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Toru Iwatani Biography

Toru Iwatani is one of the most popular and richest Game Designer who was born on January 25, 1955 in Tokyo, Japan. Former video game designer who created the classic arcade games Pac-Man and Pole Position. He worked for the software company Namco.

He appeared in the Adam Sandler-starring film Pixels in a cameo appearance.

Toru Iwatani (岩谷 徹 , Iwatani Tōru, born January 25, 1955) is a Japanese video game designer who spent much of his career working for Namco. He is best known as the creator of the arcade game Pac-Man (1980). He also designed the 1982 racing game Pole Position and its 1983 sequel Pole Position II.

At the age of 22, Iwatani joined the Japanese video game publisher Namco in 1977. Before he had joined, Namco had acquired the rights to the Japanese division of Atari, Inc. from Nolan Bushnell, giving them the rights to distribute many of the company’s games, such as Breakout, across the country. This became an unprecedented success for Namco, and made them interested in producing their own video games in-house instead of relying on other companies to make games for them. Iwatani was assigned to the video game development division of the company upon arrival. He originally wanted to create pinball machines, however Namco executives declined the idea due to patent-related issues. As a sort-of compromise, Iwatani was allowed to create a video game based on the concept of pinball. With the assistance of programmer Shigeichi Ishimura, Iwatani created Gee Bee, released in 1978. While not as successful as the company hoped, Gee Bee helped Namco get a foothold in the gradually-expanding video game market. Two sequels were released in 1979, Bomb Bee and Cutie Q, which Iwatani worked on as a designer.

He was born in Tokyo, Japan.

Name	Toru Iwatani
First Name	Toru
Last Name	Iwatani
Occupation	Game Designer
Birthday	January 25
Birth Year	1955
Place of Birth	Tokyo
Home Town
Birth Country	Japan
Birth Sign	Aquarius
Full/Birth Name
Father	Not Available
Mother	Not Available
Siblings	Not Available
Spouse	Not Known
Children(s)	Not Available

Ethnicity, religion & political views

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Iwatani went on to design Libble Rabble in 1983, a twin-stick puzzler based on a game he had played in his childhood. Iwatani claims Libble Rabble to be his favorite game. He also worked as a producer for many of Namco’s arcade games, including Rally-X, Galaga, Pole Position, Ridge Racer and Time Crisis. From April 2005, he taught the subject of Character Design Studies at Osaka University of Arts as visiting professor. Iwatani left Namco in March 2007 to become a full-time lecturer at Tokyo Polytechnic University. Iwatani returned to his Pac-Man roots in 2007 when he developed Pac-Man Championship Edition for the Xbox 360, which he states is the final game he will develop.

Toru Iwatani Net Worth

Toru Iwatani is one of the richest Game Designer from Japan. According to our analysis, Wikipedia, Forbes & Business Insider, Toru Iwatani's net worth $5 Million. (Last Update: December 11, 2023)

He joined Namco in 1977 where he came up with the idea for “Pakku-Man.” The game was released to the public in 1980.

The final game he developed was Pac-Man Championship Edition for Xbox 360.

Iwatani was born in the Meguro ward of Tokyo, Japan on January 25, 1955. While in kindergarten, he and his family moved to the Tōhoku region of Japan after his father got a job as an engineer for the Japan Broadcasting Corporation. After becoming a junior high student, Iwatani returned to Tokyo and graduated from the Tokyo Metropolitan University High School, before graduating from the Tokai University Faculty of Engineering. Iwatani was self-taught in computers without any formal training in programming or graphical design. He often filled his school textbooks with scattered manga, which he claims had a major influence on the character designs of his games.

Net Worth	$5 Million
Salary	Under Review
Source of Income	Game Designer
Cars	Not Available
House	Living in own house.

On June 3, 2010, at the Festival of Games, Iwatani received a certificate from Guinness World Records for Pac-Man having the most “coin-operated arcade machines” installed worldwide: 293,822. The record was set and recognized in 2005, and recorded in the Guinness World Records: Gamer’s Edition 2008.

Height, Weight & Body Measurements

Toru Iwatani height Not available right now. Toru weight Not Known & body measurements will update soon.

Height	Unknown
Weight	Not Known
Body Measurements	Under Review
Eye Color	Not Available
Hair Color	Not Available
Feet/Shoe Size	Not Available

Towards the end of 1979, Iwatani grew disappointed towards the video game industry, thinking that the market only appealed to men through its usage of violent “war” games, such as Space Invaders, and sports games reminiscent of Pong. He decided to create a video game that appealed to women, with cute, colorful character design and easy-to-understand gameplay, based around the concept of eating. Working with a small team of nine employees, Iwatani created Pac-Man, test-marketed on May 22, 1980 and released in Japan in July and in North America in October. While it proved to be only a moderate success in Japan, being outperformed by Namco’s own Galaxian, Pac-Man was an astronomical success in North America, quickly selling over 100,000 arcade units and becoming the best-selling and highest-grossing arcade game of all time. Pac-Man has since become Namco’s most-successful video game of all time and the company’s signature title. After its release, Iwatani was promoted within the ranks of Namco, eventually becoming responsible for overseeing the administration of the company. Despite the success of Pac-Man, Iwatani did not receive any kind of bonus or change of salary. An often-repeated story is that Iwatani left Namco furious at the lack of any recognition or additions to his pay, which he has claimed to be false.

Who is Toru Iwatani Dating?

According to our records, Toru Iwatani is possibily single & has not been previously engaged. As of December 1, 2023, Toru Iwatani’s is not dating anyone.

Relationships Record: We have no records of past relationships for Toru Iwatani. You may help us to build the dating records for Toru Iwatani!

Facts & Trivia

Toru Ranked on the list of most popular Game Designer. Also ranked in the elit list of famous people born in Japan. Toru Iwatani celebrates birthday on January 25 of every year.

Why did Toru Iwatani make Pac-Man?

Iwatani states in a Yahoo Article, that one of the main reasons he began working on Pac-Man was to create a game that would be appealing to women as well as men. He has stated that at the time of Pac-Man’s development, most arcade games were either focused on violence or targeted exclusively towards men.

What is Toru Iwatani doing now?

Since 2007, Iwatani has been a professor at the Department of Games at Tokyo Polytechnic University.

Is the creator of Pac-Man still alive?

Masaya Nakamura, a Japanese toy and game entrepreneur whose company’s most enduring creation, Pac-Man, became a worldwide cultural touchstone, died on Jan. 22. He was 91. His death was announced on Monday by Bandai Namco, the business where he retained the title of honorary adviser.

Was that the real creator of Pac-Man in pixels?

If you’ve seen the trailer for this movie, you know that Pac-Man’s creator Toru Iwatani shows up to try to talk some sense into his “son” amidst the videogame war. But that’s not actually Iwatani, it’s actor Denis Akiyama.

Who beat Pac-Man?

Billy Mitchell was the first person to ever get a perfect score in Pac-Man. In 1999, he racked up 3,333,360 points, creating what was thought to be the unattainable end of the game and surprising even the creators and designers.

You may read full biography about Toru Iwatani from Wikipedia.