Michael Pachter Apologizes For Satoru Iwata Remark

A few days ago, Michael Pachter created an uproar when he flippantly referred to Satoru Iwata, the late President of Nintendo, who passed away because of a bile duct tumor last year, as ‘the late and not so great Satoru Iwata.’ Considering how well loved Mr. Iwata was – indeed, his death brought the entire gaming and tech industry together in a moment of solidarity and remembrance of the man for his contributions to the medium – that remark did not go down well.

So when GamingBolt sat down with Pachter to have a chat, he decided to formally apologize for his remark about Mr. Iwata, on the record.

‘I want to take an opportunity to formally and vocally apologize for being crass and unfeeling when I said that Mr Iwata is late but not so great,” Pachter said candidly and unctuously. ‘I think that that was rude, and uncalled for. I did not feel he was a very good businessperson- he was clearly a wonderful, kind man, with a ton of talent, and he shepherded a great company during his tenure there.’

It is very good on him to recognize that he misspoke, and to so publicly and openly apologize for it. Mr. Iwata was certainly a great man, and his contributions to the world of gaming, and to the world of business and management in the gaming industry, are manifold, unlikely to be matched by anyone else. Michael Pachter’s original statement may have been in extremely poor taste, but it’s good to see that he recognizes that he misspoke, and was willing to apologize so readily for it.