[Jake.]

'Hiroshi Yamauchi, the former president of Nintendo, has died at the age of 85.

The third president of the company, he joined the firm in 1949 and stepped down in 2002 to become chairman, retiring in 2005.

"Nintendo is in mourning today from the sad loss of the former Nintendo president Mr Hiroshi Yamauchi, who sadly passed away this morning," Nintendo said in a statement.

Yamauchi transformed the company from a playing card company to an electronic entertainment company.

His reign at the top of the company saw the launches of the NES, SNES, N64 and GameCube consoles, as well as the GameBoy handheld.


© PA Images / Katsumi Kasahara/AP
Hiroshi Yamauchi


Famed for his dictatorial management style, Yamauchi introduced the plastic Western-style playing card into Japan.

He then pushed the company into toy making, focusing on electronic products like 1969's 'Love Tester' created by Gunpei Yokoi, who was spotted by Yamauchi playing with an extending arm he had made himself.

Yokoi went on to make the Game & Watch handheld electronic games and was appointed by Yamauchi to supervise Shigeru Miyamoto's Donkey Kong arcade game.'