Ask Iwata: Words of Wisdom from Satoru Iwata, Nintendo's Legendary CEO

by Satoru Iwata

major reason why this hasn’t happened to Nintendo is that we’ve maintained clear objectives. We made it absolutely clear that our mission was to “shock people, in a good way.” Unless you can shock people, you’ll never gain new customers. Since shocking people involves undermining what the customer expects, it requires determination. Take the Nintendo DS. At first, lots of people were confused. When we announced, “We’re going to release a console that has two screens and a touch panel,” most people must have thought, “Nintendo has gone off the deep end!” In our eyes, staying the course meant that we had no future, but the average person probably thought it was a crazy idea.

Unless they have the self-confidence to announce, “I’m the best,” engineers and artists never make any headway. Most programmers, too, believe their way of doing things to be superior. When these kinds of people join forces on a project, some conflict is unavoidable. Creativity, after all, is an expression of the ego.

One of these games had a feature I’ll never forget. An early version of WarioWare: Twisted! included something called the “record player.” The basic premise is you place the Game Boy Advance on a swivel chair, and then you spin the chair around. Sure enough, the record player in the game will spin along with the chair, and as you spin the chair faster and faster, the music in the game speeds up! I remember sitting there for hours on end, spinning the chair around. Now and then, I’d say, “This is so silly.” And yet, I found it so incredibly satisfying. “Silly” is a lofty compliment!

When working on a project, I’ve found that what really counts is not what you add, but what you throw away and what you decide to leave out. What I find so fascinating is that whenever you’re making something, you have this steady stream of chances to incorporate all kinds of technical pieces. But for the most part, you pass them up, deciding “now isn’t the time.” I’m not sure whether this metaphor is good or bad, but designing hardware is like sitting down at a conveyor belt sushi bar, gazing at all of the different technical pieces making the rounds. Watching them go, you see a piece and say “That one!” and take it off the belt. That’s what designing hardware is like for me.

One thing that stuck with me about the way Iwata salvaged EarthBound is how he started off by creating the tools he needed to fix the game. After announcing it would be done in half a year, he didn’t simply shut the door and fix the game himself. Rather, he set up systems so that the entire staff could fix the game together. I was astonished by the freshness of this approach.