Exhuminator wrote:
That image says a lot about him, but also for better or worse was why Nintendo is where it is now. Sure there's a board, but he was the lead and guided the company. Sure he was president, but as he said, he really was in his mind a game maker and a gamer at heart. He cared not for hardware specs or other foo foo, he wanted something that would be fun to play and make games on and one that even more people than before could enjoy. That gave us the highly selling and well snubbed Wii, but it also gave us that wonderful DS and that funny meme about 'it prints money' with dollar bills flying out of that gba/exp port on the bottom of it.
I wish they had done more not really with the Wii but the WiiU to capture more game makers as it's hurting them, but despite that you also have the 3DS which got some awesome wide support and still rocks good sales despite the emerging and intruding android gaming box/tablet/phone market. I grew up enjoying this guys work, he knew his stuff bar none when it came to 2D and 3D video games, and there is no dispute to that fact at all. He made things that works for kids, adults, and kids through adults in the same package too.
My mind wanders now to who will run the ship? There were just 2 directly under him, one being Miyamoto, the other an unknown. I'd almost hope the unknown would do it, yet keep the public face and care that Iwata had with the public going forward if only to keep Miyamoto unencumbered so he could still guide some games directly. As lead of that entire outfit there would be no time for that, just a lousy exec producer credit. Yet, if he did guide it he has groomed enough people to think as he did, and I think the guy would be a wise and playful like CEO again and a welcome public face replacement. His death is a huge loss, not just for Nintendo but the industry on the whole and few if any could fill that space as well.
