Thursday, September 19, 2013

Former Nintendo President Hiroshi Yamauchi Has Passed Away

Nintendo has announced that the third President of the company, Hiroshi Yamauchi, has passed away today at the age of 85. Any hardcore Nintendo fan will recognize the legendary name of Hiroshi Yamauchi, the man who was responsible for turning Nintendo into the most prolific name in video games. Born in 1927, Mr. Yamauchi took over as president of Nintendo in 1949 (when his grandfather and former Nintendo president was suffering from ill health) and remained head of the company until 2002.

For over half a century, Hiroshi Yamauchi's leadership moved the company from a simple toy/card manufacturer to the savior of the video game industry. Without a doubt, one of his most important decisions was to entrust a young Shigeru Miyamoto to craft what would become the original Donkey Kong. This one move set in motion the career and legacy of the greatest game designer of all time. To call Hiroshi Yamauchi a legend would be a gross understatement seeing as his decisions and leadership at Nintendo ended up shaping the entire video game industry into the biggest entertainment medium on the planet.

Thank You Mr. Yamauchi, you will be missed.

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