It is a sad day when one of the electronic gaming industry innovators passes away. Nintendo’s former president, Hiroshi Yamauchi, has died at the age of 85. While in a hospital in Japan, Yamauchi lost his life due to a case of pneumonia. Funeral proceedings will begin on Sunday, September 22nd, 2013.
The Beginnings
Nintendo was originally founded as a trading card company in 1889 by Fusarjiro Yamauchi. In 1949, Hiroshi Yamauchi took over for his father and began to bring more updates to the company. In 1974, Yamauchi took Nintendo into the electronic era through arcade games such as Donkey Kong.
Enter the year 1983. This is the year that Nintendo started emerging as a pioneer in modern electronic gaming. In Japan, they released a console that would be known to the rest of the world as the Nintendo Entertainment System, or NES. It would be two years before the United States would be introduced to the NES with his accompanying game, Super Mario Bros.
From here, Nintendo’s legacy grew in leaps in bounds. The NES evolved to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (the SNES), to the GameCube, to our most recent version, the Wii and the Wii U. Hit titles have included Legend of Zelda and Starfox.
Yamauchi’s Level 9
In 2002, Yamauchi stepped down as president of Nintendo to become part of the company’s board of directors until 2005, where he retired from the company entirely. While he may not be part of the company, he was the second largest shareholder and Hiroshi Yamauchi’s legacy will continue to grow.
