Nintendo has announced that Satoru Iwata has passed away at the age 55 due to a bile duct growth. Iwata was the fourth Nintendo president and the first president of the company outside of the Yamauchi family.
Iwata first joined HAL Laboratory in 1983 as a programmer and worked on many games such as Earthbound and Balloon Fighter. He had a role in the first two Super Smash Bros games.
Pokemon fans may know Iwata from his involvement in the Pokemon Stadium series where he helped program the game. He had ported the Pokemon Red and Blue battle system to the first Pokemon Stadium. Iwata was also responsible for including the Kanto region in Pokemon Gold and Silver. He was able to compress the code that GameFreak wrote for Johto which left enough room for players to visit the Kanto region. This earned him a special thanks from GameFreak in the credits for Pokemon Gold and Silver.
Iwata is credited as producer for all of the Pokemon Stadium games and Pokemon Crystal. He was also an executive producer for every Pokemon game release between Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire and Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time and Explorers of Darkness.
Iwata will be missed by all of the Nintendo fan base, especially Pokemon fans.
