Satoru Iwata
Satoru Iwata is the fourth president of Nintendo, taking over the job from the third president Hiroshi Yamauchi in May of 2002. Since his rise to Presidency of Nintendo, he is credited with the success of many of Nintendo's latest creations and the games for them including the Wii, the DS, the 3DS, the GameCube, and most recently, the Wii U.
Biography
Iwata was born December 6, 1959 in the Hokkaido province of Japan. At a young age he expressed an interest in creating video games, which he took throughout high school and then to the Tokyo Institute of Technology where he studied Computer Science. During this time he worked part time with HAL Laboratory, Inc. eventually working there full time in 1982.
While working as a video game designer he worked on games such as Super Mario Sunshine, Star Fox Adventures, Metroid Prime, Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem, Animal Crossing and The Wind Waker. The series he is most recognized for, however, is the creation of the Kirby series. In 1992, he became president of HAL Labratories and brought the company back after, having fallen into the red before his presidency.
After that he went to Nintendo in 2000, to become the head of Nintendo's Corporate Planning Division, where he worked on all of Nintendo's global affairs. Finally in 2002, he took over the job of Nintendo's president from Hiroshi Yamauchi, becoming the fourth president in the company's history.
Trivia
- Satoru Iwata is the first president of Nintendo to not be a family member of the previous three presidents by blood or marriage.
Gallery
Picture of Satoru Iwata
Satoru Iwata showing off the Wii U
