Nintendo mourns death of video gaming pioneer
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.
He 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 playing cards before venturing into video games.
Funeral services are scheduled for Sunday at Nintendo in Kyoto.