Sad day for gaming fans, as Nintendo President Satoru Iwata has passed away at the age of 55. He had been battling a growth in his bile duct for years, and had to become less present publicly in the past few months because of it. Iwata had brought many huge advancements in the company, and was instrumental in several huge games, and future plans.
Iwata began in the company in the 80’s, working in the HAL laboratory on such franchises as Balloon Fight, Earthbound, Kirby and Super Smash Bros. He became President of Nintendo in 2002 and oversaw the release of GameCube, Wii, Nintendo DS, 3DS and the Wii U.
Fans celebrated him for his signature phrase “Please Understand” that he would use often to explain certain aspects of the business. When the company took losses, he cut his own salary as a way of trying to help the company. He most recently appeared in puppet form at this year’s E3 presentation, not being able to appear personally.
The latest developments in the company were mostly because of his oversight. While he wasn’t sold on Cloud Gaming, he was helping the company push forward with mobile gaming.
The biggest development of late was the huge deal with Universal Parks, in which the two companies were going to develop massive attractions and lands based on the characters in the Nintendo Universe. It will be interesting, moving forward, to see how this deal evolves without the involvement of Iwata. Will the same plans still carry on, or will they change? We can only wait to see what happens.
Mr. Iwata, you will be missed.
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