After over a year of battling with health issues, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata has passed away. At age 55, he served as Director, President, Representative Director, and eventually CEO of Nintendo.
Iwata grew up in Japan, later earning a degree in computer science while working for HAL Laboratory, a development studio owned by Nintendo. After graduating, he helped run the studio during the production of several titles including the critically acclaimed EarthBound. More than 15 years later he would take the position of President of Nintendo in 2002 following Hiroshi Yamauchi's departure. He would devote his entire career to working for the company.
Iwata was well-known for his friendly personality that made him a joy to watch for many Nintendo fans around the globe. He was also a visionary, working in a high-responsibility role during some of Nintendo's greatest years of innovation. His legacy includes work behind two of the highest-selling gaming devices in history, the Wii (>101 million units sold) and DS (>154 million units sold).
His death has been ruled to be the result of a "bile duct growth", also known as Cholangiocarcinoma. This is a form of cancer with a high mortality rate despite the advancements of modern science. Iwata received surgery for the tumor which proved unsuccessful.
Iwata's health issues were made known in mid-2014 when Iwata missed E3 for his first time in more than a decade, although little was shared in regards to how serious his condition was. He missed E3 2015 just four weeks ago, citing being "too busy with work" as the reason.
Nintendo's Notification of Death for Iwata can be seen here.
As indicated by the document, two Representative Directors remain at Nintendo, Genyo Takeda and Shigeru Miyamoto.
There is nobody quite like Satoru Iwata. This world has lost somebody truly special today. On behalf of everyone at GameRevolution, rest in peace, Satoru Iwata.
