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Iwata and Miyamoto: Business Ascetics - An Excerpt from Nintendo Magic
“In love with computers, Iwata entered the Tokyo Institute of Technology in 1978 to study computer science. This time he used the money he received as a graduation present to buy a Commodore PET — with integrated monochrome display, keyboard, and cassette tape reader, it was the world’s first all-in-one computer.
“He would store his programs on cassettes, and bring them every week to the Seibu department store’s computer department to show off. By the time he was a sophomore, a group of the store’s employees had formed a company called HAL Laboratory — and they invited Iwata to join them. It was the beginning of his career as a game designer.”
Says Iwata: “I feel there’s a depth, a wonder to the act of making games. Creating a single game involves constant trial and error, integrating control and play while remaining true to your theme, your concept. You wade through the vast possibilities, converging on a product. I really don’t think there’s anything else quite like it.”
Inoue continues, “To Iwata, game design was a quest for truth. That truth could be found at the end of a long, hard development process akin to spiritual training. The endless depth of that progression captivated Iwata. Ever since high school, he had loved games more than anyone else he knew, and his desire to create them had led him [to Nintendo].”