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Posted September 19, 2013 by Alvin Minon in Entertainment
 
 

NINTENDO President HIROSHI YAMAUCHI Passes Away at Age 85

Hiroshi Yamauchi, President of Nintendo from 1949 to 2002 and predecessor to the current head of the company – Satoru Iwata, died today in a Kyoto hospital following complications of pneumonia.

Nintendo confirmed the news and said the firm was in mourning over the “loss of the former Nintendo president Mr. Hiroshi Yamauchi, who sadly passed away this morning.”

Yamauchi’s once declared as the richest man in Japan and by 2012 he ranked 12th in the country and 491st richest in the world with a net worth of approximately $2.5 billion amid surging Nintendo console sales. Not only is Mr Yamauchi the company’s second largest shareholder with about 10 percent of the stock, he also owned Seattle’s Major League Baseball team, the Mariners.

Mr. Yamauchi ran the company for more than 50 years since he succeeded his grandfather as president in 1949. He has transformed the small-time collectable trading card company into an entertainment empire, a company that has become one of the longest running and most recognizable and successful video game brand today.

He pioneered console gaming in the late 1970s, realizing that technological breakthroughs could be incorporated into entertainment products as well. It is during his leadership that the company gained international recognition when it took up Shigeru Miyamoto’s Donkey Kong in 1981. He spearheaded Nintendo’s transformative gaming equipments including NES, SNES, N64 and the Gamecube.

Hiroshi Yamauchi stepped down and subsequently became the chairperson of the board of directors with the presidency being succeeded by the head of Nintendo’s Corporate Planning Division, Satoru Iwata. On June 29, 2005, Yamauchi retired due to his age, refusing his retirement pension and donating to the new cancer treatment center in Kyoto.

Sources:

Nintendo President Hiroshi Yamauchi dies aged 85, Nikkei 

Nintendo visionary Hiroshi Yamauchi dies aged 85, BBC News


Alvin Minon