Nintendo President Satoru Iwata passes at age 55

[SirBlaziken]

http://kotaku.com/nintendos-president-has-passed-away-1717386412

According to the link, the President of Nintendo passed away on the 11th due to a bile duct growth. Nintendo also sent out a tweet confirming this, which is also found in that link.

May he rest in peace.

[sylar]

im so messed up i thought this was another Funny Joke but now im just like.
idk how to feel.

[Shaymin]

i'm gutted, man. dude was an inspiration - and only a year older than my dad. he did so much for Nintendo that it's gonna be hard to find someone with the same kind of vision as him.

[Turner]

Destroyed isn't the word for how I feel right now, I have such a strong sense that he died far too early.

Despite the cringey nature of Nintendo doing social media memes and the concern I had for the company, more than a few times I thought to myself - "We're gonna look back on these times happily, this is something of a PR golden age for Nintendo" You could really tell that Reggie and Iwata enjoyed their positions in the company and had so much fun doing their skits. I think in the face of the frowns from the Nintendo investors, it was probably a really nice feeling for them to be able to look at the fanbase and see that people really loved them - not just their games, but them as people.

Other companies have tried to penetrate the internet demographic by appealing to them with silly image macros and 'memes', but Nintendo always gave me the impression they were trying to be part of the fun, rather than make money from it, even if they got it wrong sometimes.

I feel like that's all been robbed from us all now, maybe Nintendo's plan for the future won't change, but it'll be hard for them to have the same fun attitude with this looming over them.

And Iwata himself...a true legend. For anyone who doesn't know, Iwata wrote the compression algorhythm for Pokemon Gold & Silver that allowed room for Kanto to feature as a second region. He also ported the battle mechanics from Pokemon Red/Green over to Pokemon Stadium in a week without the help of any documentation. There are plenty of other crazily impressive stories you can Google to find more information about him, but for now I think I'm going to go off and play Earthbound. RIP Satoru Iwata

[Spriter]

Thanks for all the awesome work you put in Iwata.

Rest peacefully up there, you're leaving one heck of a legacy.

[SirBlaziken]

From what i've heard, there were a good amount of people calling for him to step down. Still, you guys are right, he's leaving a great legacy behind and i'm sad to see him go. I thank him for all of the work he put in for all of us.

[Clairefable]

Just only really getting a chance to catch up with this story now since I've been travelling all day, but very very sad news and a terrible loss to the industry. Fifty-five is no age to go (younger than my own parents) and especially after he seemed to be recovering so well after his recent absence from work. Thanks for the memories.

[q1q2q3q4]

R.I.P Satoru Iwata.

I don't know what else to say...

[Del]

man i've been thinking about this all day and i'm getting progressively more upset as it goes on. he seemed like a pretty fantastic, genuine guy and it's a massive shame that he's died so early. nintendo directs aren't gonna be the same without him.

i think i'm going to play Earthbound soon to commemorate him and his life. thanks for everything Iwata. rest in peace.

[Ledyba]

It's amazing, how gamers and the gaming industry have come together and are near-unanimous how tragic and how much we've lost from Mr Iwata's passing.  But they've also come together and celebrated the life and work of this great man who loved video games just as much as any of us and did so much for it.   It speaks volumes about the respect and admiration gamers had for him.

I'm not going to lie, it's been very hard keeping a dry eye over the last day or so.

Thank you Mr. Iwata, you were taken far too soon, but you leave a wonderful legacy.

[Captain Jigglypuff]

I also wonder where the loss will lead the company? Iwata made several innovations for Nintendo especially with the Wii and Wii Fit which actually made exercising fun and rewarding and the 3DS with its use of projecting 3D images without glasses. I was often surprised by what he announced and stuff he came up with. I only hope that Nintendo keeps making systems and consoles with features no one had ever thought of before and at a reasonable cost.