Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata Succumbs to Cancer

Nintendo's chief executive Satoru Iwata, 55, has died of bile duct cancer last Saturday. 

The Japanese gaming company released a formal statement on Monday.

"Nintendo Co. Ltd. deeply regrets to announce that President Satoru Iwata passed away on July 11, 2015, due to a bile duct growth," the press release from the Kyoto-based company stated.

In a statement released by Iwata himself via Kotaku, he said his bile duct issue was detected after a routine physical examination. He underwent surgery to have it removed. The operation was successful but he had to take time off to recover, meaning he had to miss some company meetings, including last year's Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) conference.

According to Business Insider, Iwata succeeded Nintendo's previous president, Hiroshi Yamauchi, when he retired in 2002. In his tenure in the company, Iwata supervised the development of the popular gaming consoles GameCube, the Wii, the DS and the Wii U. He is the first Nintendo CEO outside of the Yamauchi family.

BBC reports that Iwata was a self-taught video game programmer. He discovered his love for programming when he saw his friends have fun with the baseball game he made on a calculator.

"I don't think anyone can say it had bad graphics because it had no graphics," he joked. "But when I saw my friends playing that game and having fun, it made me feel proud. To me, this was a source of energy and passion... I think my life course was set."

Iwata first joined Nintendo as a programmer for HAL Laboratory, a sister company of Nintendo. According to Business Insider, Iwata worked on "Kirby," "Earthbound" and "Balloon Fight" before he became president of the company in 1993.

Fans from across the globe are left in mourning with Iwata's passing. CNN reports that many gamers and fellow compatriots took to social media to send their condolences and gratitude for Iwata and his creations.

He was most famous for being playful, hands-on and engaging with the company's fans and to his staff. According to Time, Iwata showed up in Nintendo Direct videos in 2011 in YouTube to deliver news to gamers and hosted the company's announcements and surprises in E3 conventions. He also has an interview series called "Iwata Asks," where he talks with developers about their latest games.

In BBC's report, Iwata once helped the company's coders meet their deadlines by installing himself on their team shortly after he became president.

In his speech for the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, according to IGN, Iwata started his term with his now famous statement:

"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."