Age: 66
male
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.
Kirby[a] is an action-platformer video game series developed by HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo. The series centers around the adventures of the a young, pink alien hero named Kirby as he fights to save his home on the distant Planet Popstar from a variety of threats. The majority of the games in the series are side-scrolling platformers with puzzle solving and beat 'em up elements. Kirby has the ability to inhale enemies and objects into his mouth, spitting them out as a projectile or eating them. If he eats certain things he can gain the powers or properties of that object manifesting as a new weapon or power-up called a Copy Ability. The series is intended to be easy to pick up and play even for people unfamiliar with action games, while at the same time offering additional challenge and depth for more experienced players to come back to The Kirby series includes a total of over twenty games, and has sold over 34 million units worldwide, putting it in the top 50 best selling video game franchises of all time.
