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Miyamoto shares details about his relationship with the late Satoru Iwata
A new book entitled Iwata-san was published today in Japan, featuring interviews with Shigeru Miyamoto (creator of Mario) and Shigesato Itoi (creator of Earthbound) on their relationships with the late Satoru Iwata. The book is only available in Japanese for now, but IGN has published translated excerpts.
“To me, he was a friend more than anything… It never felt like he was my boss or that I was working under him. He never got angry; we never fought about anything.”
Miyamoto also outlined memories of one of his first meals with Iwata, who was in Kyoto to work on a project at the time. Both had been working and decided to go and get a bowl of ramen for dinner.
“Nintendo doesn’t pay for social expenses, so we had to go Dutch on the bill.” says Miyamoto. “That became a tradition that lasted even after he became company president and I became an executive.”
From that point onwards, the two often ate lunch together to discuss new ideas. Miyamoto goes on to mention how this is something that he greatly misses doing now.
“Since he passed away, Nintendo has been doing just fine.” says Miyamoto. “He left many words and structures that live on in the work of our younger employees today. The only problem is that, if there is some good-for-nothing idea I come up with over the weekend, I have no one to share it with the next Monday. That I can no longer hear him say ‘Oh, about that thing…’ is a bit of a problem for me. It makes me sad.”
Shigesato Itoi also weighed in on his experience with Iwata, looking back on it fondly.
“Iwata said that the vision behind his business was to make everyone happy: himself, his friends at work, and his customers… It’s funny how you remember the most insignificant things, but whenever Iwata used the word ‘happy,’ he would show you the palms of both of his hands. That’s something I don’t think I’ll ever forget.”
Saturo Iwata passed away in July 2015, only 55 years old. His death shook the games industry and inspired many fans to publish artwork and tributes in his memory. During his time as President at Nintendo he oversaw the release of the Nintendo DS, Wii, Nintendo 3DS and the Wii U, and also worked on a huge number of games since the early 1980s.
Time For A Quick Daily Quiz?
How many Wolfenstein games were developed by id Software?
- Just the one
- Two
- Three
- Four
The answer will be revealed at the end of this issue!
News Bits
Dragon Age 4 setting revealed by short story collection
BioWare fans are painfully aware that Dragon Age 4 is still years away, but that’s not stopping them speculating about the upcoming game. Fortunately, the Dragon Age writers have dropped hints in the past through tie-in novels, revealing information about the setting and characters months before the games have shipped.
The latest book is an anthology of short stories set in the Dragon Age universe – Dragon Age: Tevinter Nights. This would suggest Dragon Age 4 is set in the Tevinter Imperium, a nation ruled by mages. If you can’t wait to learn more about the next chapter in the series, you will definitely want to read these short stories. Dragon Age: Tevinter Nights will be available on March 10th next year.
The Red Dead Redemption Remake rumours were fake
The Red Dead Redemption 2 DLC rumours published by Reddit user throwaway11113454 has received plenty of coverage. The user claimed that a ‘friend’ – an environment artist at Rockstar – told him the studio is working on DLC similar to RDR’s Undead Nightmare expansion. The same source also allegedly stated that Rockstar is working on a remake of the original RDR game, with plans to release it on the game’s 10th anniversary in 2020.
After watching the rumours gain some traction, the Reddit user has finally admitted that “there is no dlc for Red Dead Redemption 2 or remake of the first game as far as I know.”, claiming that “this was an experiment I have always wanted to do regarding the spreading of rumors in video game culture.”.
A few other Reddit users used this opportunity to criticise journalists and YouTubers for covering rumours propagated by an unknown Reddit user with previous post history. While some users think the experiment was ‘worth it’, throwaway1113454 stated that “…This is my fault, I should’ve never spread a false rumor like this. And I genuinely apologize for leading you and others on”.
Daily Fact
Wolfenstein has not always been a first-person shooter series
This week sees the release of not one but two new games in the Wolfenstein series of shooters, and both of them are firsts for the franchise: Wolfenstein: Youngblood is the first co-op game, and Wolfenstein: Cyberpilot is the first VR game. The series has enabled kicking Nazi butt since 1992, when id Software’s Wolfenstein 3D – one of the very earliest first-person shooters – was released. However, the series did not begin with that game!
In fact, Wolfenstein 3D was the third game in the Wolfenstein series. The first two were top-down stealth games, which is probably why stealth features so heavily in the later games and the reason why you can sneak up on guards in Wolfenstein 3D. Castle Wolfenstein was released all the way back in 1981, and sequel Beyond Castle Wolfenstein came out in 1984 – so there was an 8-year gap between the second and third game!
