July 11, 2015, is an infamous day for the gamers as well as the fans of the world famous gaming company Nintendo Corporation. The Japanese company has become the global epicenter of interactive video games and gaming consoles because of the dedicated efforts of its CEO, Mr. Satoru Iwata, and on July 11, 2015- the company has lost him.

Mr. Iwata succumbed to bile duct cancer after battling against it for more than a year. An untimely death of Mr. Iwata at the age of 55 years leaves his fans and others mourning. People around them will never forget his warmth and affection.

He was humble as a CEO and dignified as a rival, in brief, he had every quality to become the industry leader. Let’s begin with his career in Nintendo:

Journey in Nintendo

Mr. Iwata was a programmer. He was talented and loved his profession. He joined Nintendo’s HAL Laboratory in the 1980s and became a director of Nintendo Corporation in the year 2000. After two years, he was appointed as thefourth president of Nintendo and the first president out of the founder Yamauchi family.

As a president, he successfully managed both the strongest and weakest phases of Nintendo. In his time, the company has got the global recognition in both video gaming and interactive entertainment industries.

Why we will remember him

Nintendo was enjoying success with video games while Mr. Iwata came on the chair. In the year 2004, just two years after becoming a president, Iwata launched DS and Wii that got the attention of the gamers worldwide, and Nintendo set a new record of sales. In the timescale of seven years (from 2004 to 2011), Nintendo has got both a new identity and global recognition. In the year 2005, the company opened the Nintendo World Store in New York. Undoubtedly, this time was the strongest phase for the Japanese gaming giant.

In the edge of glamor and competition, Mr. Iwata excelled his company with the quality games and gaming consoles. His simplicity and dignified humbleness roused the competitors and made them friendly toward him.

Then the second phase came with hardships. Nintendo acquired a French company Mobiclip to develop the next version of Wii. The Company launched it as Wii U, but it failed to attract users along with 3DS and GameCube. This blow of failure hammered and shattered the balance sheet and the company was forced to opt for pay-cut. In such a troublesome time, being a leader of the team, Mr. Iwata took the moral responsibility and accepted the highest 50 percent pay-cut. Other staff members got up to 30 percent pay-cut.

Troubles cannot stop research and visioning- this line came true as in the time of troubles, Mr. Iwata was busy thinking about developing NX hardware and games for mobile devices. He also started Nintendo Direct program to facilitate direct interaction with fans. He remained busy for leading Nintendo toward success till his last breath.

In brief, Mr. Iwata had qualities of both-an industry leader and noble human being that will be a reason for remembering him.

He was a game developer by profession, but a gamer by heart, which made him the most acclaimed CEO of Nintendo. Not just video gaming industry, the interactive entertainment industry also feels alone without him. Rest in peace Mr. Evata, we’ll miss you!