Hiroshi Yamauchi
| Hiroshi Yamauchi | |
|---|---|
| |
| Born | November 7, 1927 |
| Died | September 19, 2013 (aged 85) |
| Mario-related role(s) | Third President of Nintendo |
Hiroshi Yamauchi (山内 溥, * November 7, 1927 — † September 19, 2013) was the third president of Nintendo Co, Ltd.; he held the position for 53 years, from 1949 until 2002, when he declared Satoru Iwata his successor. He was Chairman of Nintendo's Board of Directors and was the third-richest man in Japan. When he was in office, Yamauchi changed Nintendo's focus from a small hanafuda playing card company into a large video game manufacturer. Eventually, Nintendo became the world's biggest entertainment software company. In 2013, Yamauchi died of pneumonia.
Yamauchi assisted in the production of Donkey Kong, and was the executive producer of all subsequent games published by Nintendo, up until his retirement. Five home consoles were created by Nintendo during his tenure; the last was the Nintendo GameCube, which was released in 2001. Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2 was the last entry in the Mario franchise to see Yamauchi as its executive producer before his retirement.
His persistence in marketing the Robotic Operating Buddy (R.O.B.) with the Nintendo Entertainment System helped Nintendo to revitalize the video game market in North America, which had been in a severe decline following the video game crash of 1983.
Yamauchi, when he announced the Nintendo GameCube, stated that people do not buy a console for the console, they buy it for the game they want. He also believes that a video game console should be solely for video games, not anything else, in opposition to the PlayStation 2's built-in DVD player. This is why Nintendo aims to makes their consoles cheaper than their competitors.
