It is a sad day for the video game industry as Nintendo has announced that Nintendo President Satoru Iwata has passed away at the age of 55.

Iwata’s health problems became public knowledge during 2014 when it was announced that he would not be present at E3 2014 due to medical-related reasons, shortly after Iwata underwent surgery to remove a tumour in his bile duct.

Satoru Iwata was a well-respected and talented developer and CEO. When Iwata joined Nintendo’s HAL Laboratory in 1983 he worked on Balloon Fight, EarthBound, and Kirby games. Iwata also worked on various Super Smash Bros., Pokémon, The Legend of Zelda, Mario, and the Animal Crossing games.

As president of Nintendo, he oversaw and pushed the development of the Nintendo DS and Wii consoles, both of which helped the company become financially successful. However, he also over the development of the Wii U and 3DS, both of which failed to live up to their predecessors. In response to the failure of the 3DS, Satoru Iwata voluntarily took a 50% pay cut.

For me Iwata helped to create my childhood love of video games. Most of my childhood revolved around Nintendo devices with the likes of Pokémon Stadium, Pokémon Red/Blue, Kirby, Super Smash Bros, Super Mario Kart, and more.

I feel it important to end the article on one Iwata’s most famous quotes from GDC 2005.

“On my business card, I am a corporate president. In my mind, I am a game developer. But in my heart, I am a gamer.”