Satoru Iwata

"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."

- Satoru Iwata

Satoru Iwata (岩田 聡) was the fourth president of Nintendo, and the first Nintendo president not related to the previous presidents by blood or marriage. He contributed to the GameCube and was responsible for its success. He was also the executive producer of many games and a previous employee of HAL Laboratory. In April 2013, he replaced Tatsumi Kimishima as CEO of Nintendo of America. He died on July 11, 2015 of a bile duct growth after a long battle with cancer. Tatsumi Kimishima has succeeded him in presidency.

He makes cameos in a number of Nintendo games, but the most notable appearances are in WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$!, where he appears on Wario's TV, and in WarioWare: Smooth Moves, where he (under the name Shop Manager Iwata) is the owner of a video game store and sold 18-Volt a Game & Watch for 9-Volt. Whenever the player wins a microgame in 9-Volt and 18-Volt's set, he takes away his ? Block set and chuckles, and if the player loses a microgame, he becomes slightly frustrated and a customer leaves the store (which are the life counters).

A copy of 1984's Golf is embedded in Nintendo Switch firmware. Activating it requires the internal system clock to be set to July 11 - Satoru Iwata's death anniversary - and performing his iconic "directly to you" hand gesture with both Joy-Con controllers on the main menu (if the unit has never made an online connection, the date can also be set manually). If successful, a voice clip of Iwata from a Japanese 2012 presentation will confirm the input, and an emulation of Golf with added motion control support will promptly boot up. Golf has significance as one of the first video games Iwata programmed himself for Nintendo while working at HAL Laboratory.

List of games
Since Satoru Iwata was automatically credited as "Executive Producer" on every Nintendo game released between his promotion to president and his passing, the following list cover only credits given before said promotion.


 * Famicom Grand Prix II: 3D Hot Rally  - Programmer
 * NES Open Tournament Golf - Main Program
 * Super Smash Bros. Melee - Special Thanks, Lead debugger (uncredited)