Nintendo's Satoru Iwata: Lost Interview 20th Anniversary Remaster

字幕あり -- new EN & JP subtitles available via options/cog (highly recommended!) -- for the first time, this new source-quality remaster reveals the full original Japanese and English content with new subtitles for both languages, and includes previously unseen material.*

20 years ago TODAY on May 19, 2004 -- my website at the time (https://www.kikizo.com) scooped one of its biggest ever interviews. As global Nintendo President, Satoru Iwata (岩田 聡) was notoriously difficult to access 1-1, even for the biggest consumer games media.

(* Previously unpublished material includes comments from Mr Iwata about Hiroshi Yamauchi (at the time Nintendo's chairman, and to all intents and purposes its founder, who also sadly passed away in 2013, nine years after this interview), including: "Hiroshi Yamauchi has led Nintendo for over 50 years, and in the past 20 years, he is someone who can be called the father of today's gaming industry" -- and "I don't think we should just do exactly what he has said in the past..." -- this video is the first time these comments from Mr Iwata have ever been revealed, after recovery from my original source tapes for this remaster. )

The newly restored video offers a glimpse into the mind of one of the most important people in gaming history, whose impact is certainly still felt today -- someone we described at the time as "full of ideas guaranteed to surprise fans over the coming years".

At a time when Iwata hadn’t long been Nintendo president, DS was only just revealed, and the first glimpse of Revolution/Wii was a whole year away, nobody could have predicted how much Iwata-led Nintendo would truly shake up the industry.

In fact, some of Iwata's comments are verging on prophecy, viewed in 2024...

Like so many, I was sad to learn of Satoru Iwata's passing in 2015. Iwata's warmth of character, which became so well-known over the years in press conferences and Nintendo Directs, truly came across when we met him for this interview and on other rare occasions.

Satoru Iwata was an inspiring and charming leader who will always be very fondly remembered.

--
Thank you so much to Shinki Nishikori for working with me on new and improved translation text for this video way beyond the original 2004 transcription. You are an incredible collaborator!

I’m including Mr Iwata’s full answers in Japanese, followed by NCL's Yasuhiro Minagawa’s interpretations in English. (Note, the JP subs intentionally include some EN text).

Original interview - Kikizo.com / Adam Doree & Steve Boxer

00:00 Backstory
00:42 The day before
01:11 Nintendo Revolution (Wii)
03:56 Revolution vs PS3 & Xbox 2
08:36 Nintendo DS
11:13 Sony PSP vs Nintendo DS
13:00 Hiroshi Yamauchi Pt1
16:08 Shigeru Miyamoto Pt1
16:40 Hiroshi Yamauchi Pt2
17:48 Shigeru Miyamoto Pt2
19:53 Fair global release timing
23:02 Developer support
24:32 Nintendo share price
27:25 My closing thoughts

Chapters for reference - it will be a miracle if they ever start working again on any of my videos.

** In memory of Satoru Iwata, 1959-2015 **