Satoru Iwata: Fans react to untimely death of Nintendo president

Satoru Iwata, Nintendo's president and the man who gave the gaming world the hugely popular Wii and DS consoles, has died aged just 55.

In the wake of the shock announcement from Nintendo, the gaming world has been coming to terms with the death of the man who was the first president of the storied video game company who wasn't a member of the founding Yamauchi family.

Satoru was a hugely popular figure within the gaming industry, among his peers, developers, and most importantly, gamers who played the games he helped develop and bring to life.

Lots of people are sharing this quote from Iwata:

While most reports focus on Iwata's reign as Nintendo president since 2002, prior to taking the reigns at the company, he was revered as a programmer:

Further evidence of his long and storied career in computer game programming:

Many gamers are still trying to come to terms with Iwata's loss, as are many of the developers he inspired:

This quote shows why Nintendo employees will feel so sad about the loss of such an inspirational leader:

Iwata's popularity didn't just extend to the Nintendo community, he was respected across the video game industry, as this tweet from the official PlayStation accounts testifies:

Similarly, Shuhei Yoshida, the president of Sony Computer Entertainment's Worldwide Studios, said: "I pray that Mr. Iwata, who contributed so much to the development of the gaming industry, rests in peace."

The overwhelming feeling you get from reading comments about Iwata, is that he was widely loved as a person, something which is increasingly rare for the head of a multibillion pound company. Here is just one story which highlights why people loved him so much:

As the quote above indicates, Iwata was a gamer until the very end and just last month he used his Mii avatar to update fans on his health situation:

Fans have already begun to publish tribute videos on YouTube, including this one from GameXplain: