Satoru Iwata is Next Generation’s 2007 Person of the Year
Thursday, December 20th, 2007 at 10:39am by Jack
This past year was arguably a year of high’s and more high’s for Nintendo. Any of the firm’s blemishes were easily washed away by its monthly successes, and the core gamer — the everyman and woman who once again controls the fate of the video game industry — would tell you that Nintendo met their expectations and then some (with the exception, of course, that supply chain issues will cost the company an estimated $1 billion). That said, room for growth exists in spades, and I fully expect 2008 to be another banner year for the house that Mario built.
In that light, I suppose it is fitting that the head of Nintendo, President and CEO Satoru Iwata, would top the Top 25 People of 2007 list over at Next Generation.
1. Satoru Iwata, President and CEO, Nintendo
The story of 2007 was for all intents and purposes the story of Nintendo. It was the story of the Wii, the year’s biggest cultural phenomenon by any metric, and how it remained perpetually sold out no matter how many Nintendo could muster its factories to make. It was the story of competition caught flat-footed, how other hardware manufacturers worked to steal some small portion of Nintendo’s new market even as third parties scrambled to get something, anything out on Wii. It was the story of Satoru Iwata, a man Barron’s listed as one of the world’s best CEOs, and how he led his company back to market leadership. He is the obvious choice for Next-Gen’s person of the year.
This is a well deserved honor and in my humble opinion it is only the beginning. I think I speak for all of Infendo when I say congratulations, Iwata-san. May your best years — and Nintendo’s — be ahead.
December 20th, 2007 at 11:05 am
Just goes to show how much of a difference it makes to have someone who’s made games in charge, not just a suit.
December 20th, 2007 at 11:28 am
@peshue,
Exactly.
December 20th, 2007 at 1:54 pm
Jade Raymond from Assasin’s Creed is hot. You should get her on the show.
December 21st, 2007 at 12:38 am
Frankly I was disappointed. Not that this list isn’t correct, as Iwata totally deserves the recognition, but because last year’s list named Peter Moore as person of the year. Peter Effing Moore?
The Disappointment I’m referring to is that Iwata hasn’t been named person of the year every year for the last three years running, for turning Nintendo’s sales on its head, breaking record after record after record after own records, in the face of continued industry apathy, ignorance, idiocy, and downright vitriolic hatred. How many multi-format industry press features did we have to sit through (ON THE DAMN NINTENDO PAGES NO LESS) discussing, nay, anticipating Nintendo’s departure from hardware. That’s how bad things were (and in some ways still are).
He’s provided a new direction not just for Nintendo, but for the entire industry, and it’s not only a new direction, but the only way out for a self restricting, stagnating, and financially collapsing market.
He’s shown he understands Nintendo’s abilities, understands what they were doing wrong, knows the entire market, gets exactly what’s wrong with it, sees exactly where and what the potential new markets are, has formulated a plan for reaching the new markets, has devinated a way for the industry to make money again, and has successfully executed upon all of this continuously without hitches, to the point where his company is now the 4th most highly valued in its homeland. I.E. the perfect CEO.
Only here’s the thing; he did this all in 2005, 2006 and 2007. But Peter FUCKING MOORE BEAT HIM LAST YEAR. WWWWTTTTFFFF? The way it reads would almost imply no-one saw 2007 coming. Sure even Nintendo couldn’t gauge this level of demand, but after the DS proving the theory for two years, the writing being on the wall at E3 2006, and thanks to Wii Sports, extended market success essentially assured even by the end of 2006, 2007 hasn’t really been a surprise from me (not Nintendo = WIN anyway, PS3 = FAIL was less predictable). I suppose it’s been a surprise to the industry, as most of it still hasn’t gotten used to the idea that Iwata knows what it’s doing, Sony is on crack, and MS have zero ability to reach beyond the hardcore. Next-Gen’s publications are merely a symptom of this fact, and hopefully that things are about to change. So all in all, good news from the industry…finally. And maybe we’ll even see articles prognosticating Sony and MS’s departures.
But seriously, PETER FUCKING MOORE?
December 21st, 2007 at 5:21 pm
@elmer,
I don’t know, Peter Moore did a damn fine job of side stepping and avoiding the reality that the 360s were dying at an unprecedented rate. For months, much of the internet actually believed his “failure rates are within a normal range for electronics devices” nonsense. If not for his stalwart avoidance of the issue combined with a heartfelt admission that “things break” and that gamers care more about good customer service than reliable hardware, we might have burned down MS headquarters for releasing such a massively prone-to-failure device with little to no regard for the consumer.
So yeah, Moore and Iwata-San, definitely in the same class.
December 21st, 2007 at 5:54 pm
With the number of Xbox 360’s that are most defnitely lying around MS headquarters today, wouldn’t you think it burning down will happen anyway, regardless of an angry mob?
I’m just sayin’
December 21st, 2007 at 7:09 pm
@ used cisco
For this very reason, I think if Next-Gen were any kind of reasonable, they’d recant on last year’s ‘person of the year’ in light of the Billion Dollar Truth. Peter Moore certainly fit the bill for greaser of the year (hence EA’s rather appropriate penchant for the man) I’ll admit. However, while I know you’re being sarcastic, NO ONE truly believed his fail rate claptrap. Not even the sucker-fish at 1up. Not even the bastard-spawn Halo nuts. Not even the analysts for Pete’s sake. The BBC seemed half past ready to file a class action lawsuit themselves.
Well, I never met anyone who believed it anyway.