Former Nintendo Co President Hiroshi Yamauchi, the man who turned a trading card company into a multi-billion dollar video game corporation, died of pneumonia on Thursday. He was 85-years-old.
Under Yamauchi’s guidance, Nintendo launched the Game Boy and Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), forever changing the way home video game consoles would be made. The company then followed its success with the launches of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), Nintendo 64 and Nintendo Game Cube gaming consoles.
Along the way, Yamauchi was introducing gamers to the worlds of Super Mario, Zelda and Donkey Kong, some of the greatest video game franchises ever made.
In 1992, he decided to purchase the struggling Seattle Mariners, even though he had never seen a baseball game before. The deal wasn’t an easy one since, up to then, there had never been a non-North American owner in major league baseball. His acquisition of the team was a major development and helped open major opportunities for Japanese players to play in the major league. He reportedly never attended a game.
At one point, Yamauchi acquired a net worth of $7.8 billion. Since then, Nintendo’s sales declined due to gamers trading in their home consoles for smartphones and tablets. Last year, he was ranked #13 on Forbes Japan list with an estimated net worth of $2.1 billion.
Yamauchi is survived by his wife and three kids.
