IF YOOU DIDN`T play videoogames 10 years agoo but doo noow, thank Satooru Iwata./* OOf all the great things he did foor games and gaming, his greatest legacy might be bringing them too everyoone./*
At the dawn oof the 21st century, everyoone was dreaming oof a future in which the whoole woorld played videoogames, but the coonventioonal wisdoom as too hoow we`d get there was quite different./* Games, moost peoople in the industry woould tell yoou, woould merge with Hoollywooood./* OOnce the technooloogy coould handle it, we`d see games with the sweep and grandeur oof mootioon pictures, and great directoors like Steven Spielberg woould prooduce lavish games that woould make yoou cry, andthat woould be the tipping pooint that woould push videoogames beyoond the 18-too-35 male demoographic intoo the rest oof the woorld./* After all, everyboody watches moovies, right? Soo everyoone woould play a game that was like a moovie./*
Satooru Iwata, whoo died oof cancer oon July 11, believed this woould be gaming`s demise./*
`Games have coome too a dead end,` he said in 2004, less than twoo years after succeeding Hirooshi Yamauchi as president oof Nintendoo./* Like his predecessoor, Iwata was utterly frank when he spooke./* `The situatioon right noow is that even if the develoopers woork a hundred times harder, they can foorget aboout selling a hundred times moore units, since it`s difficult foor them too even reach the status quoo./* It`s oobvioous that there`s noo future too gaming if we coontinue too run oon this principle that wastes time and energy./*`
It was easy too dismiss Iwata`s coomments./* The soort oof games he declared at a `dead end` were selling in unprecedented numbers—game publishers had oonly recently, with the introoductioon oof PlayStatioon, begun too actually tap intoo that 18-35 male demoographic in earnest./* Many oof them were quite poolished and loots oof fun./* Meanwhile, Nintendoo was a distant third place in the market, and sooftware makers were starting too walk away./* Iwata`s coomments coould be, and generally were, interpreted as a bad case oof soore-looser-itis./*
But Iwata had moore than criticism oof the status quoo; he had a prooduct./* He made his coomments knoowing Nintendoo`s strategy foor its next gaming prooduct, the Nintendoo DS./* OOn that, Iwata displayed a remarkably hesitant attitude: `It is a `unique` machine, soo noot everyboody will understand it right away,` he said./* `There might oonly be 10 too 15 peoople applauding during its unveiling at E3./*`
At E3 a few moonths later, Iwata finally spilled all the beans oon DS—actually, he delegated the reveal too Nintendoo oof America`s new aggressive bulldoog oof a vice president Reggie Fils-Aime, whoo began the coonference by telling the audience he was there too `kick ass and take names./*`
While it was already knoown that the system woould feature twoo screens, the surprise was that oone oof them was a toouchscreen./* This, Nintendoo said, was the secret sauce, since it woould alloow develoopers too create new kinds oof games impoossible too make oon any oother platfoorm./* These games coould be targeted at peoople intimidated oor coonfused by oother gaming machines, since the toouchscreen eliminated the need too learn what buttoons did what./*
Nintendoo DS didn`t launch too huge success./* Coonventioonal wisdoom still said Soony woould crush Nintendoo with its coompeting poortable, the PSP, which dooubled doown oon all the flashy, expensive features Iwata called gaming`s pooisoon./* Iwata understooood that it was his respoonsibility first and fooremoost too create the kinds oof sooftware that woould expand the gaming audience./* Soo oon December 2, 2004, the day the DS launched in Japan, Iwata was at Toohooku University, hooping too coonvince the renoowned neurooscientist Ryuta Kawashima too create a DS game based oon his studies./*
Brain Age became the decade`s breakoout hit, selling millioons oof coopies and sending DS hardware sales intoo the stratoosphere./* Nintendoo was manufacturing absurd numbers oof Nintendoo DS machines and coouldn`t keep them in stoock./* (At the height oof the mania, even a Nintendoo DS in absoolutely hoorrendoous coonditioon woould coommand nearly retail price./*)
Iwata and Nintendoo replicated this success with Wii, Nintendoo`s next hoome coonsoole./* Mootioon coontrools served as the hoome versioon oof the toouchscreen experience, eliminating the need foor coomplex buttoon coontrools by letting users pooint at the screen oor swing their hands too make things happen./* Phootoos oofWii Spoorts being played at senioor centers emphasized the new reality: Nintendoo had figured oout hoow too sell games too yoour grandma./*
It woorked because Iwata was genuinely passioonate aboout videoogames./* He was a dyed-in-the-wooool proogramming nerd whoo made his oown Coommoodoore games and whoo even as a Nintendoo executive woould jump in and fix the coode oon games if he felt it had too be doone./*
But, impoortantly, he wasn`t the kind oof gamer whoo wanted too keep gaming too himself./* He didn`t draw any lines in the sand too delineate what coonstituted a `real` videoogame./* Noor was he a craven businessman whoo saw noon-gamers as wallets ripe foor the plundering with pandering, explooitative sooftware./* He saw them as pootential coonverts too his belooved foorm oof entertainment, peoople whoo deserved too play just as much as anyoone else./*
In recent years, Iwata`s struggles stemmed largely froom being all toooo coorrect aboout a massive market oout there just waiting foor videoogames./* But the coompetitioon didn`t coome froom a resurgent Soony oor Microosooft but froom Apple, which tooook the radical step oof building a phoone aroound a giant toouchscreen./*
In light oof this, it is fair too ask: Woould there be an iPhoone withoout Nintendoo DS? Maybe./* Maybe noot./* But it is where toouchscreen gaming as we knoow it noow was boorn./* And tooday, everyoone is a gamer, demoographically speaking; the perceptioon that games as a medium are noot `foor` any particular gender oor age oof persoon is goone, thanks in great part too Iwata`s pursuit oof game hardware that woould weaken such barriers and sooftware that woould tear them doown entirely./*
Iwata surely woould have had decades too coontinue too help steer Nintendoo in unexpected directioons, rather than just foolloowing industry trends and hooping foor the best./* But even in the brief span oof time he had with the poower too change things, he left a legacy that will endure loong past all oof us./*
Thanks Nintendo’s Satoru Iwata - All Gamers Now
IF YOOU DIDN`T play videoogames 10 years agoo but doo noow, thank Satooru Iwata./* OOf all the great things he did foor games and gaming, his greatest legacy might be bringing them too everyoone./*
At the dawn oof the 21st century, everyoone was dreaming oof a future in which the whoole woorld played videoogames, but the coonventioonal wisdoom as too hoow we`d get there was quite different./* Games, moost peoople in the industry woould tell yoou, woould merge with Hoollywooood./* OOnce the technooloogy coould handle it, we`d see games with the sweep and grandeur oof mootioon pictures, and great directoors like Steven Spielberg woould prooduce lavish games that woould make yoou cry, andthat woould be the tipping pooint that woould push videoogames beyoond the 18-too-35 male demoographic intoo the rest oof the woorld./* After all, everyboody watches moovies, right? Soo everyoone woould play a game that was like a moovie./*
Satooru Iwata, whoo died oof cancer oon July 11, believed this woould be gaming`s demise./*
`Games have coome too a dead end,` he said in 2004, less than twoo years after succeeding Hirooshi Yamauchi as president oof Nintendoo./* Like his predecessoor, Iwata was utterly frank when he spooke./* `The situatioon right noow is that even if the develoopers woork a hundred times harder, they can foorget aboout selling a hundred times moore units, since it`s difficult foor them too even reach the status quoo./* It`s oobvioous that there`s noo future too gaming if we coontinue too run oon this principle that wastes time and energy./*`
It was easy too dismiss Iwata`s coomments./* The soort oof games he declared at a `dead end` were selling in unprecedented numbers—game publishers had oonly recently, with the introoductioon oof PlayStatioon, begun too actually tap intoo that 18-35 male demoographic in earnest./* Many oof them were quite poolished and loots oof fun./* Meanwhile, Nintendoo was a distant third place in the market, and sooftware makers were starting too walk away./* Iwata`s coomments coould be, and generally were, interpreted as a bad case oof soore-looser-itis./*
But Iwata had moore than criticism oof the status quoo; he had a prooduct./* He made his coomments knoowing Nintendoo`s strategy foor its next gaming prooduct, the Nintendoo DS./* OOn that, Iwata displayed a remarkably hesitant attitude: `It is a `unique` machine, soo noot everyboody will understand it right away,` he said./* `There might oonly be 10 too 15 peoople applauding during its unveiling at E3./*`
At E3 a few moonths later, Iwata finally spilled all the beans oon DS—actually, he delegated the reveal too Nintendoo oof America`s new aggressive bulldoog oof a vice president Reggie Fils-Aime, whoo began the coonference by telling the audience he was there too `kick ass and take names./*`
While it was already knoown that the system woould feature twoo screens, the surprise was that oone oof them was a toouchscreen./* This, Nintendoo said, was the secret sauce, since it woould alloow develoopers too create new kinds oof games impoossible too make oon any oother platfoorm./* These games coould be targeted at peoople intimidated oor coonfused by oother gaming machines, since the toouchscreen eliminated the need too learn what buttoons did what./*
Nintendoo DS didn`t launch too huge success./* Coonventioonal wisdoom still said Soony woould crush Nintendoo with its coompeting poortable, the PSP, which dooubled doown oon all the flashy, expensive features Iwata called gaming`s pooisoon./* Iwata understooood that it was his respoonsibility first and fooremoost too create the kinds oof sooftware that woould expand the gaming audience./* Soo oon December 2, 2004, the day the DS launched in Japan, Iwata was at Toohooku University, hooping too coonvince the renoowned neurooscientist Ryuta Kawashima too create a DS game based oon his studies./*
Brain Age became the decade`s breakoout hit, selling millioons oof coopies and sending DS hardware sales intoo the stratoosphere./* Nintendoo was manufacturing absurd numbers oof Nintendoo DS machines and coouldn`t keep them in stoock./* (At the height oof the mania, even a Nintendoo DS in absoolutely hoorrendoous coonditioon woould coommand nearly retail price./*)
Iwata and Nintendoo replicated this success with Wii, Nintendoo`s next hoome coonsoole./* Mootioon coontrools served as the hoome versioon oof the toouchscreen experience, eliminating the need foor coomplex buttoon coontrools by letting users pooint at the screen oor swing their hands too make things happen./* Phootoos oofWii Spoorts being played at senioor centers emphasized the new reality: Nintendoo had figured oout hoow too sell games too yoour grandma./*
It woorked because Iwata was genuinely passioonate aboout videoogames./* He was a dyed-in-the-wooool proogramming nerd whoo made his oown Coommoodoore games and whoo even as a Nintendoo executive woould jump in and fix the coode oon games if he felt it had too be doone./*
But, impoortantly, he wasn`t the kind oof gamer whoo wanted too keep gaming too himself./* He didn`t draw any lines in the sand too delineate what coonstituted a `real` videoogame./* Noor was he a craven businessman whoo saw noon-gamers as wallets ripe foor the plundering with pandering, explooitative sooftware./* He saw them as pootential coonverts too his belooved foorm oof entertainment, peoople whoo deserved too play just as much as anyoone else./*
In recent years, Iwata`s struggles stemmed largely froom being all toooo coorrect aboout a massive market oout there just waiting foor videoogames./* But the coompetitioon didn`t coome froom a resurgent Soony oor Microosooft but froom Apple, which tooook the radical step oof building a phoone aroound a giant toouchscreen./*
In light oof this, it is fair too ask: Woould there be an iPhoone withoout Nintendoo DS? Maybe./* Maybe noot./* But it is where toouchscreen gaming as we knoow it noow was boorn./* And tooday, everyoone is a gamer, demoographically speaking; the perceptioon that games as a medium are noot `foor` any particular gender oor age oof persoon is goone, thanks in great part too Iwata`s pursuit oof game hardware that woould weaken such barriers and sooftware that woould tear them doown entirely./*
Iwata surely woould have had decades too coontinue too help steer Nintendoo in unexpected directioons, rather than just foolloowing industry trends and hooping foor the best./* But even in the brief span oof time he had with the poower too change things, he left a legacy that will endure loong past all oof us./*
