Satoru Iwata, CEO of Nintendo, dies of cancer aged 55

A technology boss who understood the business of fun

Satoru Iwata, chief executive officer and president of video games company Nintendo, has passed away at the age of just 55, after losing an ongoing battle with cancer.

Iwata became CEO of Nintendo in 2002, becoming the company's fourth ever president, and the first who did not belong to the company's founding Yamauchi family.

Arriving at a time of low fortunes for the company, with both its Gamecube and Gameboy Advance formats experiencing flagging sales, Iwata applied a philosophy of inclusiveness to a games market he felt was becoming too niche.

Under his direction, the Nintendo DS - a double-screen handheld machine that allowed touchscreen games on two interactive display areas - was released in 2004. It allowed Nintendo's handheld offerings to appeal to a much wider field of players, with games like Sudoku, virtual pets and the original Dr Kawashima's Brain Training starting a movement in ‘casual gaming' all its own.

The Nintendo Wii followed in 2006, which revolutionised the home video games market in an even more pronounced way, bringing comparatively low-cost, inclusive entertainment to families via the machine's infra-red, wand-like remote controller. The console doubled Nintendo's stock price.

As well as possessing great business sense when reacting to market demands, Iwata also brought the sensibilities of a coder, as a well as a genuine passion for his trade. He once famously declared, "On my business card, I am a corporate president. In my mind, I am a game developer. But in my heart, I am a gamer".

Iwata's life in technology really began in 1983, when he became software production co-ordinator for Japanese games company HAL Laboratory. Here, he contributed code to Nintendo classics, such as the Kirby games and Nintendo Entertainment System classic Balloon Fight. As president, he helped to turn the company around from near-bankruptcy.

He moved on to help found Creatures Inc. in 1995, which took an active part in the development of the hugely successful Pokemon franchise. Iwata himself is credited with coding an elaborate compression method into the Pokemon Gold and Silver games, which integrated most of the previous Red and Blue title into the new game - quite a feat on hardware as basic as the Gameboy.

Iwata also contributed programming to Pokemon Stadium for the Nintendo 64 home console by taking the original Gameboy game code - allegedly with no manual - and converting it.

Satoru Iwata should be remembered as a technology chief who approached his work with the maximum amount of passion, and a strong and true background in multiple aspects of his field.

Whether celebrated as the coder who brought us Balloon Fight or as the CEO who refused to take himself seriously in Nintendo's regular Nintendo Direct promotional videos, Satoru Iwata was a CEO who understood the sense fun inherent to his company's outlook.