Nintendo President Satoru Iwata dies

Satoru Iwata, president of Japanese video game company Nintendo, has passed away aged 55 years, said the Kyotobased company on Monday.

Iwata died on Saturday due to an obstruction in the bile duct that had forced him to undergo surgery last year.

The former programmer became Nintendo’s fourth president in 2002 and spearheaded the launch of the hugely successful Wii video game console in 2006.

As president, Iwata also oversaw the development and release of the Nintendo DS, a handheld game console, the first to incorporate two touchenabled screens and a pointer.

Born in Sapporo in 1959, Iwata studied computer science in Tokyo Institute of Technology and began working in the HAL development studio, a subsidiary of Nintendo responsible for the Kirby franchise and Super Smash Bros. series, before moving to Nintendo in 2000.

Two years later, Iwata would take the reins of the company from the legendary Hiroshi Yamauchi (19272013) who transformed Nintendo from a cardmaking company in Japan into a video game giant.

Iwata was one of the most familiar figures in the gaming world due to his fondness for appearing during the presentations of new products and the “Iwata Asks” series of interviews with Nintendo’s developers posted on the company’s website.

Following the lukewarm reception to new products such as the Wii U, Iwata had announced the company’s entry into smartphone games earlier this year.

Nintendo has said that Shigeru Miyamoto, the creative force behind the billiondollar company’s successes, will act as representative director for the company.