After yesterday's upsetting news regarding the death of Nintendo's CEO and President Satoru Iwata, many of us were shocked and left speechless. With his hand in the creation of such classic titles as Kirby and EarthBound, Iwata has been such a monumental influence to the gaming industry and the world at large that his absence will no doubt be felt for many years to come. Spending most of his career at Nintendo, Iwata eventually became the face of the organization after becoming only the second president within the company's contemporary span. Not to mention, he helped bring about their most successful financial period with the Wii and the Nintendo DS.
Bearing all of this in mind, Iwata's passing has certainly left Nintendo with some big shoes to fill. With speculations abound, many have surmised that Shigeru Miyamoto — legendary creator of beloved masterpieces such as Mario, Zelda, and Donkey Kong — will take up the mantel. With Hiroshi Yamauchi being Nintendo's longest-running acting president from 1949 up until he died of cancer in 2002, whoever is chosen to become Iwata's successor will be only the third president for the company in the modern video game era.
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Today, in a press release issued via Nintendo, Miyamoto addresses Iwata's death, saying:
“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."
Although Nintendo has said that there are no clear plans yet for who would succeed Iwata as interim president, they have declared that the two remaining representative directors — Mr. Miyamoto and Genyo Takeda — will continue in their positions. Takeda's influence on the video game company comes from the hardware side, as he has been at the helm of such revolutionary consoles including the Nintendo 64.
In spite of Iwata's long-documented health issues, fans hoped that he would be around for many years to come, as he was set to help Nintendo transition into the mobile gaming realm with the firm's DeNA partnership. Moreover, Iwata-san has been an extremely forthcoming person within the industry, as he was always quick to acknowledge the company's failures, so as to maintain a respectful relationship with fans. Plus, brand supporters will undoubtedly miss Iwata's presence when it comes to his eccentric Nintendo Direct presentations, in addition to his always fun and pleasurable E3 digital events.
Iwata was an extremely important individual when it came to Nintendo's development and progression. Recently, he announced another of the enterprise's latest projects being a new home console known under the code name Nintendo NX. With rumors for production of the system beginning in early October of this year and being available as early as July 2016, one can only wonder what the company has in store. At any rate, we should learn more details about Nintendo's next-gen game console sometime next year.
Source: The Wall Street Journal (via Destructoid)