Hiroshi Yamauchi, the Japanese businessman credited with transforming Nintendo into a world-leading video games company, has died aged 85 of pneumonia at a hospital in central Japan.
Mr Yamauchi ran the firm for 53 years, and was its second-largest shareholder at the time of his death.
In that time, he took what was a small-time collectable trading card company and built it into one of the most recognisable – and successful – video games brands today.
A spokesman said the firm was in mourning over the “loss of the former Nintendo president Mr Hiroshi Yamauchi, who sadly passed away this morning.”
“Hiroshi Yamauchi transformed a run-of the-mill trading card company into an entertainment empire in video games,” said Ian Livingstone, co-founder of Games Workshop and former chairman of publisher Eidos.
Mr Yamauchi ran the company from 1949 until 2002.
Source: Dave Lee, BBC News
