Nintendo released the following statement:

"Nintendo Co., Ltd. deeply regrets to announce that President Satoru Iwata passed away on July 11, 2015 due to a bile duct growth."

There are just about no words. All I can really say is thank you for everything. He's really going to be missed.

I've never seen someone at such a high position in a tech company embrace the characterture of themselves to the extent that he did. In that respect, he's irreplaceable. The industry won't be the same without him.

More importantly, he was a game designer first and an exec second. I think he had a solid grasp of people playing games to have fun. Not a casuals vs. hardcore ego fest, or what formulae made the most money. He's one of the greats who made games what they are, and we're quickly running out of them.