Gaming community mourns loss of Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata

Nintendo’s chief executive has died of cancer at the age of 55, in an upheaval for the Japanese videogame giant just months after abandoning a consoles-only policy and launching a push into the booming smartphone games market. The Kyoto-based firm confirmed Satoru Iwata passed away on Saturday, with analysts warning that his sudden death could dent a turnaround plan at the maker of the iconic Super Mario, Donkey Kong and Pokemon franchises. A leading figure in the videogame industry, Iwata oversaw the success of Nintendo’s Wii games console and a surge in revenue before smartphone games started eating away at its success, forcing the strategy re-think.

I don’t see that there is anyone who can run the company like Iwata. Under his leadership, it was making small but steady steps forward.

Satoshi Tanaka, an analyst at Daiwa Securities Capital Markets.

A visibly thinner Iwata announced last year that he was sick and did not attend the firm’s shareholder meeting in June 2014, although the severity of his illness was unclear at the time. He returned to work over the following months, and continued to be the public face of the company, announcing financial results in May. Bile duct cancer is a relatively rare, but aggressive illness that usually affects people over the age of 65. Iwata started off as a games developer before taking over the top post at Nintendo in 2002. Nintendo said directors Genyo Takeda and Shigeru Miyamoto would step in to run the firm.

What a terribly sad day. Iwata-San was such a gentleman. Huge loss for the industry.

Peter Moore, chief operating officer at US-based videogames developer Electronic Arts.

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