“Nintendo Co., Ltd. deeply regrets to announce that President Satoru Iwata passed away on July 11, 2015 due to a bile duct growth.” It pains me to pass on the statement made by Nintendo of their president’s passing. Mr. Iwata became Nintendo’s president in 2002 and is succeeded in the company by Directors Genyo Takeda and Shigeru Miyamoto. You can read Nintendo’s official statement here.
To anyone who is familiar with Satoru Iwata or had seen him in various Nintendo commercials and press conferences, he was a very gentle and approachable man. More importantly, he was very dedicated to the industry. In the 80s, Mr. Iwata joined Nintendo’s HAL Laboratory and work on a plethora of games such as EarthBound and Kirby’s Adventure. Mr. Iwata was required to skip E3 2014 due to his poor health at the time and underwent surgery shortly after to remove a tumor in his bile duct. In response to his health, he took to Twitter saying “I’m progressing well”.
His passing is an unfortunate loss to Nintendo and the gaming community as he will surely be missed.
