Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has passed away

Nintendo today released a short statement announcing that president Satoru Iwata has passed away at the age of 55.

The statement read: “Nintendo Co., Ltd. deeply regrets to announce that President Satoru Iwata passed away on July 11, 2015 due to a bile duct growth.” Iwata missed E3 last year as a result of health problems and underwent surgery to remove a growth found in his bile duct. In the following months he took to Twitter to tell fans that he was “progressing well.”

Iwata has been a popular figure among the gaming community and within the industry. Not only was Iwata a talented programmer, but he proved to be a memorable host of the Nintendo Direct programs.

Iwata joined Nintendo’s HAL Laboratory in the 1980s, working on games such as Balloon Fight and EarthBound. He later became president of the HAL Laboratory in 1992, managing to turn around the studio’s fortune and bring it back from the brink of financial collapse.

He became Nintendo president in 1992. He was just the fourth man appointed as president since Nintendo’s foundation and the first not related to original founder Fusajiro Yamauchi.

Iwata will be sorely missed by the gaming industry and community.