7月13日早间，日本传来了一则令人悲伤的消息，任天堂CEO岩田聪因病去世，年仅55岁。少年的岩田聪就是一名天才的游戏程序开发者，还未从东京工业大学毕业，岩田聪就加入了任天堂旗下的HAL Laboratory公司，2002年从山内溥手中接过了任天堂总裁的班，开启了任天堂视频游戏的新辉煌。
Japanese video game maker Nintendo has said its chiefexecutive Satoru Iwata has died of cancer at the age of 55.
Mr Iwata underwent surgery last year and had resumed his duties after a brief period of recovery.
He is a highly revered figure in the Japanese gaming scene and considered the leading figurebehind Nintendo's successful turnaround after he joined the company in the year 2000.
Most recently, he led Nintendo into the rapidly growing mobile gaming sector.
Mr Iwata started out as a programmer in a Nintendo subsidiary in the 1980s and becamepresident of Nintendo in 2002.
Under his leadership, the company launched its hugely successful Wii and Nintendo DS consolesand he is considered the crucial driver behind the focus on easy-to-use consoles, a move thatallowed the company to tap into a much wider audience beyond the traditional gamingcommunity.
Mariko Oi, BBC News
Growing up in Japan in the 1980s, Super Mario was a gaming character that you couldn't avoid.But as the gaming population started to decline in the late 90s, Mr Iwata knew that he needed tomake products that were more appealing to non-gamers.
And he succeeded. Nintendo DS quickly became the world's best-selling handheld game consolewhen it was released in 2004.
Two years later, there came another successful launch of Wii which was dubbed the computergame that even your grandma can play. Together, they switched on millions of new converts tocomputer games.
But the rise of mobile phone games has posed a serious threat to Nintendo and some investorsquestioned his decision not to enter the market sooner.
As he put it himself, Mr Iwata was a chief executive who had the brain of a games developer andthe heart of a gamer.(Source:BBC)
【岩田聪生平简介】
任天堂CEO岩田聪去世
1959年12月6日生于北海道札幌。岩田聪小时候就对游戏开发抱有浓厚兴趣，起初，他埋头于电脑程序的研究。中学期间，岩田聪的一大业余爱好便是在家里制作各种电子器件游戏。
北海道札幌南高等学校毕业后，岩田聪进入了著名的东京工业大学(Tokyo Institute ofTechnology)，主修"计算机科学"专业。
岩田聪初入职场，便进了HAL Laboratory公司，1982年，岩田聪加盟HAL成为了一名专职员工。岩田聪所主创的Kirby's Dreamland获得了巨大的成功，并逐渐成为业界瞩目的一颗新星
1992年HAL Laboratory陷入严重亏损。岩田聪受任于败军之际，被指定为公司的新任总裁。岩田聪在位七年(1993年至2000年)，硬是凭借超凡的努力，将HAL从红字带回黑字，扭亏为盈!
2000年，岩田聪从HAL转投NCL，被任命为任天堂企划部的主管，主要负责规划任天堂的全球战略。
2002年5月，岩田聪(Satoru Iwata)就任任天堂公司的新任总裁,他也是继山内房次郎(FusajiroYamauchi)于1889年创办任天堂公司以来的第四任总裁。
岩田聪上世纪80年代加入任天堂，参与开发了气球大战(Balloon Fight)、地球冒险(EarthBound)等游戏。岩田聪在2000年升任公司主管，2002年接任山内溥成为任天堂第四任总裁。
在就任社长期间，岩田聪主持研发了Wii、DS、Wii U、GameCube在内的各种游戏产品，将任天堂的视频游戏行业推向了最鼎盛的时期。