14 DAY TRIAL // Satoru Iwata, the president and the chief executive officer at Nintendo, reveals how he became involved with the video game industry and why he is so interested in pushing it as far as he can during his career with the Japanese video game publisher and hardware maker.
Speaking to GameCenter CX, a retro gaming show in Japan, he states, “I believed computers were going to change the world. My first interest was computers.”
He adds, “At the time, there were no personal computers, so the very first computer I bought was a calculator – a calculator capable of programming. It only displayed numbers, but with a calculator that only displays numbers, I somehow made games and played them with friends.”
Iwata says that he was very interested in moving to Nintendo when it made the decision to move into the home console space with the launch of the Nintendo Entertainment System and the Famicom.
Iwata took over the position of president and chief executive officer at Nintendo during 2002, the first person to occupy the position who is not part of the founding family.
At the moment, Nintendo is going through a transition period that offers the company both opportunities and risks.
It has managed to dominate the early part of the current console cycle with the Wii, mainly because of the motion tracking possibilities if offered, and is now looking to do the same with the next cycle with the Wii U.
But Nintendo has also registered a loss during the previous fiscal year for the first time since it was founded and it seems that the launch of the 3DS handheld has not improved the prospects for this year.
The executive offered more information on his early days and his interest in gaming during the full GameCenter CX, which can be seen below with subtitles.
