Watching the GDC Awards video tribute to Satoru Iwata (embedded below) really got me thinking about why I miss the man so much. I’m a pretty sentimental person, and I’ve always been a bit of a sap, but why do I still feel like I’m coming to grips with Iwata’s death? It still feels fresh, and that’s strange. I think for me personally, I still feel sad because I never made a point to think about how much this man affected and influenced my childhood while he was still living. I doubt that I would have ever had the chance to tell him personally how his influence on the industry shaped my love for games, but I think if I could have had time to put my appreciation into perspective it would have made his passing less hurtful.
The video game industry is still so young and volatile. We, as participants in this still-developing culture, aren’t quite prepared to deal with the passing of our heroes because we’re not used to having any. Unlike the movie or music industries, we don’t have decades upon decades of hindsight to inform our current perspective and show us who really matters. One thing is clear, though: Satoru Iwata’s life work – being equal parts dedication to the industry and playful creativity – will continue to bless the lives of gamers in this generation and future generations.
It’s strange that we typically think of Nintendo as being behind the times, when really, it very intentionally sets itself apart from the competition. It always has. It was Iwata who said, when introducing the Wii, that cutting edge technology isn’t enough. You have to surprise people, and were we ever surprised by the Wii! People who had never played a video game in their lives took right to Wii Sports. Hell, my wife’s grandmother asked for a Wii for Christmas – like a kid. The Iwata-era Nintendo has never been about following trends or putting out the most powerful machine; it’s been about the ideas.
That’s what I love about this tribute video. I like them all really, but this one really focuses on the ideas that were borne from the heart of a gamer, which influenced the developer’s mind, which dictated the actions of a company CEO. It portrays Iwata as we always saw him: smiling like he was up to no good. He always had a kind and knowing look, like he could see what was around the corner for the industry and was determined to disrupt it. He liked to shake things up and have fun, and he wanted nothing less than for the whole world to understand and play great games together. He made enormous strides toward that end, and that’s what’s so inspiring.
During a lifetime that ended so prematurely, it’s mind-blowing just how much he was able to achieve. It’s such a fulfilling thing: to be inspired and to see that inspiration come to fruition. It’s something I get to experience every now and then as a writer. But when you have raw inspiration, and you know that it’s good, it takes real skill to manifest. The greater or more disruptive the idea, the greater the skill needed to see it through. Each one of the bubbles we see in this animation represents a huge idea that took skill and dedication to make a reality, and most of our homes are full of the fruit of that man’s inspiration.
We’re all of us the people seen at the end of the video – living our lives, enriched as they are by all of these games and devices that Iwata brought into the world, and only realizing after he had already left us that we needed to say goodbye. I know in that culture that you’re expected to suffer rather privately. Still, I wish we could have known what was happening so we could have all told him how much he meant to us before he slipped away. I would have liked for his last official statement to be one of gratitude for an outpouring of love. Instead it was an apology for how angry we were about Nintendo’s E3 presentation.
But it’s no use lamenting what we weren’t able to do. Instead, I think it’d be best to take a moment and realize that we’re all headed for that great mystery we call death. Satoru Iwata was fortunate in that his life’s work succeeds him and will continue to make people happy for a long time. What more could you wish for? His life meant something great, and he made people happy. In his honor, let’s make sure to laugh and bring someone happiness sometime soon. Let’s play some games and work hard to manifest our own inspiration. I’m pretty sure he would love that.
Image Credit: Sim Kay Yang