Nintendo visionary Hiroshi Yamauchi has died at age 85.
Yamauchi helped Nintendo become one of the top video game companies in the world, BBC News reports. The Japanese businessman ran the company for 53 years and remained the second-largest shareholder.
The company is mourning the "loss of the former Nintendo president Mr. Hiroshi Yamauchi, who sadly passed away this morning," a spokesman said.
Yamauchi passed away in a central Japan hospital of pneumonia. His funeral will be held on Sunday.
From 1949 to 2002, Yamauchi ran the firm, in which he turned a collectible trading card company into a world-leading video game company.
Ian Livingstone, co-founder of Games Workshop and former chairman of publisher Eidos said, "Hiroshi Yamauchi transformed a run-of the-mill trading card company into an entertainment empire in video games."
Livingstone added, "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."
TIME notes that Yamauchi also owned the Seattle Mariners baseball club until selling it to Nintendo's U.S. side in 2004.
Yamauchi made such smart moves as hiring Shigeru Miyamoto, who created Super Mario and Donkey Kong. He stayed as an adviser to President Satoru Iwata at Nintendo.
image: Wikimedia Commons
