Epic Games has just announced one of its biggest layoffs this year, with almost 1000 people losing their jobs. At a time like this, a bunch of people online took the chance to remember how the industry lost one of the best people ever.
We are obviously talking about Satoru Iwata of Nintendo, who passed away almost a decade ago, but people still fondly think of him because of all the sacrifices he made and the kind of industry leader he was.
At this point in time, it is not just Epic Games, but there are several other big-time video game companies who constantly letting go of established people from the workforce, pushing them into uncertainty with life decisions.
Satoru Iwata took pay cuts to ensure there are no layoffs
The Fortnite Creators dropped the bomb on a blog from their website, which explained the situation as a measure that they needed to take to “keep the company funded”. This is a blaring red alert, signifying how one of the biggest battle royale makers is facing some tough times.
But this situation is exactly why users on Twitter/X took their time to remember one of gaming’s greats, Satoru Iwata. User DogPond4 pointed out an old article from 2014, which celebrated Satoru Iwata’s decision to cut his own salary in half.
He did it in order to ensure Nintendo does not lose employees during tough times. It was a sign of incredible leadership work, but unfortunately, no one took his decisions as an example to do the same yet in the current video game scene. Instead, thousands are facing job layoffs for what they love doing.
The internet remembers the Nintendo leaders’ contributions
Many people came out to praise Satru Iwata with kind words, suggesting that there will be no other like him ever again in this world.
But not everyone is a fan of Nintendo so they took the chance to take a dig at the company. Someone pointed out how a lot of other developers in the industry once took pay cuts but no one brings them up.
Whatever may be the case, what Satoru Iwata did during a point of emergency was not to contest with others for humanitarian reasons, but he did it out of his own goodwill. While the present-day big corporations continue to blame market factors and other reasons for mass layoffs.
