Ex-Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi -- who revolutionized the video game industry by introducing the world to Super Mario -- died this morning of pneumonia at a hospital in Japan.
Yamauchi introduced the Nintendo Entertainment System to America in 1985, and followed up by launching the greatest video game franchises in history, including Super Mario, Zelda, and Donkey Kong.
Hiroshi left the company in 2002 -- but reportedly refused to accept his retirement pension allegedly worth between $9 to $14 million dollars ... claiming Nintendo could put it to better use.
With an estimated net worth of around $2.1 billion, Hiroshi was ranked the 13th richest man in Japan at the time of his death.
Hiroshi was 85. He is survived by his wife and 3 kids.
Now fire up that NES and kick some Bowser ass in his honor.
Bing news app on win 8 woke me up about Yamauchi. Now I can't sleep.
I bought an N64 first day. Not long after that I bought an SNES and NES. I grew up on Yamauchi's consoles. It's literally my entire childhood. This news sorta hit home. Watery eyes and everything man.
I'm even more deeply saddened when I look at the kind of gaming industry Yamauchi is leaving behind. Capcom only has $152 million which, for a 3rd party developer, is like being flat broke. EA has a new CEO who has no intention of undoing the company's horrible stupidity. Gaming gets blamed for everything. There's no innovation anymore in software. Both Sony and Microsoft have made dumb decisions and pressured by the consumer to change policies with the 8th generation. And to top it all off Nintendo seriously fucked up the release of the Wii U.
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