Nintendo video games pioneer Hiroshi Yamauchi dies
ByThe Courier Reporter
Mr Yamauchi was behind iconic products like the Game Boy.
Former Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi, who led the company’s transition from maker of traditional playing cards to global video giant behind the Super Mario and Pokemon video games, has died. He was 85.
Kyoto-based Nintendo said Mr Yamauchi, who owned the Seattle Mariners major league baseball club before selling it to Nintendo’s US unit in 2004, died on Thursday of pneumonia at a hospital in central Japan.
Mr Yamauchi was company president from 1949 to 2002 and engineered Nintendo’s global growth, including developing the early Family Computer consoles and Game Boy portables.
Nintendo was founded in 1889 and made traditional playing cards before venturing into video games.
Mr Yamauchi is survived by Katsuhito Yamauchi, his eldest son.
