After the sudden passing of Nintendo Co Ltd President Satoru Iwata this weekend, the Japanese game company must find new leadership, and one of the strongest contenders is Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto.

After the news of Iwata’s sudden passing, Miyamoto issued a brief statement through Nintendo saying, “I am surprised at this sudden news and overcome with sadness.”

The 62-year-old Miyamoto has been a part of Nintendo since the company’s first forays into video games in the late 1970s, and he was responsible for creating some of the world’s most iconic game franchises, including Super Mario Bros and The Legend of Zelda. He also produced numerous popular game series like Metroid Prime and Pokemon Red and Blue, and he oversaw the development of several generations of Nintendo hardware, including the company’s most successful console to date, the Wii.

While Nintendo has been relatively quiet externally with few major game releases slated in the near future, the company is internally very busy with preparations for its first mobile games to be released over the next two years, as well as development on its next console, currently called Nintendo NX.

While Miyamoto has previously stated that he would not be heavily involved in the NX’s development, he also said, “Of course I am observing and looking at the hardware, but I am not actively participating and making decisions.”

The other main contender for Nintendo’s next president is Genyo Takeda, the general manager of the company’s hardware division and the current acting representative director. Takeda created Nintendo’s first arcade game, EVR Race, in 1975, and he is currently responsible for overseeing the company’s hardware development, which produces home consoles like the upcoming NX and handheld devices like the Nintendo 3DS.

While Nintendo’s role as a console maker has long been one of its main claims to fame, the recent failure of the Wii U has led some fans to question whether the studio should focus more on games instead, and area in which Miyamoto is more involved.

Whomever is chosen to take Iwata’s place would be only fifth Nintendo president in the company’s 125 year history. Iwata was the first head of Nintendo who was not part of the founding Yamauchi family.

Image by Jan Graber (Jan Graber (via E-Mail)) [CC BY-SA 3.0 de], via Wikimedia Commons