Hiroshi Yamauchi, the former president of Nintendo who led the company to profit with a change in direction, passed away at the age of 85 yesterday of pneumonia.
Nintendo wasn’t always the Nintendo of today. At one point, they were a playing card company, making the rounds in 1949 when a young president named Hiroshi Yamauchi led the way.
Over the years, the company found a new direction, primarily in the 1980’s when, with the guidance of Yamauchi, it led a rise in home video game popularity with the Nintendo Entertainment system. Since that time, Nintendo’s business has been on the rise with new systems and games, though Yamauchi quietly retired in 2002.
“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. “He understood the social value of play, and economic potential of electronic gaming. Most importantly he steered Nintendo on its own course and was unconcerned by the actions of his competitors. He was a true visionary.”
Source: BBC
