In the five years since his death, Satoru Iwata and his legacy have lived on in the minds of Nintendo fans and the wider video game industry. After taking the helm at Nintendo, the former president and CEO revitalized the company byintroducing innovative consolesand by personally contributing to its most successful franchises.
While fans have already commemorated this tragic anniversary bylooking back on Iwata’s revolutionary tenure at Nintendo,the anime and manga publisher Viz Media has announced a new book to honor the former Nintendo president. In a recent tweet, it announced a complete collection of “Iwata Asks” interviews. From 2006 to 2015, Iwata’s series interviewed Nintendo developers and staffers to give devoted fans an inside look at the development process behind Nintendo’s hit consoles and games.
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According to the tweet, Viz Media will localizeAsk Iwata: Words of Wisdom from Nintendo’s Legendary CEO,for a Spring 2021 release date. Compiling interviews about theNintendoDS, Wii, 3DS, Wii U and its greatest games, the book’s creator Yasuda Nagata worked with the lifestyle company Hobonichi to edit and publish the original Japanese anthology in 2019. It also added new sections fromEarthboundmastermind and Hobonichi founder Shigesato Itoi, as well as Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto.
In the Twitter replies, Nintendo fans celebrated Viz Media’s announcement. Many fans thanked Viz for translating Iwata’s work, and talked about how essential this book would be to any Nintendo devotees looking for a beautifultribute to the impact Iwataleft behind. Several people got emotional when remembering the Nintendo president, and promised to buy the book on release day. Industry journalist Geoff Keighley also joined in on the hype, stating that he was looking forward to Viz’s official translation.
While Viz Media has not given a specific release date toAsk Iwata: Words of Wisdom from Nintendo’s Legendary CEOyet, eager fans can still access the original “Iwata Asks” interviews on Nintendo’s official website. However, impatient fans should likely avoidany fan translations of the book.Now that Viz is producing an official Western release, Hobonichi is warning fan translators that it will take legal action against unauthorized versions of the book.
