For the past few years when there have been Nintendo-related announcements, such as those made during Nintendo Direct, chances are you would have been greeted by Nintendo’s President Satoru Iwata. Unfortunately it seems that it has been confirmed by Nintendo that over the weekend, Iwata passed away.
According to a statement released by the company, “Nintendo Co., Ltd. deeply regrets to announce that President Satoru Iwata passed away on July 11, 2015 due to a bile duct growth.” The bile duct growth is something that Iwata has been battling for a while now. Prior to this, Iwata was forced to miss out on E3 2014 due to health issues.
For those unfamiliar with Iwata, he originally joined Nintendo back in the 1980’s where he worked in development. He later made his way up the ranks of the company and became director in June of 2000, and later ascended to president and representative director in May 2002, and eventually became the CEO of Nintendo of America in June 2013.
The video game community and even Nintendo’s rivals have since paid their tribute to the late Nintendo President. Until a successor has been chosen, Shigeru Miyamoto and Genyo Takeda will be leading the company. In the meantime over at Ubergizmo, our thoughts and condolences go out to his family.
[Image credit – Namie くコ:彡]
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