Satoru Iwata, President of Nintendo has just passed away - aged 55

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In a shocking turn of events, President of Nintendo, Satoru Iwata, has just passed away. Story and info is currently developing.

Nintendo has just issued a short statement announcing that president Satoru Iwata has passed away at the age of 55.

The statement reads:

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

Satoru Iwata initially began as a programmer, having begun at HAL Laboratories, developing titles such as Kirby and Earthbound. After becoming acquainted with then-director of Nintendo, Hiroshi Yamauchi, he was offered a position in 2000 at Nintendo and succeeded Yamauchi as the president of Nintendo.

Throughout Mr. Iwata's tenure at Nintendo, he spearheaded many different and unique gaming experiences for fans all over the world to reach - mainly, the Nintendo DS and the Nintendo Wii console. Mr. Iwata also garnered much praise for his down-to-earth appearances in the Nintendo Direct announcements and through a series of interviews called Iwata Asks, in which a round table is conducted with developers to talk and look more closely at Nintendo titles.

Lately, Mr. Iwata has seen his share of struggles with the Nintendo Wii U, but looked forward to a brightening horizon with the Nintendo NX and the DeNA platform. It's truly saddening to think that he won't get to witness this dream coming to fruition. He will, however, be remembered for his contributions and for making gaming accessible to a worldwide audience.

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. -Satoru Iwata

:arrow: SOURCE
 

TripleSMoon

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I already made a few posts about this on Facebook and Twitter, so I'm just going to compile those into one post and leave it here:

I admit, there are many times where I wished Iwata would step down as president, but I never would've expected or wanted it to happen like this. Mr. Iwata, you've brought Nintendo through some bad times, but also some good times, as well. You were involved in the creation of some of my favorite games of all time, such as Kirby Super Star, Super Smash Bros., and so many others. These games raised me, brought me joy, and helped me through rough times in my life, even today. Without video games, I wouldn't be the person I am today; without Nintendo, video games wouldn't be what they are today; and without you, Nintendo wouldn't be what it is today. "Nintendo" roughly translates to "Leave luck to heaven," and it's never more applicable than today. May you fly up to heaven on Kirby's warp star and rest in peace. Arigato, a million times over.

Edit: Also, I stole the following from the comments section on this article here. I feel it's an important reminder of what a BAMF Iwata was throughout his career.

This is Satoru Iwata. Now, most know him as the president of Nintendo, but guess what? He didn’t start out as a pencil-pusher, noooooo. This guy is a programming badass. Some of his feats include:

1. Programming Earthbound from scratch. This was a game where the original coding was a mess. But Iwata don’t care. He just completely did over the game and managed to make it work.

2. He ported the battle code of Pokemon Stadium to the Nintendo 64, WITHOUT ANY REFERENCE DOCUMENTS.

3. You know Gold and Silver? The most popular Pokemon games ever? Since Gamefreak was still kind of noobish, they managed to fill the cartridge with just Johto. What does Iwata do? He compressed it enough for them to fit Kanto in. That’s right - this mofo compressed an entire game down when the developers couldn’t figure out how to make it work. Iwata don’t care!

So, yeah. Between Sakurai, Miyamoto, Masuda, Tajiri, and Iwata, Nintendo is pretty much run by programming badasses.
 

Qtis

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Very unexpected and equally sad. The man brought a lot of joy to the world in times of trouble for people young and old. May he rest in peace.
 

mightymuffy

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Yeah had a mate that got cancer recently, had it removed, went through all the chemo, looked clear... then back it came and he was gone literally a few weeks later...

RIP Iwata: gamer, all round nice guy = Legend! :(
 
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TripleSMoon

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Yeah had a mate that got cancer recently, had it removed, went through all the chemo, looked clear... then back it came and he was gone literally a few weeks later...

RIP Iwata: gamer, all round nice guy = Legend! :(
Did they ever actually confirm that it was cancer? I remember Nintendo being intentionally vague about what the problem was, simply calling it "a bile duct growth." Plus he never looked like he was undergoing chemo or the like in his public appearances for the past few years.

Edit: Shoot, I misread your post and thought you were talking about Iwata, not your friend. Please ignore this post. [emoji14]
 
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mightymuffy

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Did they ever actually confirm that it was cancer? I remember Nintendo being intentionally vague about what the problem was, simply calling it "a bile duct growth." Plus he never looked like he was undergoing chemo or the like in his public appearances for the past few years.

Edit: Shoot, I misread your post and thought you were talking about Iwata, not your friend. Please ignore this post. [emoji14]
Heh, no problems fella.... Nin had to be intentionally vague though, does seem like a similar story to my friend....

That said, check out this shot announcing the DeNA partnership in March, look how thin and ill he looked...
jpg
 
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the_randomizer

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Heh, no problems fella.... Nin had to be intentionally vague though, does seem like a similar story to my friend....

That said, check out this shot announcing the DeNA partnership in March, look how thin and ill he looked...
jpg

Damn, he....really did look sickly then, yikes :(
 

TripleSMoon

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Heh, no problems fella.... Nin had to be intentionally vague though, does seem like a similar story to my friend....

That said, check out this shot announcing the DeNA partnership in March, look how thin and ill he looked...
Damn, I knew he lost weight, but had no idea just how much... Even for Asian standards, he looks like a twig. :(
 

Steena

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It'll be very interesting to see the what direction the company takes in the next few months

I wonder if they'll make some sudden changes
 

WiiCube_2013

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Heh, no problems fella.... Nin had to be intentionally vague though, does seem like a similar story to my friend....

That said, check out this shot announcing the DeNA partnership in March, look how thin and ill he looked...
jpg
That lazy eye and considering he got thinner should've been some signals but never expected for Iwata to actually... die. Not until he'd be 80-90.
 

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