Famous game producer Masahiro Sakurai shared on Twitter yesterday that he stayed in Kyoto from the Nintendo headquarters building converted from the high-end hotel "Marumfuku Building" and lamented that it is a charming building.
Masahiro Sakurai also said that this was his first visit to Kyoto since the pandemic (Nintendo is headquartered in Kyoto) and that he also visited the tomb of Mr. Satoshi Iwata.
The "Maruphoku Building" is a hotel converted from Nintendo's old headquarters building in 1930 and officially opened in April this year. Designed and retouched by world-class architect Tadao Ando, the hotel was renovated without destroying the original building, retaining the appearance of the time (1930). Nintendo Yamauchi, the predecessor of Nintendo, established a company selling flower cards, dominoes, and playing cards called "Maruko Fuku Co., Ltd.", and in order to commemorate this history, the hotel was named "Marunfuku Building".
Satoshi Iwata is the fourth president of Nintendo and the first president who is not a member of the Yamauchi family. In his early years, as a bole, he found and trained Masahiro Sakurai, who was working in a game store at the time, and the two jointly created famous games such as "Kirby of the Stars" and became lifelong friends. After Releasing the last fighter in "Nintendo All-Star Brawl" last year, Masahiro Sakurai said that he had worked hard to fulfill Iwata's pre-Immortal instructions. The bond and friendship between the two has also become a good story in the game world.