Mr. Iwata became the Nintendo President in 2002
We’ve got incredibly sad Nintendo news to report in that Nintendo announced today that President Satoru Iwata has passed away at the age of 55. Nintendo released the following notification of death.
“Nintendo Co., Ltd. deeply regrets to announce that President Satoru Iwata passed away on July 11, 2015 due to a bile duct growth.”
Nintendo added that Genyo Takeda (Representative Director; Senior Managing Director) and Shigeru Miyamoto (Representative Director; Senior Managing Director) will jointly run the company until a new President is selected.
Mr. Iwata had been battling the growth on his bile duct the last few years and had to miss last year’s E3 because of his health. In June of 2014, he wrote: “In general, it is said that a bile duct growth can be difficult-to-treat, partly because of the difficulty of detecting it early. In my case, luckily, it was detected very early and I had no symptoms. I was counseled that removal at an early stage would be the desirable medical option. Therefore I had surgery last week, and I came through it well, as predicted.”
Mr. Iwata began working at Nintendo in the 1980s as a programmer at the HAL Laboratory, which developed the Kirby and Super Smash Bros. franchises. He became President of the company in 2002 and oversaw the launches of the GameCube, Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS, Wii and the most recent Wii U.
Fans frequently got to see Mr. Iwata in the Nintendo Direct presentations, which in recent years replaced their live presentations at the big conferences. He was also headed up the Iwata Asks series, which looked at the development of Nintendo games.
Tributes from fans immediately poured in from around the world on social channels for the beloved Mr. Iwata. PlayStation tweeted the below tribute as well, as did Xbox head Phil Spencer.
Thank you for everything, Mr. Iwata.
— PlayStation (@PlayStation) July 13, 2015
Sad day for Iwata-san’s family, friends, and gamers everywhere. His passion, creativity & leadership elevated our industry.
— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) July 13, 2015
You will be missed, Mr. Iwata. This is a sad day for the gaming industry.
