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Satoru Iwata, Head of Nintendo, Has Died At 55
An anonymous reader with the news, announced with a statement released by Nintendo on their homepage, that
Nintendo president and CEO Satoru Iwata
died of a bile duct growth on the 11th of July, 2015. The news is noted by Kotaku and by Engadget. Wikipedia notes that Iwata was the first of the company's presidents to be unrelated to the Yamauchi family through blood or marriage.
He was a great man. Responsible for Pokemon Gold/Silver, Kirby's Dream Land, Balloon Fight, Earthbound, Super Smash Bros., and was CEO starting in the GameCube generation until now.
Born to Play
He was also a model CEO in that he cut his pay last year when the company was not doing well instead of bailing out with a giant golden parachute. He believed in Nintendo and was willing to stick with them through the good and the bad.
He probably had cholangiocarcinoma, which is one of the deadliest cancers around. I know one person in the family who got diagnosed and had zero symptoms prior. Put him in the grave within 6 months of diagnosis. I myself have primary sclerosing cholangitis, which puts me at a high risk for cholangiocarcinoma. Having spoken with the lead hepatologist at one of the top hospitals in the US, I was told that they have very few cases that have been cured. In practice I was told that surgery is almost always too late, because the tumors can't even be seen in liver MRIs and other tests until they are large enough that it's already too late. This is way before you exhibit any symptoms. The long-term survivals at this hospitals were apparently in a study where they transplanted livers in cases where they had an early diagnosis, but the survival rate was still very low, which means that it won't make sense to waste a liver on these cases. In other words, if you get it, it's time to say people goodbye.
Japanese quirk. They don't say cancer; the word is taboo.
He was also involved with debugging Super Smash Bros. Melee, when he wasn't an engineer anymore.
He prided himself on being 'CEO of a listed company in Japan with the most knowledge of programming.'
Source.
He will be missed.
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.