Iwata underwent surgery previous year to remove the growth and had resumed his duties after a brief period of recovery. In 2002, Iwata succeeded longtime company president Hiroshi Yamauchi to become only the fourth president in Nintendo’s history.
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Iwata spoke in recent months of further broadening Nintendo’s scope via a pledge “to redefine entertainment as something that improves people’s quality of life”, as he wrote in a message to shareholders previous year.
Iwata, 55, had experienced significant health problems over the past couple of years, preventing his appearance at E3 2014. He was appointed CEO of the company in 2013. As the CEO, his most publicized decision was to end Nintendo’s E3 press conferences and replace them with videos called Nintendo Directs.
Nintendo’s chief had argued that venturing into the overpopulated world of smartphones and tablets risked hollowing out the core business and cannibalising the hard-fought value of their game creations.
Before taking over the prolific Japanese video game company, Iwata worked as a programmer and game designer through the 1980s.
While majoring in computer science, Iwata did freelance work for Hal Laboratory, a frequent collaborator with Nintendo.
Today, there is one thing that I would like to share with you. He was later promoted to company president.
Takeda, one of the lead developers of Nintendo’s Wii console, and fellow senior managing director Shigeru Miyamoto, creator of the Mario and Donkey Kong hit games, will be the sole remaining representative directors. Nintendo has repeatedly had to lower prices on gadgets to woo buyers.
Nintendo’s Wii hardware became the hottest-selling console when it was released in 2006.
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No interim president has been announced at this time by Nintendo.
