For what is considered one of the most secretive companies in the world, Iwata Asks interviews where one of the few glimpses into the behind the scenes of how the magic is made at Nintendo.
The Iwata Asks interviews involved Satoru Iwata asking numerous questions to developers of games and of consoles and publishing the interviews online. These started around 2006 and continued up until his death in 2015. It was highly unusual for a CEO to personally conduct and publish such detailed and informal discussions about internal development processes. This initiative bypassed traditional media channels, allowing Iwata (a programmer himself, uniquely positioned to ask insightful questions) to connect directly with fans, humanize the developers, and share the passion and struggles behind game creation in a way that hadn’t been done before on such a scale.
You can view the entire Iwata Asks archive on Nintendo’s website.
References
The Nerds of Color. (2015, July 17). Remembering Nintendo’s Satoru Iwata. The Nerds of Color. https://thenerdsofcolor.org/2015/07/17/remembering-nintendos-satoru-iwata/