Satoru Iwata (Japanese: 岩田 聡 Hepburn: Iwata Satoru, December 6, 1959 – July 11, 2015) was a Japanese video game programmer and businessman who was the fourth president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Nintendo. He is widely regarded as instrumental in broadening the appeal of video games to a wider audience by focusing on novel and entertaining games rather than top-of-the-line hardware. Satoru Iwata 岩田 聡 Satoru Iwata presenting at the Game Developers Conference in 2011 Iwata at Game Developers Conference in 2011 4th President and CEO of Nintendo In office May 24, 2002 – July 11, 2015 Preceded by Hiroshi Yamauchi Succeeded by Tatsumi Kimishima Personal details Born December 6, 1959 Sapporo, Japan Died July 11, 2015 (aged 55) Kyoto University Hospital, Kyoto, Japan Cause of death Bile duct cancer Nationality Japanese Spouse(s) Kayoko Iwata (m. ?–2015; his death)[1] Alma mater Tokyo Institute of Technology Born in Sapporo, Japan, Iwata expressed interest in video games from an early age and created his first simple game while in high school. He majored in computer science at the Tokyo Institute of Technology. In 1980, he joined the game developer HAL Laboratory while attending the university. During his early years at HAL Laboratory he worked as a programmer and closely collaborated with Nintendo, producing his first commercial game in 1983. Notable titles to which he contributed at HAL include EarthBound and the Kirby series. Following a downturn and near-bankruptcy, Iwata became the president of HAL Laboratory in 1993 at the insistence of Nintendo President Hiroshi Yamauchi and brought financial stability to the company. In the following years, he assisted in the development of the Pokémon and Super Smash Bros. series. Iwata joined Nintendo as the head of its corporate-planning division in 2000.