Iwata began his career in gaming when he joined HAL Laboratory in 1980 at the age of 20. While there, he helped establish a relationship between HAL and Nintendo that continues to this day. He went on to work on games such as Kirby, Earthbound, Pokémon Gold/Silver, and Super Smash Bros.

He became president of HAL in 1993, joined Nintendo in 2000, then in 2002, he became president of Nintendo; in this capacity he revitalized the company and oversaw the hugely successful Wii and DS, then the less successful Wii U and 3DS. During the company’s struggles during the 8th gen, he took a pay cut and halved his salary to avoid laying off workers.

In the final months of his life, he oversaw preparations for the Nintendo Switch, which would go on to become one of the most successful consoles of all time.

He died on the 11th of July 2015, from a bile duct tumour.

Still felt surreal when it happened at the time. But to put the rose tinted glasses aside. The man was validitly criticize for the transition from the Wii to the WiiU era. Aside from that, the guy was basically as his business card said, just a delight. Kinda sad he at least could not go through the Switch era before an actual retirement ...

And considering what's at the helm of most of the industry. That attitude is seriously more needed from executives that actively used to have more power than shareholder leeches.

I still miss him. He was a such a fixed point for Nintendo fans. When we lost him, I think we lost a sense of stability and continuity — not to mention a damn fine programmer and, by all accounts, an honorable man.

https://www.amazon.com/Impact-Iwata-Lucas-M-Thomas/dp/B0CV91KXT4z

Worth a read.

His legacy is amazing and will always be remembered for being a great developer, leader and human being.

And in insight, the Iwata Asks are amazing pieces of anecdotes and relationships stories he had with the people he interviewed.

The world would be a better place if CEOs like Iwata were common place.

It is interesting that almost everything Nintendo has touched turned to gold during that time period.

Pokemon Go came out of nowhere to become a massive success in 2016.

NES Classic/SNES Classic even had a little burst there of mass popularity and was sold out around the same time.

Switch 1 launched in 2017 and became a massive success.

Animal Crossing launched right at the start of the COVID lockdowns in 2020 and became a monstrous success.

Universal Nintendo theme parks have been successful.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie in 2023 became a massive hit, signaling Nintendo's successful entry into the movie business.

Switch 2 in 2025 has had a monster launch.

It does kinda feel like the company has someone looking over it.

I do wonder how different the Switch would've been if his health remained fine. Like just how much can the success of the platform be pinned on him vs Kimishima? I'm confident that it'd still be a huge success since after the complete failure of the Wii U and major disappointment of the 3DS he'll have been dead set on making absolutely sure the next platform is a hit.

A true legend, and overall a good force of nature in the industry. Sorely missed to this day!