Nintendo President Satoru Iwata Passes Away

Fans of Nintendo are mourning the loss of Nintendoa??s President, Satoru Iwata, as Nintendo announced in a statement that he had passed away on July 11, 2015 at the age of 55 (1959 – 2015).

The statement read:

a??Nintendo Co., Ltd. deeply regrets to announce that President Satoru Iwata passed away on July 11, 2015 due to a bile duct growth.a??

Named as the successor to Nintendoa??s previous President, Hiroshi Yamauchi, in 2002, Iwata was the fourth president at Nintendo after being director of the company since 2000.

During his time as president, he oversaw arguably the highest and lowest points of Nintendoa??s career as a company.

From the release of the GameCube to the Wii-U, Iwata was in charge of the most memorable consoles released from Nintendo.

He had been apart of Nintendoa??s growth as a company since the 80a??s, when he was a member of Nintendoa??s HAL Laboratory and helpedA?developA?games, such as Earth Bound and Balloon Fight.

The months leading up to his passing seemed promising as the posts made from his Twitter account diminished the growing concerns for his health. This being a follow up to his cancellation of last yeara??s E3 appearance that was beginning to alarm fans.

So far, no one has been named as his successor but Nintendo announced that two other executives, Genyo Takeda and Shigeru Miyamoto, will be managing the company until one is named.

Rest in peace, Mr. Iwata.

You will certainly be missed.