Nintendo boss Satoru Iwata dies of cancer

  • 13/07/2015
Nintendo chief executive Satoru Iwata (Reuters)
Nintendo chief executive Satoru Iwata (Reuters)

Nintendo has announced that its chief executive Satoru Iwata has died of bile duct cancer at the age of 55.

In a brief statement, the Kyoto-based firm said Iwata passed away on Saturday.

Iwata was leading the company's turnaround bid, after the Japanese videogames giant had struggled with years of losses.

A former programmer, Iwata took the top post at Nintendo in 2002, two years after joining the firm.

Before his death he had been pushing for a departure from the company's consoles-only policy, in a bid to repair the tech company's balance sheet.

Last year, Iwata said he would slash his salary in half for several months to atone for the downturn at Nintendo, which has struggled as rivals Sony and Microsoft outpaced it in console sales.

All three companies are also fighting off the trend toward cheap - or sometimes free - downloadable games for smartphones and other mobile devices.

Iwata had argued that venturing into the overpopulated world of smartphones and tablets risked hollowing out their core business, and cannibalising the hard-fought value of their game creations.

But Iwata later acknowledged Nintendo had to move into new areas.

Nintendo in March unveiled plans to buy a stake in Tokyo-based mobile gaming company DeNA, as part of a deal to develop smartphone games based on Nintendo's host of popular characters.

AFP