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Satoru Iwata, Head of Nintendo, Has Died At 55

Posted by timothy on from the full-life dept.

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.

36 of 56 comments (clear)

  1. He understood games by Vyse+of+Arcadia · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If someone asked me to name a tech CEO that really new their business, Iwata would have been the first name on my tongue. He played games, he made games, and he knew what made games fun. This is a tragic loss for Nintendo and the gaming industry as a whole.

    1. Re:He understood games by alvinrod · · Score: 5, Interesting

      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.

    2. Re:He understood games by Bahamut_Omega · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Satoru Iwata was the kind of guy I could respect. His humility and honesty was actually something to be admired.

      A CEO who actually had the balls to cut his own pay to help the company out. Could also say that he knew his stuff from having worked on the various titles over the years.

      I believe we need more like the late Iwata, and less like the "entitled" chief executives one sees in other areas of the world.

    3. Re:He understood games by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      He also took a paycut for 3DS launch even though 3DS is doing extremely well right now

    4. Re:He understood games by LaurenCates · · Score: 1

      No mod points, but wanted to nod in agreement.

      Sad day for gaming.

      RIP, Mr. Iwata.

      --
      Some people don't believe in fairies. I don't believe in The Patriarchy.
    5. Re:He understood games by RyuuzakiTetsuya · · Score: 4, Interesting

      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.
  2. Re:thanks for the details by Black+LED · · Score: 1

    Bile duct cancer.

  3. Re:thanks for the details by fsterman · · Score: 1

    he/she died of:______ is usually left out.

    Der, they killed him:

    Wikipedia notes that Iwata was the first of the company's presidents to be unrelated to the Yamauchi family through blood or marriage.

    I guess I shouldn't expect the typical /. commenter to read between the lines.

    --
    Is there anything better than clicking through Microsoft ads on Slashdot?
  4. Please Understand by DeanCubed · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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
  5. Extra Life... by theodp · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...sadly, no 1-up mushrooms in real life.

    1. Re:Extra Life... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      ...sadly, no 1-up mushrooms in real life.

      Do you have proof to back up this claim?

  6. mama mia by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    mama mia

    1. Re:mama mia by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 2

      It is also a saying of Mario's.

      More directly to the point, it is, in a lot of Mario games, what Mario says when he dies.

    2. Re:mama mia by Khyber · · Score: 1

      Attention stupid fucking mods.

      Play a fucking Mario game, some time.

      --
      Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
  7. He had it treated in June 2014 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    But evidently it came back and got him.

    http://kotaku.com/nintendos-president-had-a-bile-duct-growth-removed-1595179410

    1. Re:He had it treated in June 2014 by DeKO · · Score: 5, Informative

      Cancer is hardly something you "cure". You fight it off, with a painful treatment, in the hopes your body outlives the cancer. Then you keep an eye on it, until it pops back up; rinse and repeat.

      It's entirely possible that at the time he already had a terminal case, and the surgery (and the clear weight loss, possibly due to chemo therapy) only gave him a few more months. And we never heard about it because either he didn't want Nintendo's stocks to be affected by an uncertain future, or maybe he just considered it as his own burden to carry (Japanese culture and all.)

      No doubt Miyamoto will be under pressure to take the position, shoes, since they both shared the same views about the company's direction. Iwata backtracked a lot with the NX hardware and the DeNA partnership, that was probably a sign he knew he didn't have much time left, and just wanted to try something radical before passing away. I wonder if the next CEO will keep this direction.

    2. Re:He had it treated in June 2014 by m.alessandrini · · Score: 1

      This kind of cancer is very bad, I know from a current case in my family, it easily proliferates to the liver and/or the pancreas.

    3. Re:He had it treated in June 2014 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      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.

    4. Re:He had it treated in June 2014 by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 2

      Not true, really. It *is* true that many types of cancer are difficult to cure, and that telling a cure from a temporary remission is also difficult. But there are definitely plenty of people who have had all detectable cancer eradicated and it never reappears in their lifetime. They continue to be checked because, as stated above, it's difficult to tell a cure from a remission where the cancer remains in undetectable amounts.

    5. Re:He had it treated in June 2014 by Immerman · · Score: 1

      Not so. Typically if you *completely* remove a cancerous tumor it stays gone - though the risk factors that led it to forming in the first place may lead to new cancers forming in the future. (Also worth noting - not all tumors are cancerous - apparently the terminology has changed (or I misunderstood in the past) such that only malignant tumors are termed cancerous. Not that benign tumors can't kill you - a well-contained lump in the wrong place can still cause fatal complications, but it won't be rebel cell-clusters overwhelming your body that kills you.

      That said, completely removing a cancer can be challenging, for a couple reasons:
      1) Malignant tumors can metastasize, with cell clusters breaking off in the blood stream and "colonizing" distant parts of the body. Often such secondary tumors will remain microscopic due to the primary tumor releasing growth-suppressing chemicals - at least until it's removed, at which secondary tumors may begin growing rapidly. I believe this is one of the reasons chemotherapy is often employed before a planned surgery - with luck it will both shrink the edges of the tumor, and kill off most of the potentially hundreds of other tiny cancers while they're still too small to detect

      2) Historically there hasn't been any easy way to distinguish between healthy and cancerous cells during surgery,with malignant tumors often "infecting" the surrounding tissue as well as the well-defined tumor. And if you leave even one cancerous cell behind it will probably regrow. That's poised to change though, there was a woman on TED a year or two ago that came up with a way to bind an injectable fluorescing dye to only cancerous cells* - exploiting one of the characteristic metabolic quirks I believe. So shine a UV lamp on the surrounding tissue after the main surgery and if anything glows, scrape that out too. Currently the accepted technique is to take post-surgical biopsies from several points around the site for testing, and then schedule a second surgery if there is any further cancer detected. Of course you basically have to just hope that any problem areas get biopsied.

      *She also worked out how to bind a second color dye to only nerve cells, allowing for much safer surgery around nerves, particularly extremely fine ones that aren't readily visible. Some cool footage for the non-squeamish http://www.ted.com/talks/quyen...

      --
      --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
  8. Game Over! by AchilleTalon · · Score: 1

    Game Over!

    --
    Achille Talon
    Hop!
  9. Re:thanks for the details by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Nobody has said "tumor", they've merely said "growth" (in the bile duct).

  10. A guy with a sense of humor. by MindPrison · · Score: 2

    He will be missed.

    From us, dilektely to YOU! RIP. Iwata san, may you find happiness in the forest of Hyrule, forever the master of Baloon Fight.

    --
    What this world is coming to - is for you and me to decide.
  11. Re:Who? by paul_metcalfe · · Score: 1

    You know who he is!

    When you were in primary school, everyone had an uncle who worked for this man.

    --
    Always read at -1, don't let others decide what you should and should not read.
  12. Re:thanks for the details by davester666 · · Score: 2

    It's not a tumor!

    --
    Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
  13. Re:thanks for the details by tsotha · · Score: 1

    You don't die of benign growths in the liver.

  14. Insert Coin by Tukz · · Score: 1

    Where is the coin slot?
    I'd like to insert some coins to avoid this "Game Over".

    *starts to grow 1-Up Mushrooms*

    --
    - Don't do what I do, it's probably not healthy nor safe. -
  15. Re: thanks for the details by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Wtf u think a tumor is?

    A couple of guys ordering another round of beers.

  16. Oblig by amias · · Score: 1

    The prince is in another castle

    --
    [site]
  17. Re:thanks for the details by NotDrWho · · Score: 1

    I guess the Yakuza *really* didn't like this year's E3 presentation.

    --
    SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
  18. Re:thanks for the details by Yosho · · Score: 1

    he/she died of:______ is usually left out.

    Does it really matter?

    --
    Karma: Terrifying (mostly affected by atrocities you've committed)
  19. Re:thanks for the details by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Japanese quirk. They don't say cancer; the word is taboo.

  20. Re:thanks for the details by ArcadeMan · · Score: 1

    Mod parent informative.

    --
    Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
  21. Re:GOODBYE PRETENDO!!! by Khyber · · Score: 2

    Damn, someone's drunker than I normally am.

    --
    Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
  22. Re:thanks for the details by Immerman · · Score: 1

    Well, if it was "initial alien assault" or "acute environmental UV exposure" then the millions soon to follow might like the warning...

    --
    --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
  23. Re:Was he Buddhist? by Immerman · · Score: 1

    That would depend heavily on the strain of Buddhism. In at least several the part that "will be back" is explicitly not "I" in any meaningful sense. In fact it seems like a common theme is that "I" is an illusion, and thus not only can't meaningfully come back, but was never really there to begin with.

    --
    --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.