Although the reality is not as magical as in TV series, there is such a legend in the game world. He paid off the debt of 654.38+0.5 billion in six years and saved his game company by himself. He is one of the few industry leaders who insist on gameplay first in this era when mobile games are popular. His life has been a model for game industry practitioners and programmers, and domestic gamers call him "Brother Cong". This is Satoru Iwata.
"On my business card, I am the President.
In my mind, I am a game developer.
But in my heart, I am a player. "
The first encounter with the game
1959, Satoru Iwata was born in Sapporo, Hokkaido, with a superior family environment (his father was Hiroshi Iwata, the former mayor of Muroran, Hokkaido). However, as the second generation of officials, Satoru Iwata loved games since he was a child and began to teach himself programming very early.
In high school, Satoru Iwata bought a programmable computer by washing dishes with his father's help. With his enthusiasm, he thoroughly studied computers and developed many uses without any magazines and manuals on computers in the market.
Satoru Iwata's experience reminds me that when I study programming, even if I follow the tutorial, it is very difficult. The factor of his ultimate success can be completely summed up as: love. Because I love self-taught programming, because I love joining HAL Institute, and because I love developing one ingenious work after another.
(HP-65 is the first magnetic card programmable handheld calculator)
He uses it to write games in class. Soon after, the first homemade game was born. This is a baseball game. Satoru Iwata shared it with his neighbors' classmates and won a good reputation. In this way, Satoru Iwata sent the completed game to the Japanese agency of Hewlett-Packard Company, and the other party was very surprised at the completion of the game. (Today is equivalent to Nintendo receiving a game that can be released tomorrow. ) After studying desktop computers in Satoru Iwata for two years, Apple computers went on the market-at that time, Satoru Iwata understood what computers are good at and what they are not good at. They are not omnipotent machines and can do everything.
"After all, people need people who appreciate what they do, otherwise they will not be able to develop to a higher level."
After high school, the only classmate next to him who can enjoy his games also went to other universities. Satoru Iwata is in a state of no partner. Ikebukuro's department store opened a personal computer counter, where many people wrote programs and wanted to share their games with everyone (maybe this is the origin of the Blue Ocean Project). Satoru Iwata went there with his own program and met the first important person in his life-Masahito gu cun, a clerk at that time.
I started a company. Do you want to come and work? Satoru Iwata was invited by Masahito, gu cun to join Hal because he thought his work in Hal was more interesting than anything else. Despite his parents' opposition, he gave up the opportunity to work in a big company and joined HAL, which had only five members at first. A great man is unique from beginning to end. He did not compromise with society, but resolutely chose the direction he loved.
(Satoru Iwata on the left, Satoshi Matsuoka on the left, because they both like kimchi, so they are called "kimchi brothers")
In the second year of Hal's work, Nintendo's red and white machine came out. Compared with computers with hundreds of thousands of yen, the red and white machine with only150,000 yen has an overwhelming advantage in game performance, which makes Satoru Iwata realize that Hal's best opportunity has come. Satoru Iwata decided to work in the game machine. With Hal's contact, he set off for Nintendo in Kyoto. (What keen judgment and courage) At that time, Nintendo actually accepted such a young man in his early twenties and gave him the job, although it was only outsourced, but it made him very happy: the games once known only to the students next door have now been sold all over the world, and everyone can play the games he participated in. It was also at this time that Satoru Iwata met the second noble person in his life-Yamauchi Pu, and the third president of Nintendo was quite appreciative of such a talented young man.
Yamauchi Pu (1927.1.7-2013.9.19) is famous for his sharp words, tough actions and opinionated opinions.
"If you run away, you will regret it all your life."
When Satoru Iwata was 33 years old, Masahito gu cun, president of HAL Research Institute, invested a lot of money in real estate investment such as securities and real estate, with debts of more than 2 billion yen, and the club was in a desperate situation of bankruptcy (at that time, Japan was in a bubble economy era). Satoru Iwata thought of the first option is "escape". However, he immediately gave up the idea. "If you run away, you will regret it all your life." Satoru Iwata thought of Nintendo, which had been cooperating for a long time, and went to Kyoto alone to ask Yamauchi Pu for help. When Nintendo gave financial support, Yamauchi Pu put forward the condition that Satoru Iwata, a 32-year-old game programmer with no formal business management experience, must be appointed as the president. (It can be seen that Shannepu attaches great importance to this young man at this time. Perhaps to some extent, he regards Satoru Iwata as the dying phoenix and wants to take Satoru Iwata as his own when Hal is reborn. )
Hal's fate depends entirely on Satoru Iwata. He readjusted his strategy. 1993, HAL successfully revived with the story of Kabi of the Stars-Dream Spring, and sold 500w sets, 200 times more than the scheduled number of games. Since then, HAL has become one of Nintendo's well-known secondary developers. Finally, it took six years, 250 million yen a year, and finally paid off 65.438+0.5 billion yen. After recalling this experience, Satoru Iwata still sincerely believes that although the money has been paid off, it is a hassle for others to borrow money, which is not something to be proud of. At that time, as long as the game was done seriously, it would be able to buy well, and game development was a job with very high return.
Served as the fourth president of Nintendo
One afternoon in May, 2002, Pu Yamauchi called Satoru Iwata to his office and told him what he and Nintendo had experienced in the past half century, and how he turned Nintendo from a humble card manufacturer into one of the largest entertainment manufacturers in the world. After two hours of "life summary", Satoru Iwata thought it was a signal that the boss fired himself, because Yamauchi Pu drove Arakawa away and wiped out all the family members in Yamauchi.
"If we don't create opportunities to talk to each other, people won't open their hearts."
This extremely difficult loan repayment experience made Satoru Iwata realize a lot, especially how to treat others as a president. On the one hand, because of Satoru Iwata's strong ability, employees as the president are willing to listen to him, but on the other hand, employees will not trust a company that is in business crisis, because their working philosophy is to hope that the boss can understand himself well, and the boss considers his own happiness. If the leader doesn't understand that white people will change, then he doesn't want to work in this company. Therefore, after taking office as president, even during the busy period of company reconstruction, Satoru Iwata always insisted on talking to every employee (there were 80 to 90 HAL at that time). Although everyone talks about different topics, the first question in the interview is always: "Are you happy now?" It is this sincerity that makes Satoru Iwata gain countless intimate friends, such as Fujii Hideyoshi, Masahiro Sakurai, Sakai Chongli and so on.
Up to now, we can still see the column of "CEO Inquiry" on Nintendo official website, and this tradition was led by Satoru Iwata. "If people are not satisfied, they should listen first. When I listen to the other person, I will say what I want to say. " Everyone knows what Cong Ge said, but how many people can really interview one by one like Cong Ge and persist for several years without interruption?
Not only for employees, but also for players. As a game producer, Satoru Iwata set up Nintendo Club to collect feedback from players all over the world. 20 1 1,10,21,the Nintendo face-to-face conference hosted by Satoru Iwata premiered. The main content of this program is to introduce the new games on Nintendo platform and Nintendo's new game hardware. The broadcast of Nintendo's Face-to-Face Club undoubtedly narrowed the distance between game makers and players, and it was at this time that domestic players first learned about Satoru Iwata and affectionately called him "Brother Cong".
Brother cong's classic action
"The game is not the exclusive entertainment of players, but the common entertainment of everyone."
Do you remember the hot event when Animal Forest first came out? The price of kohlrabi almost exploded Weibo and his circle of friends, and the degree of disconnection exceeded the the legend of zelda series; I still remember that last summer, the fitness circle sold out of stock and even tripled. People who don't know Nintendo games are also called wealth management products. All of the above, I think, is largely due to Cong Ge.
After Satoru Iwata became the president of Nintendo, his first plan was to quit the hardware war. He believes that simplification is the soul of game development. He hopes to continue to develop simple and interesting games, such as Star Card. NGC lost to Sony's ps2, so the Blue Ocean Project was born-expanding the game market share and opening up new markets, so that players who have never played games can easily get started with the game console, that is, Nintendo will give up the hardware war through NDS and Wii machines, and instead implement the Blue Ocean Project to expand the player base. At first, many people opposed this kind of behavior, thinking that it was the weakness of competitors (definitely referring to Sony), but the result was very obvious. With brain exercise, Nintendo and a large number of other high-quality works, NDS has become the highest-selling handheld in history. The success of NDS strengthened Satoru Iwata's belief and made video games out of the endless cycle of hardware competition. At the same time, he hopes that the next generation of game consoles can inherit this concept, and the wii was born in 2006. Wiisports released with it did something that other hosts didn't do: play games with those who didn't. (It is also the easy-to-use feature of Nintendo games. Everyone joked that Nintendo's games are distributed games. This plan not only saved Nintendo at that time, but also played a decisive role in the expansion of the game population in the entire game industry.
3DS didn't sell well at the beginning of its release, but Satoru Iwata made a decision that no one else could do: he reduced 3DS from $249 to 169 at the cost of halving his salary. As a result, 3DS is becoming more and more popular with its low price advantage and gradually full game lineup. Not to mention that in China, even if we look around the world, how many CEOs dare to have the courage to try.
Playing simple and happy games, not pandering, not following the trend, creative, no matter how fast the game world changes, Nintendo led by Satoru Iwata has been unswervingly following its own path in this impatient and changeable market.
On July 1 1, Satoru Iwata passed away. Before his death, he was still studying personal computers, discussing problems with the president and friend of Baokemeng Company, Ishihara Henghe. This giant who has carried Nintendo through one magnificent era after another has contributed countless valuable experiences to the game industry and worked hard for his dreams until the last moment of his life.
On the day of the funeral, more than 1500 people came to bid farewell to the most intimate and lovely Nintendo president ever. To commemorate this great man, the world's largest conference of game developers "GDC20 16" produced a commemorative film, which was quite touching and recorded Satoru Iwata's life.
At the face-to-face meeting of Nintendo E3 on 20 18, Masahiro Sakurai released a new ns exclusive work "Nintendo Star Clash: Special Edition" (note: SuperashBros. Ultimate, that is, the last meaning). Most domestic players may be dissatisfied with this conference and criticize "bad rhythm and propaganda ghosts" one after another, thinking that the 30-minute introductory film takes up too much time.
(The picture shows the 20 19 Japan Game Awards Ceremony. From the gesture of the right hand, you can feel that Sakurai tendinitis has not healed. )
"If there is knowledge under the spring, will you feel gratified? I won't say this, because once people die, they don't exist, but I learned one thing from Mr. Iwata, that is, it is very important to try my best to finish what should be done well and do what I can. "
It was Satoru Iwata who made Masahiro Sakurai's attitude change 180 degrees. Sakurai didn't want to fight for ns at first. As early as 20 1 1, when Nintendo Star Fight ForWiiu/3DS was released, he made it clear that this was his last big fight and he would never participate again. At this time, he suffered from calcified tendinitis due to overwork, and his whole right hand could not work. ) But in 20 15, Satoru Iwata's condition got worse. Maybe it was his last wish that Satoru Iwata entrusted him with the battle on ns. Sakurai worked hard to produce Ultimate for the former president and tried his best to finish it. This Nintendo Star Fight Ultimate bears the 30-year history of their friendship and the development of video games, and it is the heaviest gift for him to pay all his respects to Satoru Iwata.
After learning about Sakurai's one-handed test game due to tendinitis, I once criticized the Nintendo conference on 20 18 with mixed feelings. The information asymmetry between players and game developers leads players not to understand the developers, but we players should not listen to other people's suggestions and learn more about the game industry.
I have been exposed to games since junior high school and have been exposed to various terminals. Most of the products are made by Sony, so they are often dubbed by friends as looking for dogs. At this time, I will also kindly reply to my friends from Nintendo. But whether it is dogs or pigs, it is hard to say whether our love for the game itself is high or low.
"The game is not the exclusive entertainment of players, but the common entertainment of everyone." -In today's increasingly fierce contradiction between platforms, players and even cloud players on how to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of the game, this sentence of Cong Ge really deserves more taste from all of us.