Source Gaming: Sakurai Remembers The Last Email He Got From Iwata

Masahiro Sakurai took some time in his weekly Famitsu column to recall the last email he received from Satoru Iwata before his passing on July 11th, 2015. The column was translated by Source Gaming.

Sakurai says that he and Iwata were exchanging emails up until late-June. He shares a small excerpt of the final email he got, where Iwata complimented Sakurai for his ability to “make the final image of what you want in your head ‘move'”. Not only is it a “very special thing”, but Iwata had even said that, in that respect, Sakurai is a “rarity among the entire games community”. Sakurai mentioned that compliments or flattery is something Iwata “rarely offered”. However, Sakurai remembers that Iwata “excelled at conveying the true essence of something to other people in a simple, comprehensible way”.

There was another point where Sakurai mentioned Iwata in this week’s column, in which the main topic was about advice he wished to give to game creators. He would later talk about Iwata’s beliefs about the problems a game programmer had to face, Sakurai recalls that one of the things Iwata used to say was “programmers don’t say ‘I can’t do that.’”

Sakurai had a lot of advice to give, so if you wish, you can check out Source Gaming’s entire translation of the column here.

Source