We woke up to an immensely sad news today, Satoru Iwata the fourth president of Nintendo and chief executive officer at Nintendo of America is no more.
The only details provided on the matter by Nintendo officials were that he passed away on July 11 and that the cause of death was 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.
Satoru Iwata was only 55 years old at the time of his death which saddens everyone in the gaming industry even more. However, news of Iwats-san’s illness were already known since 2014.
Back at E3 2014 Iwata missed the event due to medical reasons and later it was disclosed that he had had a tumor in the bile duct for which a surgery was pertinent.
A look at the past shows us his journey with Nintendo. Back in June 2000 Iwata was appointed as a director for the company and quickly rose to the post of company president by May 2002. In June 2013 he was also given the charge of representative director and chief executive officer for Nintendo of America.
Iwata-san is survived by Genyo Takeda (Representative Director; Senior Managing Director) and Shigeru Miyamoto (Representative Director; Senior Managing Director) at Nintendo.
He played a cardinal role in bringing Nintendo’s handheld products to a firm standing in the industry by transitioning the company from Game Boy to Nintendo DS. The partnership between Nintendo and DeNA was also spearheaded by Iwata.
He was more of a game developer and a gamer than a corporate president – which, incidentally, is how Satoru Iwata preferred to identify himself. You will be missed!
