RIP Satoru Iwata

"On my business card, I am a corporate president. In my mind, I am a game developer. In my heart I am a gamer."

Nintendo President Satoru Iwata passed away on July 11th. This news goes beyond the company, it has greatly affected the game industry and its longtime and new fans. There has never been a company president that was so public and involved in their product like Iwata. He and chief game designer, Shigeru Miyamoto, are such an integral part to Nintendo's success. Whoever will be named his successor has an impossibly big gap to fill.

Nintendo has been both a big and small part of my life. The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and Game Boy were my first video game console and handheld, respectively. I lost interest in the NES system but I stuck with the Game Boy. Anyone who has ever met or know me knows that I've always had a Nintendo handheld game device on my bag or in my purse. When Erika visited Vegas last month, she asked if I still played Pokemon. I said I did and I brought out my 3DS from my extremely heavy purse to show her, and she laughed that she will always remember me for always having [a handheld game device] with me.

This is the line of game devices after my my uncle gave me the Game Boy as a Christmas present all those years ago:

• (2) Game Boy
• Game Boy Color (Pokemon Gold/Silver edition which I foolishly traded off at Game Stop)
• (2) Game Boy Advance (I stole a second one from KMart but I felt immensely guilty afterwards that I threw it in the dumpster)
• Game Boy SP
• (2) Nintendo DS
• Nintendo 3DS
  

It's not total brand loyalty (I never got the Game Boy Micro), but it shows how much I needed to have one. I may be back to being a casual gamer but I can't go a long period of time without carrying or playing the 3DS. In fact, Vince and I stayed up pretty late this morning to complete a quest in Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate.

You will be missed, Iwata-san.