14 DAY TRIAL // Nintendo is announcing that its president Satoru Iwata died on July 11 as a result of some health problems with his bile duct, which are probably linked to the tumor that kept him away from the E3 2014 show and out of the eyes of the public for the past year.
The company says in an official site announcement that he had served as director of the company since 2000 and was named president in May 2002, the first who was not related to the Yamauchi family. He had also led the Nintendo of America division directly since June 2013.
Nintendo has not yet talked about a replacement, but given the health issues that he experienced, a search might have already been conducted.
Satoru Iwata worked at the HAL Laboratory earlier in his career and was considered a gifted programmer.
His leadership of Nintendo will probably be remembered in the long term for the success of the Wii home console, which was developed during his presidency and managed to generate tremendous sales during its lifetime.
While he was president, the company also published best-seller video games and continued to develop its gaming hardware with the introduction of the Wii U and the constant evolution process of the DS line to the new 3DS standard.
Satoru Iwata was skilled at public interaction
The president also sought to make Nintendo more approachable and hosted the very popular Iwata Asks series of videos, which showed off the development process at the company and also featured some of the leaders and developers.
He also made the decision to limit the company's presence at the E3 trade show and to use the Direct events in order to deliver information about future hardware and software projects.
At the moment, Nintendo is having a tough time making the Wii U competitive with the Xbox One from Microsoft and the PlayStation 4 from Sony.
Satoru Iwata was also involved in the development of the new NX platform and has refused to offer more details about it before 2016.
The coming hardware is apparently designed to appeal to a wide variety of players and will be as accessible as the Wii, while delivering more power for developers to use.
The launch might take place as soon as late next year.