Yamauchi wins since he was the one appointing Iwata as his successor.

It's not the CEO's job to be the direct head of R&D.  However, the CEO is responsible for hiring talented people and putting them in the right positions.  When you consider Yokoi, Miyamoto and eventually Iwata himself, Yamauchi had a gift for spotting talented individuals.

I actually voted for Iwata, but I also feel like you have to give Yamauchi his due.

Well of course, for his time Yamauchi was certainly a visionary and a pioneer. I suppose I should amend this statement in that I'm referring more to his final decade or so of his tenure as Nintendo CEO - which is what I'm far more familiar with. 

I also think Iwata's innovation and vision is being very understated. It wasn't just the added tech with him but also the philosophies behind it - gaming with more of a mass-market appeal, unique ideas, Blue Ocean, etc..

Iwata. Like, please...

Nintendo created Mario, Zelda, Pokemon, Donkey Kong, Mario Kart, Metroid, Star Fox, Animal Crossing, Smash Bros., GoldenEye, Earthbound, Kirby, Killer Instinct, Banjo-Kazooie, under Yamauchi's watch. The Iwata era was no where close for software quality overall or innovation in actual new things that stand the test of time. The most significant new IP that was created under Iwata that continues to be big today is Splatoon.

Even the DS having dual screens was Yamauchi's idea.

The main mistake Yamauchi made was bungling the CD-ROM deal with Sony, otherwise he did most things correctly and even when Nintendo made a mistake (like censoring Mortal Kombat), they would react in a reasonable time frame to adjust -- Mortal Kombat 2 for example wasn't censored and was better than the Genesis version as a result. 

90s Nintendo was the best version of Nintendo, they had a Game of the Year contender basically every year for the decade (1990 - Mario 3, 1991 - Mario World 1992 - Zelda: LttP, 1993 - Star Fox, 1994 - Super Metroid or DKC, 1995 - Yoshi's Island and DKC2, 1996 - Super Mario 64, 1997 - GoldenEye, 1998 - Zelda: OoT, 1999 - Pokemon craze, 2000 - Zelda: Majora's Mask ... after 2000 this began to wane). Nintendo doesn't do this anymore. 

And Nintendo was trying a lot of wild stuff, the NES (Famicom) in Japan had online functionality in the 1980s, lol. Very wild. Nintendo is no where near as bold today. 

Nintendo never posted a fiscal loss in the game business under Yamauchi, under Iwata they lost money for like 2-3 years straight. 

That is in no way justification for giving Yamauchi all the credit of Gunpei Yokoi.

Literally anyone with half a brain would have given Yokoi a promotion, but only Yokoi could offer the philosophical and creative genius that shaped Nintendo into what it was and what it has become decades after his death. No one else had that unless they were themselves shaped/influenced by Yokoi or Yokoi's disciples.

I agree with both of these comments.

Both are good.

I also believe that Kimishima did a very good job.

Iwata honestly can't touch any of these accomplishments

1.) The NES/Famicom had basically a 90-95% virtual monopoly on the gaming market, no game system (not even anything from Sony) has ever come close to that level of domination.

2.) In a 15 year period under Yamauchi, Nintendo created Super Mario Bros., Legend of Zelda, Metroid, Pokemon, Animal Crossing (Forest), Mario Kart, Donkey Kong Country, Banjo-Kazooie, Kid Icarus, Star Fox, Smash Brothers, Fire Emblem, Eartbound, franchises ... you will never see that again in the game business. Even the modern console FPS genre in the industry goes back primarily to GoldenEye on the N64, another project greenlit under Yamauchi. The only really big notable, long lasting IP Nintendo has created since Yamauchi retired are Splatoon and Xenoblade. No company created more hit new IP than Nintendo did in the 80s/90s. e narrow company today. Contrast Nintendo of early 2000s ...

Nintendo +
Rare
Factor 5
Silicon Knights
Deal with Capcom for Resident Evil exclusivity
Retro Studios was envisioned to work on 4-5 games
Left Field Studios
HAL
NST making Ridge Racer games
Deals for Star Wars exclusive games

Nintendo of today is far more limited and boring of a company honestly. Retro makes like one game at a time that takes 5-6 years to complete. Projects like Eternal Darkness and GoldenEye probably would never get greenlit at Nintendo today. NST was mismanaged into nothing under Iwata, Factor 5 and Left Field and Silicon Knights dumped, Rare sold off and never really replaced (under Iwata they hired the mediocre developers of Geist to replace Nintendo's dominant position in the shooter market, which was an awful idea) into a studio that only works on 1 game, tightly controlled which still takes forever to complete.

Nintendo of the early 2000s, and even late 90s if we're being honest, was in a downward spiral of constantly declining marketshare and relevance. This was actually a very bleak time for Nintendo as a company.

Thinking about Iwata, I have to think about the potential the Nintendo Wii never explored. Sure, it was a very successful console but I still vividly remember the reveal trailer: all the different things you could do with the Wii-Remote was mind blowing. Jumping behind a couch and shooting out of its cover got me really hooked. Unfortunately, most of the possibilities shown in that trailer never came to fruition and the Wii-Remote remained merely a gimmick.

Iwata was such a nice guy, the charm he emanated in the Nintendo Directs always made me happy.