Satoru Okada

Satoru Okada
Born (1947-01-10) January 10, 1947 (age 78)
Kyoto, Japan
OccupationGeneral manager
EmployerNintendo (1969–2012)

Satoru Okada (岡田 智 Okada Satoru, born January 10, 1947) is the former general manager of Nintendo Research & Engineering, the division designing and developing Nintendo handheld game consoles. He is best known for creating the original Game Boy and its successors.[1][2] He was also assistant producer and director of and contributor to several Nintendo games, notably Metroid, released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1986.

Okada entered Nintendo in 1969 and went on to work as an engineer at Nintendo Research & Development 1 with Gunpei Yokoi, who developed the hugely successful Game & Watch and Game Boy handheld game consoles. In 1996, Yokoi left Nintendo which caused R&D1 to split, its engineers creating a portable hardware division of which Okada became the general manager. His team lacked Yokoi but nevertheless developed hugely successful handheld consoles: the Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, Game Boy Advance SP and Nintendo DS. Okada initially opposed the Nintendo DS' dual-screen design but was overruled by Hiroshi Yamauchi.[3]

Okada also participated in the development of several Nintendo games, as the chief director of Metroid, director of Kid Icarus, Solar Striker (along with Keisuke Terasaki) and Super Mario Land and contributed to many other titles.

Okada retired from Nintendo in January 2012.[4]

Notes

  1. ^ "Okada on the Game Boy Advance". IGN. September 13, 2000. Retrieved January 2, 2017. Yokoi (Gunpei Yokoi) and I created the first Game Boy, with Yokoi handling more of the design and interface aspects. I handled more of the internal systems of the machine.
  2. ^ "Satoru Okada talks Game & Watch, Game Boy and Nintendo DS development". Issue 163. Retro Gamer Magazine. 2016. Archived from the original on January 1, 2017. Retrieved January 1, 2017.
  3. ^ Gach, Ethan (January 1, 2017). "The Man Who Worked On The Original Game Boy Explains Why Nintendo Created The DS". Kotaku. Archived from the original on January 2, 2017. Okada apparently tried to urge Iwata to let him try to make the case to their former boss in person and explain why going with a second screen would be the wrong move, but CEO declined.
  4. ^ Moser, Cassidee (October 6, 2014). "Report: Metroid Director Satoru Okada Retires from Nintendo". IGN. Retrieved January 2, 2017. Nintendo has confirmed with IGN that Okada actually retired back in January of 2012 and has not worked with the company since then.