Today tragedy has hit the whole video game world, as Nintendo has confirmed that president Satoru Iwata has died. Nintendo has issued a statement explaining that Iwata passed due to a bile duct growth.
“Nintendo Co., Ltd. deeply regrets to announce that President Satoru Iwata passed away on July 11, 2015 due to a bile duct growth.”
The news come as a surprise considering how healthy Iwata-san looked during Nintendo’s E3 2015 digital event. It appears he may not have been as healthy as we all would have guessed, especially after he had to skip E3 2014 due to an undisclosed health issue at the time and had surgery to remove a growth later that year.
Nintendo has yet to mention who Iwata-san’s successor will be, although both senior managing director Genyo Takeda and legendary game designer and producer Shigeru Miyamoto currently appear to be taking control of the company for the time being.
When Iwata-san first joined Nintendo back in 1983 where he helped create some of the company’s most legendary titles and series, like Earthbound and some of the early Kirby games. He then went on to become Nintendo’s corporate planner in 2000, moving on to lead the company in 2002 and becoming the first to do so outside of the Yamauchi family.
Under Satoru Iwata leadership, Nintendo went on to develop the GameCube, DS, Wii, 3DS, and Wii U, and slowly but surely, helping shape the future of gaming. Both the DS and 3DS have dominated over the years, cementing the company’s dominance in the handhelds industry.
