Satoru Iwata has died of cancer at age 55

#1

The cause was a bile duct growth.

RIP

#2

I just heard! Crazy sad :c

#3

I wonder who will be his replacement. Currently, the two representative directors/senior managing directors are Shigeru Miyamoto and Genyo Takeda.

#4

Oh, in the Nintendo press release, it states only Takeda’s name on the top, so I’m assuming he is their replacement.

#5
#6

I didn’t even know his health condition was that serious. Wasn’t he still present during the last few digital presentations?

#7

So long Iwata, thank you for all your contribution to the culture I love.

#8

I still cannot believe this. What an enormous loss.

I guess this shines new light on the puppets thing they did for E3.

#9

Isn’t it still questionable whether this affected his general health that severely? I don’t know anything about this type of cancer but aren’t most cancers painless?

#10

Chemotherapy, or radioactive therapy for example, could have affected his quality of life considerably.

#11

Exactly, treatment can be extremely taxing.

#12

Translation of Shigesato Itoi’s eulogy.

When I’m parting with a friend, regardless of the circumstances, I find it best to just say, “See you later.” We’ll meet again. After all, we’re friends.

That’s right—nothing unusual about it. I’ll see you later.

You went on a trip far, far away, even though it was planned for many years from now. You wore your best outfit and said “Sorry for the short notice,” though you didn’t say it out loud.

You always put yourself last, after you’d finished helping everyone else. You were so generous as a friend that this trip might be your very first selfish act.

I still can’t grasp what’s happened. It feels like I could still get a light-hearted e-mail asking me out to lunch at any moment—after you’ve made sure lunch wouldn’t disrupt my schedule, of course.

You can invite me out whenever you want. I’ll invite you, too.

So for now, let’s plan on meeting again. You can call me up whenever you like, and I’ll give you a call, too. I still have a lot to talk to you about, and if I come up with any particularly good ideas, I’ll let you know.

So let’s meet again.
No–I suppose we’re already meeting. Right here, right now.

#13

It’s sad when you consider that his final public appearance was at the shareholder meeting, apologizing for Wii U not being a success, but that’s a pessimistic outlook, and overlooks his many accomplishments in his life. He turned Nintendo around and made them a very wealthy company with Wii and DS. He was also a highly skilled game programmer.

#14

Hirokazu “Hip” Tanaka, the Earthbound composer, created a remix of the Balloon Fight theme in dedication to Iwata. FYI, Iwata was a programmer in the Earthbound and Balloon Fight development teams.

https://soundcloud.com/hip_tanaka/dedicated-to-satoru-iwata

<3

#15
#16

When this came up again I thought for a second “Oh no, not another one.”