’s products including the Wii and DS, and is credited for bringing gaming to the masses by making it family entertainment. Starting out as a programmer in the 1980’s for a subsidiary of Nintendo, he became president in 2002, the first outside of the company’s founding family. He was renowned for first and foremost being a gamer and was described as “… having the brain of a game developer and the heart of a gamer”. His contribution and impact on modern gaming is second to none.
Splatoon also saw a couple of wins at the Golden Joystick Awards. The Wii U title was chosen as “Best Family Game” and “Best Nintendo Game”.
Source: Golden Joystick Awards PR
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Nintendo announces Tatsumi Kimishima as its new President
Posted on 8 years ago by Dennis Gagliardotto(@LyonHart_) in News | 36 Comments
Since the unfortunate passing of Satoru Iwata back in July, there’s been speculation as to who would take lead in the Kyoto-based company. Shigeru Miyamoto and Genyo Takeda had taken over as leaders for Nintendo, but this was only to be temporary, despite many people feeling both had the potential and credibility to properly lead Nintendo, not to mention the charisma and appeal from fans. Today, Nintendo has announced Tatsumi Kimishima as the new President of Nintendo Co.
For those unfamiliar with Tatsumi Kimishima, he had previously been the President of Nintendo of America from 2002-2006, and prior to that was President of Pokémon USA in 2001, so there’s no doubt Kimishima-san certainly has the skills to lead Nintendo and succeed Iwata in a very respectable and admirable way.
It’s still very heartbreaking to think about the untimely passing of Iwata and all of the great things he’s done for the company and remaining optimistic even during its lowest moments, but if there’s any company that knows how to overcome its faults and still deliver smiles and joy to people all around the world, it’s Nintendo.
We wish Tatsumi Kimishima a long and great run as the new President of Nintendo, and we’re excited to see what lies ahead.
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PAX Prime 2015 honors Satoru Iwata
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 5 Comments
If you’re attending PAX Prime 2015 this weekend, you may come across a small tribute to Satoru Iwata, who passed away in July. A small area has been set up to honor the late Nintendo president. It’s definitely a classy move from the expo’s organizers!
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Iwata felt that the games he worked on were sort of like his children
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 10 Comments
Back in July 2013, Toyo Keizai Online conducted an interview with Satoru Iwata. But there was one part of the discussion that was never published.
At one point of the interview, Toyo Keizai Online asked Iwata about the game he likes the most. These comments have now finally made their way online for all to see.
Here’s what Iwata shared at the time:
“Ummm… that’s a difficult question. I was a game developer myself, so I have special attachment to all the products that I was deeply involved in as a programmer or a producer, whether it’s “Kirby Super Star (known in Japan as Hoshino no Kirby)”, “Earthbound (MOTHER 2)”, or “Super Smash Bros. (Dairanto Smash Brothers)”. So it’s pretty hard to name only one.”
“I look at all these games that I produced at very close range, as if they were my children, so to say. The proximity of my perception therefore differs from other people. When I was developing them, I was working almost every day (all night long) till I saw the sun rising over Mt. Fuji. So when I think about them, the memories of those creative endeavors come flashing back altogether as one set?about how I came up with the original concept, what I was thinking at the time to shape it into a tangible form, what portion of these thoughts actually reached the customers and what didn’t, and what kind of struggles and dramatic events I went through during the development process?you know, things like that. These emotions clearly separate my way pf perceiving them from any other person who can get fascinated in these games strictly as one of many ordinary players.”
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Sakurai reflects on Iwata’s funeral in latest Famitsu column
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 11 Comments
In his previous Famitsu column, Super Smash Bros. director Masahiro Sakurai wrote about the passing of Satoru Iwata. This week’s issue of the magazine has another piece from Sakurai in which he touches on Iwata’s funeral.
Sakurai wrote:
“Normally at a place like this, one’s eyes go to the photo [of the deceased]. The smiling face of Mr. Iwata surrounded by flowers was a very nice picture.”
“Inside there was the still body of Mr. Iwata. He was probably dressed in traditional white funeral garb, his glasses removed, and his nose stuffed [with cotton]. And today, his body was going to be burned and reduced to nothing. Mr. Iwata would no longer exist in this world.”
