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| Hiroshi Yamauchi |
There are only a few real visionaries in the video game industry, men and women who saw an opportunity, unseen by others, and seized upon it. One such man was former Nintendo President Hiroshi Yamauchi, who died this morning at age 85. The cause, according to Nintendo, was complications from pneumonia.
Yamauchi is rightly credited for transforming his grandfather's playing-card company into a video game juggernaut, and, in the process, delighting millions of fans, young and old.
Named President in 1949, at the age of 22, Yamauchi steered the company first toward board games, toy guns, and pitching machines before he turned his attention toward electronic games. In 1977, he hired a young apprentice named Shigeru Miyamoto, who would go on to create some of Nintendo's most beloved characters: Mario, Donkey Kong, Link, and Zelda. Thanks in part to Miyamoto's creations, and in part to smart marketing and quality control, Nintendo's premier system, the Nintendo Entertainment System (Famicom in Japan), went on to sell 60 million units, pushing quickly past its competitors.
The last Nintendo system overseen by Yamauchi was the Gamecube, which launched in 2001. He retired a year later, succeeded by current Nintendo President Satoru Iwata.
In one of his last interviews, conducted in 2003, Yamauchi spoke some wise words about Nintendo's place in the video game market:
"That’s absolutely wrong; the gaming wars, they will never end. That’s just not how this business works. Nobody knows what tomorrow will bring."Yamauchi is rightly credited for transforming his grandfather's playing-card company into a video game juggernaut, and, in the process, delighting millions of fans, young and old.
Named President in 1949, at the age of 22, Yamauchi steered the company first toward board games, toy guns, and pitching machines before he turned his attention toward electronic games. In 1977, he hired a young apprentice named Shigeru Miyamoto, who would go on to create some of Nintendo's most beloved characters: Mario, Donkey Kong, Link, and Zelda. Thanks in part to Miyamoto's creations, and in part to smart marketing and quality control, Nintendo's premier system, the Nintendo Entertainment System (Famicom in Japan), went on to sell 60 million units, pushing quickly past its competitors.
The last Nintendo system overseen by Yamauchi was the Gamecube, which launched in 2001. He retired a year later, succeeded by current Nintendo President Satoru Iwata.
In one of his last interviews, conducted in 2003, Yamauchi spoke some wise words about Nintendo's place in the video game market:
Yamauchi's survivors include a son, Katsuhito.
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