Hiroshi Yamauchi has died at 85. Yamauchi was president on Nintendo from 1949 to 2002.

He was instrumental in transforming Nintendo from a playing card manufacturer into a video game company, and his influence is still felt throughout the industry today. He was a fascinating and imposing industry visionary.

Under his guidance Nintendo brought us portable gaming and crisp, fully 3D environments on a home console. These seem like obvious inevitable things now, but they were once strange and unpopular concepts that were pushed by Nintendo at Yamauchi’s insistence.

We’d like to take this opportunity to thank Hiroshi Yamauch for his many contributions to this industry and offer our condolences to his friends and family.