Heartwarming / Nintendo

• Inside the firmware of every copy of the Nintendo Switch, there was a copy of Golf 1984, a game created by Satoru Iwata. How do you play it? Well... First you would have to have a brand-new Switch, still running system version 1.0.0, that has never been connected to the internet. Then, on July 11 (the actual internal system clock, not just setting the system to that date), the day of Satoru's passing, you take the joycons and make Iwata's signature "Straight to you" gesture. So yeah, you're probably not going to be able to unlock it on your Switch. But that's okay, it's not meant to be opened. The game is there as an Omamori, a Japanese charm usually carried in a bag. Opening it is said to let the blessing out, so you're not supposed to. It's just one final good-luck charm from Iwata, to carry with you wherever you go. Unfortunately, after a year the game was deleted in future system updates, but that's also in the spirit of an Omamori^note Omamori are usually good for a year, then burned ritualistically.
• A lesser-stated but still very defining characteristic of Nintendo of Japan's upper management. When the Nintendo 3DS suffered poor sales in 2011, not only did Satoru Iwata slash his salary in half to avoid laying off his subordinates, but other Nintendo executives, including Shigeru Miyamoto, followed suit and took pay cuts in lieu of laying off their staff. Iwata went on to slice his salary again when the Wii U underperformed, again to save his staff. The man, and his company, are clearly loved by employee and fan alike for such benevolent behavior, which when compared to other companies that shall not be named is downright altruistic. If you have to ask why anyone would want to work for Nintendo, well... now you know.
  • Additionally, in 2019 with the issue of crunch work starting to become a bigger problem in games development, Nintendo announced that they were delaying the release of the next Animal Crossing game, New Horizons, until March of 2020 to ensure it could not only be properly completed before release, but also that the staff working on it could do so without undue stress. Jim Sterling, who has taken up the fight against abusive crunch practices in the industry as a personal mission, commended Nintendo for putting their staff's welfare ahead of pandering to their shareholders.
  • Japan is infamous for employees that overwork themselves or are overworked by employers, to the point that Japan has the term "karoshi" for the extreme of this. With that in mind, it's even more beautiful that Nintendo is so good to their employees.
  • In regards to fans, most if not all of them have been shown to be okay with the decision to wait a little longer for the game.

---