I can not believe what I’m typing at this second.

But it’s true, straight from Nintendo’s website via a PDF file, Nintendo’s president Satoru Iwata, who was the successor to Hiroshi Yamauchi in 2002 (who also recently passed on back on September 19 2013), has passed away on July 11th after battling an illness involving a “bile duct growth”.

Last year, Iwata was found to have had a growth in his body that he underwent surgery for back over a year ago, as said on Polygon in the link from then:

“In general, it is said that a bile duct growth can be difficult-to-treat, partly because of the difficulty of detecting it early. In my case, luckily, it was detected very early and I had no symptoms,” Iwata wrote. “I was counseled that removal at an early stage would be the desirable medical option. Therefore I had surgery last week, and I came through it well, as predicted.”

This is also shocking due to Iwata having been present at the shareholders meeting just weeks ago on June 26th. As far as I knew, there was no sign of anything severe. 🙁

As for what does this have to do with Sonic? Iwata was among other things, the one who gave the world-exclusive announcement of the 3-game exclusivity deal of Sonic back on May 17th 2013 in a Nintendo Direct, a series of presentations of which he was the creator of.

Regardless, Iwata was a huge part of leading Nintendo into their greatest successes with the Nintendo DS and later the Wii, and always had a motto of putting quality and his workers above all else. He even took a personal pay cut, twice, when things were looking down.

On behalf of Sonic Stadium, I thank you Satoru Iwata for helping make Nintendo what it is today, and helping bring so many great games to us, and may you rest in peace :'( I’m still in utter shock. 🙁