Originally Posted by BBC News

Nintendo visionary Hiroshi Yamauchi dies aged 85

Hiroshi Yamauchi, the Japanese businessman credited with transforming Nintendo into a world-leading video games company, has died aged 85.

Mr Yamauchi ran the firm for 53 years, and was its second-largest shareholder at the time of his death.

The company confirmed the news in an emailed statement.

A spokesman said the firm was in mourning over the "loss of the former Nintendo president Mr Hiroshi Yamauchi, who sadly passed away this morning."

He died of pneumonia at a hospital in central Japan, the company said, adding that a funeral will take place on Sunday.

Mr Yamauchi ran the company from 1949 until 2002.

In that time, he took what was a small-time collectable trading card company and built it into one of the most recognisable - and successful - video games brands today.

"Hiroshi Yamauchi transformed a run-of the-mill trading card company into an entertainment empire in video games," said Ian Livingstone, co-founder of Games Workshop and former chairman of publisher Eidos.

"He understood the social value of play, and economic potential of electronic gaming. Most importantly he steered Nintendo on its own course and was unconcerned by the actions of his competitors. He was a true visionary."

Rob Crossley, associate editor of Computer and Video Games magazine, told the BBC: "You cannot overestimate the influence the man had on the games industry."

"He spearheaded Nintendo as they moved into the arcade business, with hits such as Donkey Kong.

"This man was the president of Nintendo during the NES, the SNES, the N64 and the Gamecube - the first two were transformative pieces of electronic entertainment."

Household names

Mr Yamauchi took over at Nintendo after his grandfather suffered a stroke. After several years developing the firm's existing trading card business, Mr Yamauchi turned to electronic entertainment.

He utilised the work of legendary games designer Shigeru Miyamoto, who had made Donkey Kong, as a way of breaking into the US arcade game market.

Mr Miyamoto's later work was pivotal in the success of Nintendo's home entertainment systems - titles such as Super Mario, Legend of Zelda and Starfox became commercial smashes and household names.

Mr Yamauchi stood down as president in 2002, taking a place on the firm's board of directors. In 2005, he left the company entirely.

Since his departure, Nintendo has gone on to produce the hugely successful Wii console, but has floundered in the past 12 months due to disappointing sales of its latest effort, the Wii U.

Mr Yamauchi, one of Japan's richest men, also used to own the Seattle Mariners major league baseball club before selling it in 2004 to Nintendo's US-based operation.

Originally Posted by VSG (Post 4303723)

Steam apparently will announce something hardware/steam box related next week.

Originally Posted by DaveBrawl (Post 4303902)

I hope so.

Steam box sounds much more appealing to me than either the XB1 or PS4.

Originally Posted by VSG (Post 4312938)

Sleeping Dogs deserves a sequel

Originally Posted by Smelly Meatball (Post 4319184)

According to a recent posting made on LinkedIn, Rockstar's New England studio is currently developing a next-gen game based on one of Rockstar's "famous" IPs.
http://www.destructoid.com/-next-ver...r-263812.phtml

Originally Posted by Smelly Meatball (Post 4321532)

Today's News:
3) The next game in the Alien series was recently revealed to be named Alien: Isolation, is being developed by Creative Assembly, will be a first person shooter, and rumored to star Amanda Ripley as the main character.
http://www.destructoid.com/new-alien...r-263988.phtml

Originally Posted by Ermaximus (Post 4322028)

So is CoD: Ghosts, but people will still buy it.

Originally Posted by Kane Knight (Post 4322148)

Fuck you, dude. Ghosts lets you play as a dog. Has any Aliens game let you?

Check. Mate.

Originally Posted by Kalyx triaD (Post 4322373)

Funny thing is, there are Alien games where you played as an Alien, while you can't play as CoD Dog - who's the most pathetic next-gen shooter sell ever. I mean, seriously.

Originally Posted by Ermaximus (Post 4322593)

You just got Kalyxed son!

Originally Posted by Kane Knight (Post 4322625)

Playing as an alien is lame. Controlling a dog? Now that's innovation.

Originally Posted by Extreme Angle (Post 4324163)

I'd love a 3DS purely for Pokemon. I don't see anything bad about playing kiddie games, unless they're some Bratz game... I fucking loved Viva Pinata!