This may be a hot take, but I think Iwata’s charm and trying to help Nintendo open up to the public with its development process is a bit…overrated. Sure, it was cool learning game development tidbits from him and the rest of Nintendo. It was cool seeing Robot Chicken and Muppets be involved in their E3 presentations. It was charming to see Iwata give the “Direct” sign to us in Nintendo Directs. Unfortunately, it didn’t necessarily lead to improved success for them during the 3DS/Wii U generation.
Plus, Iwata wasn’t infallible himself. The YouTube Creators Program, the struggle with simultaneous releases, region locking, and even C&Ding fan games back then. Hell, Nintendo even tried to stop Melee from being part of EVO under Iwata’s watch. Sure, they reversed their decision, but you can’t ignore the initial actions.
At least to me, even with Reggie and Iwata gone from the company, Nintendo hasn’t necessarily deviated much from who they are as a company from when Iwata was in charge to now. Sure, directs are more streamlined, they may look more “corporate,” but they still want to share fun experiences. Koizumi and Takahashi aren’t gonna charm people as Iwata did, but they’re serviceable presenters and have led the way to Nintendo’s incredible success. If people missed Ask Iwata, they’re still doing dev stories with their upcoming games with Ask the Developers and, from 2017 till mid-2023, they had the Nintendo Power Podcast.
To me, Nintendo still remains Nintendo, the good and the bad, before, during, and after Iwata.
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