Voting Station

Satoru Iwata

Please vote to return to collections.

Entrepreneur

The Resume

    (December 6, 1959-July 11, 2015)
    Born in Sapporo, Japan
    Software producer and later president of the video game company HAL Laboratory
    President and CEO of Nintendo (2002-15)
    Died of bile duct cancer at age 55 (2015)

Why he might be annoying:

    The consoles that were released by Nintendo during his tenure were either hugely successful (like the Wii and DS) or huge failures (like the GameCube and Wii U), with no middle ground.
    His frequent uttering of the phrase 'Please understand' (usually when he was about to announce a game delay) during media briefings made him a joke on social media.
    He was often criticized for making Nintendo's consoles gimmicky and for being behind the times on HD and online gaming.
    Many thought he should have resigned when Nintendo's finances plummeted in the 2010's.
    He kept the details of his illness private and his death was a huge shock.

Why he might not be annoying:

    He led Nintendo to huge success in the mid-to-late 2000's.
    Under his leadership, Nintendo pioneered touch screen and motion sensing technology in gaming.
    He worked on some of Nintendo's most famous video game franchises while at HAL, including Kirby, EarthBound and Pokémon.
    He took personal responsibility during Nintendo's financial woes and took a massive pay cut.
    He believed that innovation was much more important in gaming than graphics and technology.
    He continued working after he got cancer, right up until his death.

Credit: Diplomat


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 6 Votes: 16.67% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 4 Votes: 25.00% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 142 Votes: 52.11% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 17 Votes: 41.18% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 7 Votes: 14.29% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 14 Votes: 42.86% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 487 Votes: 56.47% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 1117 Votes: 49.69% Annoying