Nintendo president Satoru Iwata wasn't always in charge of Nintendo -- once upon a time, he was a humble programmer sat at his keyboard with dreams of becoming the next Miyamoto.
In a recent interview with 4Gamer, Iwata admits that before he moved into management he had aspirations of being the company's most prolific developer:
There was definitely a period of time after I began working at HAL when I sort of fancied myself to be the most proficient software engineer in the video games industry. Because I believed things like that I could write better NES code than even Nintendo's (EAD) engineers or that I could write the fastest, most compact code.
Iwata's career would take him in a different -- but no less important -- direction, but he reveals during the interview that the last title he provided programming assistance on isn't as old as you might assume:
Aaah, I wonder if it's alright to admit this? Well, I guess the proverbial statute of limitations is up, so I'll tell you, but my actual last work on programming happened when I was working as the General Manager of Corporate Planning at Nintendo. Something happened and the Gamecube version of Super Smash Brothers didn't look like it was going to make its release date so I sort of did a code review for it (Wry Laugh).
At the time, I went to HAL Labs in Yamanashi and was the acting head of debugging. So, I did the code review, fixed some bugs, read the code and fixed more bugs, read the long bug report from Nintendo, figured out where the problem was and got people to fix those...all in all I spent about three weeks like that. And, because of that, the game made it out on time.
And that was the last time that I worked as an engineer 'in the field'. I was right there, sitting by programmers, in the trenches, reading code together, finding the bugs, and fixing them together.
Iwata admits that despite his considerable programming talent, he has spent so long in charge of Nintendo that "a knowledge gap is inevitable":
Even if I understand the principles, I just can't take the time to fully update my skills. So, with time, I've found myself having to ask what certain things are.
So, even though I'm looking over the system development departments, I find myself having to ask them to explain certain things to me. Through that I'm sort of struggling through trying to not let my judgements standards waste away.
It's OK, Iwata. Just knowing that you helped get Melee out of the door makes up for any gap you might now be lumbered with.
[source neogaf.com, via gonintendo.com]
Comments 28
Impressive, Iwata's a talented man.
Interesting, so it looks like Iwata prevented the GameCube from having a very poor launch window lineup which would've been comparable to what happened 2 years ago with the Wii U.
You go, Iwata!
Iwata often gets a lot of flak here but I've often said that he's crucial to keep Nintendo on the right path. There are very few CEO's in the business who "grok" the development process or even the fun of playing games. Replace him with a typical beancounter and the Nintendo we love will cease to exist.
Knowing he helped out with Melee gets him more respect for me. It is cool that the CEO wasn't just brought in off the street and instead actually has been a part of some of the games.
So...
He could take over Smash Bros.? That would rival Miyamoto.
When someone loves there job so much it really shows and to show his love by just jumping in and helping out with melee, that's why Nintendo games are always quality and they dont drive for rehashes each year just innovative titles and experiences.
I know when Nintendo delay a game its because they want 100% not like most games bring released lately buggy and needing patches.
Should have delayed the game to remove all the clones...
Thanks, Iwata.
I admit I'm quite critical of Mr.Iwata on some of his decisions over the years, but there's no denying his knowledge and love of the industry. I know a lot of managers who won't lift a finger to help in the trenches in any line of work. He's certainly one of a kind.
You can bet if Nintendo was an American company, its top brass would be accountants or lawyers, not someone who actually knows whats in their products.
@Melkac Doubt delaying the game would had meant less clones
That's part of being an executive. You try to get in on the frontline and keep updated as much as possible, but usually, the lower management and actual frontline keep you up to date just at a baseline level, what's going on and what has changed — no details, no learning for you. You have to manually dedicate time to do such things. It's hard.
I envy no CEO, and look forward to being one still.
It would be great if he could have had time to do some small work on one game every year, just to help keep things in perspective - getting into the trenches with your staff always helps CEOs, its why that secret boss reality show thing is good.
And this is why Melee was the best Smash Bros. until 2014... IMO anyway...
Wow.....even Iwata wants to be the next Miyamoto. Well so do I!
Hopefully this means he'll be able to keep Smash 5 on the right track at the supervising level with Sakurai retiring and all.
Da Iwata Code...
Melee fanatics can now make shrines to Iwata and worship him. He gave you competitive techniques.
I hope Iwata stays president for a long time. Some people think that he's just some man with crazy ideas, thoughts, and plans of action, but I believe that he has the right vision for Nintendo as of now.
@Melkac Looks like someone hates more options...
The simple fact that he knows ANYTHING about what the programmers are doing is amazing. You'd be hard pressed to find upper-up execs from other companies that actually know about programming and game design versus just business.
@Melkac
So you'd delay a game to remove extra content that doesn't actually effect the game's release schedule simply because you personally don't like said content? I seriously don't understand this sort of thinking.
Not only is that pretty darn selfish, its also pointless. Not only would you have to make people wait even longer, the game would be no better for it, your only depriving others of content they might otherwise enjoy.
This confirms again one among the many things I always liked about Iwata as head of Nintendo: That he – different from Yamauchi and so many, many other presidents or managers – has professional insight (as well as true personal interest) into the products for which he is responsible.
This is why Iwata is brilliant
Saw this bit on tvtropes: " Among his achievements as a game programmer, he...
... ported the battle code of Pokemon Stadium to the Nintendo 64 despite not having any access to crucial documents. And he did it all in a week.
... programmed EarthBound (from scratch) in its entirety, also with remarkable speed. At the time, the project was very close to being jettisoned due to the unmanageability of the original coding. The coding itself is a huge scripting language, so complex that, theoretically, the text system alone could be used to write an emulator, if altered somewhat.
... personally compressed Pokémon Gold and Silver, which filled the cartridge despite still being half-finished. That's the reason the setting for Pokemon Red And Blue was included (with only two locations removed) in the games—there was that much space left after he was done."
Iwata the code wizard.
@Melkac So you wanted less content? right....................
@Melkac How da heck would dat work?....and why?
@Jazzer94 @Zombie_Barioth @CapeSmash You guys are so smart.
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