GAME DESIGNER

Satoru Iwata

1959 - 2015

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Satoru Iwata (Japanese: 岩田 聡; December 6, 1959 – July 11, 2015) was a Japanese businessman, video game programmer and producer. Beginning in 2002, he was the fourth president of Nintendo, as well as the chief executive officer (CEO) of Nintendo of America from 2013 until his death in 2015. Iwata was a major contributor in broadening the appeal of video games by focusing on novel and entertaining games rather than top-of-the-line hardware. Born in Sapporo, Iwata expressed interest in video games from an early age and created his first simple game while in high school. Read more on Wikipedia

His biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. Satoru Iwata is the 9th most popular game designer, the 592nd most popular biography from Japan (down from 487th in 2019) and the 3rd most popular Japanese Game Designer.

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Among GAME DESIGNERS

Among game designers, Satoru Iwata ranks 9 out of 77Before him are Lizzie Magie, Markus Persson, Hideo Kojima, Ralph H. Baer, Jeff Kinney, and Alexey Pajitnov. After him are Gunpei Yokoi, Gabe Newell, Toru Iwatani, John Carmack, Satoshi Tajiri, and Sid Meier.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1959, Satoru Iwata ranks 81Before him are Nirmala Sitharaman, Miki Matsubara, Wim Hof, Rosanna Arquette, Victoria Abril, and Donna Strickland. After him are Donna Murphy, Xiomara Castro, Azali Assoumani, Hassan Diab, Benny Gantz, and Yasmina Reza. Among people deceased in 2015, Satoru Iwata ranks 99Before him are André Brink, Patrick Macnee, Akiyuki Nosaka, Infante Carlos, Duke of Calabria, Cabu, and Ornette Coleman. After him are Gerry Byrne, Yaşar Kemal, Jaakko Hintikka, Jean-Pierre Beltoise, Omar Karami, and Arsen Dedić.

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In Japan

Among people born in Japan, Satoru Iwata ranks 592 out of 6,245Before him are Satoshi Kon (1963), Miho Kaneda (1950), Saichō (767), Yasuji Okamura (1884), Shinran (1173), and Katsu Kaishū (1823). After him are Tokugawa Ieyoshi (1793), Otozō Yamada (1881), Emperor Junnin (733), George W. Casey Jr. (1948), Dom Justo Takayama (1552), and Kunihiko Kodaira (1915).

Among GAME DESIGNERS In Japan

Among game designers born in Japan, Satoru Iwata ranks 3Before him are Shigeru Miyamoto (1952), and Hideo Kojima (1963). After him are Gunpei Yokoi (1941), Toru Iwatani (1955), Satoshi Tajiri (1965), Shigesato Itoi (1948), Masayuki Uemura (1943), Hironobu Sakaguchi (1962), Shinji Mikami (1965), Naoto Ohshima (1964), and Hidetaka Miyazaki (1974).