Satoru Iwata, Nintendo Co., Ltd.’s president and CEO, and the man responsible for the console and software maker’s push into casual gaming, is dead at 55. He had been suffering from poor health for some time, skipping last year’s E3 conference at the behest of his physician. Shortly thereafter, he had surgery to remove a bile duct growth. According to a statement from Nintendo, he succumbed to that illness yesterday.

Iwata was named president of Nintendo in 2002, succeeding Hiroshi Yamauchi. He was the first president of the company who wasn’t part of the Yamauchi family. Under his guidance, Nintendo had the best selling console in the previous generation console race, with the Wii outselling both the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3. Iwata is credited with promoting the idea that everyone should be a gamer. His efforts to simplify console hardware helped that idea come to fruition. The basic Wii controller combined with the Wii sensor bar, allowed a range of consumers, from the very young, to the more seasoned, to enjoy playing video games. No console maker has achieved the same level of success in marketing to the “casual gamer”.

via Wikimedia Commons