Satoru Iwata NEVER Punched a Man at an Investor Meeting

Published on February 13, 2024.
Last updated on May 4, 2024.
Written by Chad Timblin.

A picture of Satoru Iwata speaking in public at a live event that Nintendo participated in.

This article aims to debunk a false story about Satoru Iwata that some people have irresponsibly deemed true.

On April 24, 2013, a now-defunct satirical gaming site (P4RGaming.com) published a dubious article titled "Satoru Iwata Punches Man at Investor Meeting After Asking When Nintendo Will Make Smartphone Games".

In case it's not obvious, that story is 100% false.


Some quick Google searching will lead anyone to verify that P4RGaming.com was a satirical site. For example:

  • "P4RGaming.com provided entertainment through satire in an increasingly serious gaming environment." (source)
  • "You really need to say your site is not a legit news site somewhere cause some ppl can’t figure out its satire on their own. Otherwise it’s just slander." (source)
  • "The entirety of this site is satire …" (source)
  • "Play4Real is [a] joke site. It's basically the Onion of video games journalism." (source)
  • "They've been linked a few times by users who thought they were serious. Better let the public know that this is, in fact, satire." (source)
  • "The interview displayed above is a work of humorous fiction that was originally published on gaming site Play4Real on 7 November 2012." (source)

Unfortunately, Mitch Lasky and Blake Robbins, co-hosts of the "Gamecraft Podcast", were not able to discern the satirical nature of this defamatory article about Satoru Iwata.

In Season 1, Episode 06 of their Gamecraft Podcast ("Console Castles"), Mitch Lasky talks about the false story of Satoru Iwata punching someone at an investor meeting as if it actually happened:

"In 2013, a shareholder at the Nintendo annual meeting stands up and starts expressing concern about Nintendo's plummeting stock price and asks Nintendo's CEO, Iwata-san, what his plans were for mobile phones. To which Iwata answers that they have no plans for mobile phones and suggests that the shareholders buy a DS.

The shareholder persists and he continues this heated exchange with Iwata … and ultimately gets so mad he exits the stage, walks down into the ballroom, and punches the shareholder in the face. And both men are then escorted out of the room by security. So, this is where we were in 2013 with Nintendo and the mobile phone. Iwata chooses violence."

(source: minute 29:36 to minute 30:30 of "Console Castles")

The page for the "Console Castles" episode includes a "Show Link" titled “Iwata chooses violence” which links to this GameFAQs forum post.

If Mitch and Blake read the GameFAQs forum post that they linked to in their show notes, they would have seen multiple replies that reference the patently false nature of this story:

  • "Story is fake." -RahzarX
  • "Just look at the other articles on the site." -Nice_Kirbyfan9
  • "Ya I can't see him ever punching anyone." -Wekos1187
  • "Lol, I enjoy how you thought this was a true story, so you posted this along with a little paragraph at the end with other negative news you picked up, yet you didn't realize this was a parody site. Or maybe you're just trying to mislead people. Either way, you're being an ass." -pbandjames
  • "Wow. I'd be surprised if anyone believes this. Honestly, the title alone should scream fake. Doesn't anyone realize that were this true Iwata would've been fired..." -21_21
  • "Do people honestly believe this?" -Newbius

When I first heard this blatant inaccuracy that Mitch Lasky shared in Season 1, Episode 06 of the Gamecraft Podcast, I made an attempt to let Mitch and Blake know via Twitter:


I did not receive a reply, and later forgot about it.

Then on January 25, 2024, Jordan Amaro (a planner at Nintendo) retweeted Gamecraft Podcast's tweet announcing that they were coming back for Season 2 (and wrote something about how Gamecraft is fantastic).

Jordan's retweet reminded me of the significant inaccuracy shared in Gamecraft Season 1, Episode 06, so I replied to it to say:


I did not receive a reply, and Jordan later deleted his retweet.

A few days later, this innacuracy was still bugging me, so I made another attempt to reach the podcast's co-hosts on Twitter by replying directly to their tweet announcing Season 2:


Later I tried to reach Mitch and Blake via email to ask them to please consider correcting this inaccuracy.

I received two email replies from Mitch Lasky (one on 3/3/2024 and another on 4/23/2024). You can view the entire email thread here (I redacted Mitch's email addresses to respect his privacy).

In Mitch's 3/3/2024 email, he wrote:
I appreciate your persistence on something so seemingly inconsequential. 😀

Two things. First, we don’t do follow up on the podcast, but we discussed the apocryphal nature of the Iwata story in the joint Acquired/Gamecraft podcast we did a few month’s back, which was much, much more broadly consumed than Gamecraft itself (Acquired has 100x our reach). So that’s going to be it for a “correction” (although if we get around to it, we may put something in the show notes, as well).

Second, with all due respect, and just for the record so you don’t think I was being glib about it, I don’t share your opinion of Iwata-san’s legacy — at least as a businessman.
A few comments:
  • With all due respect, I don't think that propagating a false story about Iwata (or any living or deceased individual) is inconsequential.
  • I listened to and enjoyed the joint Acquired/Gamecraft podcast episode in 2023, and I relistened to the entire episode again in March 2024, but I never heard any discussion about the apocryphal nature of the Iwata story in that episode. To be extra thorough, I searched through the entire Acquired and YouTube transcripts, and I could only find one mention of Iwata in the entire episode (at minute 36:24 of the YouTube version). Perhaps Mitch did address this in the joint Acquired/Gamecraft podcast episode but that portion of the conversation was cut from the public version of the podcast?
  • I was also not able to find any evidence of a different joint Acquired/Gamecraft podcast episode that is more recent than the one from April 25, 2023 that includes a discussion about the apocryphal nature of the Iwata story.
  • One's opinion of Iwata's business prowess is not relevant to the fact that a false story about him was propagated on the Gamecraft Podcast.
In Mitch's 4/23/2024 email, he wrote:
I am a busy man and I am not going to honor your request. I have my own issues with Iwata whom I dealt with personally and I don’t share your belief in his sainthood. I have disavowed this story publicly and that’s the end of it.
A few comments:
  • To help help ensure that future listeners of Gamecraft will not be misled to believe a false story, I asked Mitch and Blake to please consider uploading a new audio file of Gamecraft Season 1, Episode 06 that does not include the false Iwata story. I also asked them to please consider removing the "Iwata chooses violence" link from the episode's show notes.
  • I wonder if the "issues with Iwata" that Mitch harbors could be influencing him to not want to remove the defamatory information about Iwata from his podcast?
  • I never claimed that Iwata was a saint.
  • I have not found any evidence of Mitch publicly disavowing the false Iwata story. As mentioned above, it's possible that Mitch did publicly disavow the false Iwata story in the joint Acquired/Gamecraft podcast episode, but that portion of the conversation was cut from the public version of the podcast.

To be clear, I think Gamecraft is a decent podcast overall, and I enjoyed listening to every single episode from Season 1 in the summer of 2023.

However, since Gamecraft presents itself as an authoritative source of information on the video game industry, it should be held to a high standard of accuracy.

Out of respect for the late Satoru Iwata (and accuracy), I hope that Mitch and/or Blake choose to upload a new audio file of Gamecraft Season 1, Episode 06 that does not include the false Iwata story. I also hope that they remove the misleading "Iwata chooses violence" link from the episode's show notes.

At the very least, since they are aware of the inaccuracy, it would be helpful for them to add a correction to the episode's show notes.

Any of these actions would help prevent future listeners of Gamecraft from being misled to believe a false and defamatory story about Iwata.

Mitch and Blake, if you're reading this, please consider the above. Thank you.

Satoru Iwata was an exceptional and honorable human who will rightfully always be remembered for his prominent role in video game history.

For anyone who is interested in learning more about Satoru Iwata's inspiring life and career, I highly recommend these two books:

I also recommend listening to people who knew Iwata personally tell stories about him, such as Kit & Krysta.

If anyone would like to reach me to discuss this, you can do so via email: chad [dot] timblin [at] gmail

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