On July 11th, Satoru Iwata CEO of Nintendo and Nintendo of America passed away at the age of 55. Under his leadership starting in 2002, Nintendo developed one of the most successful stationary consoles of all time, the Wii, and revolutionized the handheld market with the Nintendo DS and it’s successors. And even though, the poor sales of the newest console, the Wii U, led to Nintendo’s first year to ever generate loss in 126 years, he was seen as one of the most successful CEOs. In his career, he activly helped develop and shape franchises like Mario, Zelda, Kirby and even Pokemon.
Iwata was a big influence on Nintendo and the gaming industry as a whole and will surely leave big shoes to fill for anyone to follow.