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Satoru Okada | |
|---|---|
| 岡田 智 | |
| Born | (1947-01-10)January 10, 1947 (age 79) |
| Alma mater | Kansai University |
| Occupations | Engineer, manager |
| Employer | Nintendo (1969–2012) |
| Notable work | Duck Hunt,Metroid,Kid Icarus,Famicom Wars,Super Mario Land,Balloon Fight |
Satoru Okada (岡田 智Okada Satoru, born January 10, 1947) is a Japanese retired engineer who served as the general manager ofNintendo Research & Engineering, the division designing and developingNintendohandheld game consoles. He is best known for creating the originalGame Boy and its successors.[1][2] He was also assistant producer and director of and contributor to several Nintendo games, notablyMetroid, released for theNintendo Entertainment System in 1986.
Okada joined Nintendo in 1969 and went on to work as an engineer atNintendo Research & Development 1 withGunpei Yokoi, who developed the hugely successfulGame & 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: theGame Boy Color,Game Boy Advance,Game Boy Advance SP andNintendo DS. Okada initially opposed the Nintendo DS' dual-screen design but was overruled byHiroshi Yamauchi.[3]
Okada also participated in the development of several Nintendo games, as the chief director ofMetroid, director ofKid Icarus,Solar Striker (along with Keisuke Terasaki) andSuper Mario Land and contributed to many other titles.
Okada retired from Nintendo in January 2012.[4]
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.
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.
Nintendo has confirmed with IGN that Okada actually retired back in January of 2012 and has not worked with the company since then.