If you're a gamer, there's a very good chance Satoru Iwata had a big impact on your life. 
 
 Iwata, the president of Nintendo, died of cancer on July 11. He was 55. 
 
 Iwata was an enormous force not just at Nintendo, but in gaming. He led Nintendo through the eras of the GameCube, Wii, DS, 3DS, and Wii U, and he worked on "Earthbound," "Pokemon," "Kirby," "The Legend of Zelda," "Smash Bros.," and countless other titles. These are consoles and games that filled my childhood with joy, and which I spent literally thousands of hours playing. The games alone account for some of the biggest successes in the industry, and many of their sequels continue to entertain millions of people around the world. 
 
 Even as he rose through the ranks of HAL Laboratory and later Nintendo, Iwata always struck me as someone who genuinely cared about the joy of gaming more than anything else. In 2005, when speaking at the Game Developers Conference, Iwata reflected on his time heading HAL, which developed "Smash Bros." He noted that the moment of success for him wasn't when the original Nintendo 64 version of "Smash Bros." and its sequels sold millions of companies worldwide, but rather the first time testers picked up the game and provided proof it was fun: 
 
 I also remember the first version of "Smash Bros." developed for Nintendo 64. The concept for this game, as you know, was to take the classic, friendly Nintendo franchise characters and have them — as you say in America — beat the heck out of each other. The ideas not brand new — there certainly have been a lot of fighting games. And the characters looked pretty much the same way they always had. So when we brought the idea to Nintendo, the concept did not sound hip or cool or revolutionary. And because of all this, there were people both inside and outside Nintendo who did not strongly favor the idea. And this was the environment that we worked under. That attitude remained until the moment of truth — the moment when testers began picking up the controllers and actually playing the game. This is what happened. People smiled. They laughed. Then began shouting at each other. That was the moment when everything for "Smash Bros." changed. And I must tell you, this was also one of the proudest moments in my development career. Yes, the "Smash Bros." series has become a great worldwide success because it's sold more than 10 million copies. But the memory of that first moment when the testers began to play stays with me always. That is the moment I call success. We at HAL found a way to bring our idea to life. Our team believed deeply in the concept and we did not waver in our approach. So in this important sense, we at HAL — we're just like every one of you. Even if we come from different sides of the world, speak different languages, even if we eat too many chips or rice balls, even if we have different tastes in games, every one of us here today is identical in the most important way: each one of us has the heart of a gamer. 
 
 These comments are how I'll always remember Iwata — as someone who wasn't afraid to innovate, but who always strived to put gamers first in all his work. 
 
 Rest in peace, Mr. Iwata, and thank you for all the joy you brought to my life. ||||| SHARE THIS ARTICLE Share Tweet Post Email 
 
 Nintendo Co. President Satoru Iwata, who led the Japanese gamemaker back to ascendancy in the early 2000s with the Wii console, has died. He was 55. 
 
 Iwata passed away July 11 from bile duct cancer, the Kyoto, Japan-based company said in a statement Monday. Genyo Takeda and Shigeru Miyamoto will lead management while a formal successor is decided, spokesman Yasuhiro Minagawa said by phone. 
 
 The first president from outside the Yamauchi family since it started selling cards in the late 19th century, Iwata led Nintendo since 2002 and helped oversee a tripling of revenue with hits including the Game Boy Advance SP and the Wii. The rise of smartphones ate into sales of its handheld game players and the Wii U failed to match its predecessor’s success. Iwata was away from the public eye for two months last year because of surgery to remove a bile-duct growth. 
 
 Iwata led Nintendo since 2002 and helped oversee a tripling of revenue with hits including the Game Boy Advance SP and the Wii 
 
 
 
 
 
 “Iwata made a great contribution to the industry,” said Hideki Yasuda, an analyst at Ace Research Institute in Tokyo. “It’s a great loss for Nintendo.” 
 
 In March, Iwata ended his hold-out against making Nintendo’s iconic characters available on smartphones and tablet computers, agreeing to form a venture with DeNA Co. as it tried to recapture casual players. 
 
 Nintendo rose 1.5 percent to close at 19,805 yen in Tokyo, tracking a 1.9 percent jump on the benchmark Topix index. 
 
 Game Programmer 
 
 Born and raised in the northern Japanese city of Sapporo, Iwata began programming games in high school and studied computer science at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, one of Japan’s top universities, according to the book “1000 CEOs,” compiled by Andrew Davidson. 
 
 Iwata was a teenager when Nintendo entered the video-game business. He desperately wanted into the industry, against his parents’ wishes, according to the book. In 1982, after working as a freelance game programmer, he joined HAL Laboratory, a Nintendo unit created in 1980 to make games for the parent company’s consoles. He eventually became president of HAL, before moving to Nintendo as head of corporate planning in 2000. 
 
 In 2002, the year Iwata took the post of president, Nintendo had annual sales of 555 billion yen ($4.5 billion). 
 
 Iwata subsequently oversaw a winning streak that included the Game Boy Advance SP, the Nintendo DS handheld player, the Nintendo DS Lite, the Wii, the DSi, the DSi XL and the 3DS. The company also opened its first retail store in New York’s Rockefeller Center, selling machines, games and merchandise featuring its Pokemon collection and Donkey Kong. 
 
 Smartphone Competition 
 
 In 2009, Nintendo posted 555 billion yen in operating profit as revenue more than tripled to 1.8 trillion yen on demand for the original Wii console and software. The Wii shipped more than 100 million units and became the world’s best-selling console. 
 
 Iwata followed in November 2012 with the Wii U, which has struggled to recapture gamers who have shifted to other entertainment. In the period between the Wii and Wii U releases, Apple unveiled its iPhone and iPad; Samsung Electronics Co. its Galaxy line of smartphones and tablets; and Google Inc. its Android operating system used by most mobile-phone makers. 
 
 Nintendo Says Move Into Mobile Will Help Double Earnings 
 
 Sony, Microsoft 
 
 Nintendo has also faced new competition in consoles from Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox and Sony Corp.’s PlayStation, which have lured hardcore gamers with with advanced graphics and shooter-style software. 
 
 Those were body blows to Nintendo. Sales have fallen for six straight years, dropping to 550 billion yen in the 12 months ended March, or less than when Iwata took the role. 
 
 The company forecast operating profit will double this fiscal year helped by its move into mobile phone gaming. The smartphone service begins this year and Iwata has said Nintendo is preparing to release a new console, code-named NX. 
 
 “The trajectory given Nintendo by Iwata isn’t likely to change,” said Tomoaki Kawasaki, an analyst at Iwai Cosmo Securities Co. “The successor’s challenge will be to make the smartphone business a reality and create meaningful synergies with the new NX console to strengthen the company’s finances.” 
 
 News of Iwata’s death prompted an outpouring of condolences from Nintendo fans and industry executives across Twitter. Many linked to past interviews and recalled their favorite Nintendo moments, including Microsoft Xbox director Mike Ybarra, who posted an image of iconic gaming character Mario, hat in hand, eyes downcast. 
 
 Good picture on GAF about how I feel right now. Sad day, but team Nintendo will be strong. pic.twitter.com/Jy4PEupDmg — Mike Ybarra (@XboxQwik) July 13, 2015 
 
 “What a terribly sad day,” Peter Moore, chief operating officer of Electronic Arts Inc, said on Twitter. “Iwata-San was such a gentleman. Huge loss for the industry.” 
 
 What a terribly sad day. Iwata-San was such a gentleman. Huge loss for the industry. https://t.co/kkNvoU6Mlt — Peter Moore (@petermooreEA) July 13, 2015 
 
 
 
 Read this next: ||||| Image copyright AFP Image caption Satoru Iwata was regarded as crucial to Nintendo's success 
 
 Japanese video game maker Nintendo has said its chief executive Satoru Iwata has died of cancer at the age of 55. 
 
 Mr Iwata underwent surgery last year and had resumed his duties after a brief period of recovery. 
 
 A highly revered figure in the Japanese gaming scene, he was considered the leading figure behind some of Nintendo's most popular devices since he joined the company in 2000. 
 
 Most recently, he led Nintendo into the rapidly growing mobile gaming sector. 
 
 CEO with a heart of a gamer: Mariko Oi, BBC News 
 
 Image copyright Getty Images 
 
 Growing up in Japan in the 1980s, Super Mario was a gaming character that you couldn't avoid. But as the gaming population started to decline in the late 90s, Mr Iwata knew that he needed to make products that were more appealing to non-gamers. 
 
 And he succeeded. Nintendo DS quickly became the world's best-selling handheld game console when it was released in 2004. 
 
 Two years later, there came another successful launch of Wii which was dubbed the computer game that even your grandma can play. Together, they switched on millions of new converts to computer games. 
 
 But the rise of mobile phone games has posed a serious threat to Nintendo and some investors questioned his decision not to enter the market sooner. 
 
 As he put it himself, Mr Iwata was a chief executive who had the brain of a games developer and the heart of a gamer. 
 
 Nintendo's beloved gamer CEO 
 
 The iconic game maker has been losing market share to top competitors like Sony's PlayStation and Microsoft's XBox, with its latest Wii U console third in line. 
 
 Nintendo made its first annual operating profit in four years to the year that ended in March. 
 
 'A titan' 
 
 Mr Iwata started out as a programmer in a Nintendo subsidiary in the 1980s and became president of Nintendo in 2002. 
 
 Under his leadership, the company launched its hugely successful Wii and Nintendo DS consoles and he was considered the crucial driver behind the focus on easy-to-use consoles, a move that allowed the company to tap into a much wider audience beyond the traditional gaming community. 
 
 "Mr Iwata was a titan - he certainly will be missed," Marc Einstein, head of digital media at Frost & Sullivan in Tokyo, told the BBC. 
 
 "He was very much known for being a gamer first and a [chief executive] second - a game changing figure." 
 
 Tributes have been coming in on social media with the team at PlayStation tweeting: "Thank you for everything, Mr. Iwata." 
 
 ‏One user @BrandonNobbs tweeted: "Nintendo might not be the most profitable company, but it's always made games with a heart. #ThankYouIwata #Nintendo." 
 
 User @SimsJames created a collage of famous Nintendo game characters, expressing their mourning for Mr Iwata. "Farewell, Satoru Iwata. He brought a wealth of imagination to the world of #Nintendo!" 
 
 Image copyright James Sims 
 
 His death comes as Nintendo expects to double its annual operating profit based on the long-awaited entry in the rapidly growing smartphone gaming sector to counter weakening sales of its traditional consoles. 
 
 "Nintendo is really at a cross roads," Mr Einstein told the BBC. "They were the last company that for a very long time were clinging to the hardware business model of their consoles." 
 
 In March this year, Nintendo announced a deal with mobile gaming company DeNA to start their foray into mobile gaming. 
 
 "The successor will most likely be someone internal and it will be crucial whether it will be someone who is serious about that step into mobile gaming."
– It's "Game Over" far too soon for Nintendo President Satoru Iwata. The 55-year-old has died due to a bile duct growth, the company announced in a brief statement. Iwata, who started out as a programmer at Nintendo subsidiary HAL Laboratory in the '80s and worked on games like The Legend of Zelda, became company president in 2002. He had been having health problems for some time but was able to resume his duties last year after bile duct surgery, reports the BBC, which describes him as a "highly revered figure" on the gaming scene who was able to turn the company around with big successes like the Wii. The last few years weren't smooth sailing for the company—Iwata volunteered for a pay cut after poor sales last year—but profits are rising again as the company moves into the smartphone market, Bloomberg reports. In the industry and among gamers, Iwata was known as someone who thought gaming should be for everybody, and as someone who never lost sight of the fact that gaming should be fun. "Iwata always struck me as someone who genuinely cared about the joy of gaming more than anything else," writes German Lopez at Vox. "Rest in peace, Mr. Iwata, and thank you for all the joy you brought to my life."