Chief Executive Satoru Iwata, who has been leading Nintendo for the past 13 years has passed away on July 11, Saturday in a Kyoto University hospital.
“Nintendo Co., Ltd. deeply regrets to announce that President Satoru Iwata passed away on July 11, 2015 due to a bile duct growth,” read the statement issued by the company.
Born Dec 6, 1959 in Sapporo Japan, was suffering from ill health in the last few years. Iwata even skipped the Electronic Entertainment Expo, the largest video game trade show, for the last two years due to his health problems. He underwent a surgery last year, and was back to resume his duties after short period of recovery, according to BBC News.
Iwata, aged 55, who first joined the HAL Laboratory at the Nintendo as a part-time programmer in the 1980s. He was behind the games like “Ballon Fight” and Earthbound,” as a programmer, before he was named the director of Nintendo’s operations in June 2000.
He took for the reigns of the company following the retirement of Hiroshi Yamauchi after 52 years of service, a descendant of the founding family of Nintendo, in May 2002. Yamauchi remained as adviser for many years, before his death at the age of 85, in 2013.
Nintendo fans have taken it to social media to mourn, with a number of tweets that “Iwata will be greatly missed.” Some fans even have asked for ‘a solid Iwata laugh,’ just to give them strength to bear the horrible news.
Nintendo also announced that Senior Managing Directors Shigeru Miyamoto and Genyo Takeda will remain in the leadership team.
The funeral service will be held on July 17. The company refused to disclose further details.