Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has passed away

[eastman23]

http://ca.ign.com/articles/2015/07/13/nintendo-ceo-satoru-iwata-has-passed-away

Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata has passed away at age 55.

"Nintendo Co., Ltd. deeply regrets to announce that President Satoru Iwata passed away on July 11, 2015 due to a bile duct growth", reads a statement from the publisher.

Iwata-san had spent the last couple of years battling the growth discovered on his bile duct, which resulted in his absence at last year's E3.

Iwata began working at Nintendo in the 1980s as a programmer, working at the HAL Laboratory. Much of the success of Kirby can be attributed to Iwata, who created the eponymous Dream Land in Kirby's debut on the Game Boy in 1992. He became a director of the company in 2000, and was appointed President of Nintendo in May 2002. Iwata oversaw the launch of the GameCube, the Nintendo DS, 3DS, Wii and Wii U.

During his tenure, Iwata placed a great deal of focus on accessibility and open communication with his fans. His role as the host of the "Iwata Asks" series of game developer interviews pulled back the curtain on the notoriously secretive company, and he was admired for his friendly and irreverent attitude.

Iwata-san was with Nintendo through some of its best times - the Wii boom back in the mid 2000s - and the roughest - the tough launch of its successor.

Thank you Iwata-san.

He made a hell of a contribution to the video game industry, from being in the trenches developing those games to being in charge of one of the pillars of the industry.

Rest in peace, Mr. Iwata.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

*bows in gratitude*

RIP, Mr. Iwata.

 

[Kelthaz]

55 is far too young to die. He will be missed.

 

[Amaris]

You honored us with your work. Rest in peace, sir.

 

[Random_Spock]

RIP Mr. Iwata, thanks for the memories. You'll be missed .

 

[Bob The Skutter]

Sad time for his family and friends. Difficult time for Nintendo. I think this may be the first time I've seen so much sadness for a CEO of anything or for anyone in Gaming. RIP Iwata San.

 

[zarkon]

Horrible news. Massive loss to both Nintendo and the wider gaming industry. He was a great developer and a great leader, and one of the few holding back the tide against low quality mobile games. I can only hope his successor is also someone who truly understands the gaming industry and loves games as much as Iwata did.

This hurts a lot because Iwata always seemed like such a nice guy who truly cared about his job. Might play some balloon fight tonight in memory.

 

[martok2112]

While I am no fan or supporter of Nintendo, I do feel sadness at his loss. I wish the best for his family, friends, and loved ones.

 

[eastman23]

Horrible news. Massive loss to both Nintendo and the wider gaming industry. He was a great developer and a great leader, and one of the few holding back the tide against low quality mobile games. I can only hope his successor is also someone who truly understands the gaming industry and loves games as much as Iwata did.

As do I. And I am confident that they will. In retrospect, this passing may explain some of the things that have gone on over the past year or so. The mobile partnership with DeNA - that was set up by Iwata and is being done on Nintendo's terms. At E3 this year, Reggie mentioned that Nintendo is in a transition right now - certainly something they would have been thinking about more after Iwata's surgery last year. And there's been more people participating in the Nintendo Directs. So I think this was something they were preparing for and I expect they'll be looking for someone to carry on that legacy.

It still hurts though.

This hurts a lot because Iwata always seemed like such a nice guy who truly cared about his job. Might play some balloon fight tonight in memory.

Yeah, I think he really did care about his job and the games that Nintendo was putting out. USGamer has a good list of some of the things he did here:
http://www.usgamer.net/articles/satoru-iwatas-10-greatest-achievements

The "Iwata Asks" interviews are pretty interesting too. He talks to developers and producers of some of the games to get insight on the development process and their ideas: http://iwataasks.nintendo.com/

I know Nintendo under his leadership hasn't always done good - the unfortunate Wii U situation and their YouTube policies to name a couple, but overall, he was a positive influence on the game industry.