2004 The Satoru Iwata interview has been remastered and presented in full
A previously unpublished interview with the late, great Satoru Iwata has been remastered and presented in full by Adam Doree on YouTube (thanks, Time extension).
Made by Doree’s website at the time, Kikizothe original interview was only partially conducted in 2004. The new remake includes the CEO’s never-before-heard comments about Hiroshi Yamauchi, Iwata’s predecessor, who headed Nintendo with as President from 1949 to 2002.
At the time of the interview, the Nintendo DS was revealed and the Wii (then simply called ‘The Revolution’) was also teased by Iwata himself. He spoke in the interview about the importance of surprising fans with new hardware, rather than just relying on cutting-edge technical capabilities. These sentiments are known to Nintendo fans at this point, but it’s nice to reiterate them.
Interestingly, he also mentioned that he didn’t believe the hardware that Sony and Microsoft were developing at the time (PS3 and Xbox 360) necessarily had a “bright future”, saying that increased power up will require more work and that some customers will have a hard time noticing the difference.
Of course, we now know that both the PS3 and Xbox 360 will continue to enjoy great success, but Iwata’s comments here seem pretty relevant in 2024, right?
You should watch the entire interview if you have half an hour to spare. He also talked about Shigeru Miyamoto’s responsibility, the DS was not intended to compete directly with Sony’s PSP, and Nintendo’s stock price at the time.
