Michael Pachter: I Was Disrespectful to Satoru Iwata

When Nintendo’s Satoru Iwata passed away earlier this week, there was an outpouring of grief and mourning for one of the most influential figures in gaming history ever, the likes of which had, until then, never been seen before. However, there was one dissenting voice in all of this, one man who still couldn’t help but throw a jab in at Iwata- Michael Pachter.

Pachter’s original tweets for Mr. Iwata’s passing included criticism of how the latter ran Nintendo- Michael Pachter has always been an outspoken critic of how Nintendo has been run for the last few years. Even when he was registering his condolences for Iwata’s passing, he couldn’t help but sneak that in.

However, outraged fans, and possibly his own self realization about how inappropriate his remarks were, caused him to change his wording and his stance very soon. His final tweet on the subject read, “Nintendo had an amazing run financially and creatively under Satoru Iwata’s leadership. He will be missed by the games industry.”

Speaking to fans, Pachter admitted that he had been wrong with his initial wording, and that he should have been more respectful.

Whereas I don’t expect everyone to be someone’s fan, even someone as great as Iwata (and Mr. Pachter is certainly entitled to his opinion), there is a time and place for everything- and I am glad to see Mr. Pachter eventually came around to seeing things that way.