Nintendo has announced that Satoru Iwata, the legendary CEO of Nintendo, has passed away at the age of 55. The cause of death has been stated to be a growth in his bile duct.
Satoru Iwata had joined the video gaming industry at a young age, firstly working for Hal Laboratory, where he had helped developed games like Kirby.
He joined Nintendo in 2000, and had become the president of the company in 2002, and in 2013 he had announced that he was appointed as the CEO of Nintendo of America.
At Nintendo he helped create games like Mario, Legend of Zelda and Animal Crossing. He directed the company in the development of the Nintendo Wii consoles and Nintendo DS, which were extremely beneficial to the company.
In 2014 he had announced that he would cut his salary in half to help the company deal with the financial loss it had been experiencing, due to the poor sales of the Wii U.
Following the death of Satoru Iwata, the company will be ran by Shigeru Miyamoto and Genyo Takeda until another CEO is appointed.
This is indeed a saddening moment for the gaming industry and gamers from all over the world are paying him a tribute.
One of the most famous quotes of Satoru Iwata was in his 2005 GDC Keynote speech:
On my business card, I am a corporate president. In my mind, I am a game developer. But in my heart, I am a gamer.