A moment of silence for Nintendo’s Satoru Iwata

by AJT Santos

Mr. Satoru Iwata is no longer with us.

The man behind the phenomenal success of the Nintendo Wii and DS passed away last Saturday due to a bile duct growth according to an official statement released by the video game giant.

Well-loved by gamers all over the world for his memorable industry appearances and a public personality as bright and colorful as the games he helped develop, Satoru Iwata started his career in the video game industry right after graduating from university as a programmer at HAL Laboratory where he worked on now-classic titles such as Balloon Fight, Earthbound, Kirby, and the Pokemon series.

He officially started working at Nintendo in 2000 and succeeded Hiroshi Yamauchi as the company’s fourth president; the first one unrelated to the company’s founding family through blood or marriage, something that’s almost unheard of in the strict culture of Japanese corporations.

So tonight before you go to bed, turn on your Wii, DS, or any of their iterations, and dedicate a few minutes of play time to the man whose passion for video games will forever resonate in the minds and hearts of gamers the world over.

Sayonara, Iwata-san.