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Profile: Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata (1959-2015)

Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata has passed away at the age of 55 following a prolific career as one of the most well-known figures in the gaming industry.

Starting work as a programmer at Nintendo in the early 1980s, Mr Iwata gradually worked his way up the ranks until he was appointed director in 2000. In 2002, he became Nintendo’s fourth ever president and was finally appointed CEO in 2013.

A decade before taking the presidency at Nintendo, Mr Iwata became president at HAL Laboratory, a game developer that has always had close links with Nintendo. Mr Iwata was credited with bringing back the company from the brink of financial ruin. The company is most famous for creating Nintendo’s popular Kirby character, who features in Super Smash Bros.

Mr Iwata oversaw several key launches during his time in charge at Nintendo, including the unveiling of the DS which was cooly received at first but went on to become one of the most successful portable gaming machines yet.

As president, he also oversaw the launch of the phenomenally successful Nintendo Wii.

In 2014, following the bodged launch of the Nintendo 3DS, Mr Iwata took full responsibility and announced that he would slash his salary in half for several months to counteract a downturn in the company’s fortunes. It was a move that cemented Mr Iwata’s global reputation as a well-respected and influential figures in the video gaming world.

It was also Mr Iwata who insisted that Nintendo needed to push into the smartphone games market after many years of reluctance from the company.

The ‘Iwata Asks’ section on the maker’s website allowed the Nintendo boss to publicly comment on the company’s games, bringing the customers closer to the management.

It was testament to his friendly demeanour that Mr Iwata even allowed himself to be immortalised as a video game character, making cameos in several of the brand’s titles.

Born on 6 December 1959 in Sapporo, Japan, Mr Iwata showed an early interest in video games and spent many of his school years producing home-made games.

It was while he was studying computer science at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, that Mr Iwata began freelance work as a programmer for HAL.

Mr Iwata passed away in a hospital in Kyoto from bile duct cancer. He first announced his illness in 2014, and returned to work after a bout of treatment. He continued to work as CEO and announced Nintendo’s financial results in May.

A funeral service will be held for Mr Iwata on 17 July.

Nintendo posted on its Facebook page: “In remembrance of Mr. Satoru Iwata, Nintendo will not be posting on our social media channels today”.

(Image credits: Facebook/Nintendo, MyNintendonews)