R.I.P. Satoru Iwata (#49)

I can't believe it. Seriously, I just can't believe it. I woke up this morning, turned on my Wii U and looked on the internet to find out that Satoru Iwata, President and C.E.O. of Nintendo has died of cancer at the age of 55.

Satoru Iwata to me is one of the most important people at Nintendo, up there with people like Shigeru Miyamoto, Reggie Fils-Aime and Masahiro Sakurai. I remember in the past few years watching Nintendo Directs that starred Iwata announcing news about upcoming games and exciting things like that. He often took part in events that were silly and fun, and his famous 'directly to you' line will never be forgotten after how popular it became on social media.

It's such a shock that he's passed away so early. There was no warning--Nintendo fans had been told that Iwata had been unable to come to E3 for the past year or two for medical reasons, but hardly anybody could even guess that this was coming.

R.I.P. Satoru Iwata -- you made my childhood amazing with the DS and the Wii, and without you, I think modern gaming would be very different.

Thomas