Nintendo president Satoru Iwata dies at the age of 55

RAZER

Veteran
On July 11th 2015 Satoru Iwata, the president of Nintendo died at the age of 55 caused by cancer. Nintendo themselves released a very short press release themselves.

Notification of Death and Personnel Change of a Representative Director (President)

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

1. Name : Satoru Iwata

2. Date of Birth : December 6, 1959

3. Career Record :
June 2000 Appointed as Director
May 2002 Appointed as President Appointed as Representative Director
June 2013 Appointed as CEO of Nintendo of America Inc.​

4. Other Information : As a result, the following two Representative Directors remain at the company. Genyo Takeda (Representative Director; Senior Managing Director) Shigeru Miyamoto (Representative Director; Senior Managing Director)


It might be very Japanese, but it seems a bit short and businesslike for a press release that tells the world your companies president died.

'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.'

Below is a short bio of the man as it is mentioned on wikipedia.

Iwata was born on December 6, 1959, and raised in Sapporo, Japan; his father was a municipal mayor. He expressed interest in the creation of video games early on, and began producing electronic games at his home during his high school years. The several simple number games Iwata produced made use of an electronic calculator he shared with his schoolmates. Following high school, Iwata was admitted to the Tokyo Institute of Technology, where he majored in computer science. While attending the school, he did freelance work as a programmer for HAL Laboratory, Inc., a game developer that often collaborated closely with Nintendo.

In 2000, Iwata took a position at Nintendo as the head of its corporate planning division. When Hiroshi Yamauchi, the company's president since 1949, retired on May 31, 2002, Iwata succeeded as Nintendo's fourth president with Yamauchi's blessing, and Yamauchi would advise Iwata over the next few years. He was the first Nintendo president who was unrelated to the Yamauchi family through blood or marriage. Iwata continued to help out at HAL as a consultant.

At the time of Iwata's promotion, Nintendo was not performing as well as other console makers, with its latest release the GameCube performing poorly compared to competitors. Iwata had stated in 2006 that he felt that the gaming industry was becoming too exclusive, and wanted to develop hardware and games that would be appealing to all players.[1] Under his charge at Nintendo, he helped to lead a revitalization of their handheld system, transitioning from the Game Boy to the Nintendo DS with a unique form factor that allowed for more novel games to be played on it. He also pushed on the development of the Wii platform which introduced the use of motion control-based video games. Both units proved highly successful to the company, with the release of the Wii in 2006 helping to nearly double the stock price of Nintendo.[11] Iwata's former experience as a programmer, a rarity for technology CEOs, was said to help contribute towards his leadership of the company. Due to his success, Barron's included Iwata on their list of the 30 top CEOs worldwide from 2007 to 2009.

He commented on Nintendo games in his section of Nintendo's Wii website, Iwata Asks. In 2011, he helped to institute "Nintendo Direct", a series of online press conference open to all that revealed upcoming Nintendo games and products outside of typical industry channels, and often done in a quirky, humorous manner, such as a mock battle between him and Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aimé. In June 2013, he took the role of Nintendo of America's CEO; As one of his first changes as CEO, Iwata decided that they would not hold large press conferences at E3, and instead have several smaller events, each aimed at a certain demographic. In 2015, Iwata put part of Nintendo's focus on the growing mobile game market, creating a partnership with mobile provider DeNA to publisher titles, as traditional hardware console sales began to falter. Iwata stated he would take half his salary to help Nintendo's poor finances and to better compete against Microsoft and Sony Computer Entertainment.

While at Nintendo, Iwata worked on The Legend of Zelda, Mario, and the Animal Crossing series of games. He also played a cameo in WarioWare: Smooth Moves, where he is referred to as "Shop Manager Iwata".

Satoru_Iwata_-_Game_Developers_Conference_2011_-_Day_2_(1).jpg


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Roarzor

Veteran
This is very saddening to someone like myself. Nintendo has been one of my favorite child-hood companies and still holds a very important spot in my life today.

R.I.P Satoru Iwata
 

C3pp4r3ll0

Dark Souls addicted :-P
It was really a sad news especially considering the young age.
I really hope that Nintendo can overcome this bad period is going through because IMHO every gamer should be grateful to Nintendo, regardless of the platform or system on which playing now.
 
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