Satoru Iwata (Japanese: 岩田 聡 Hepburn: Iwata Satoru?, December 6, 1959 – July 11, 2015) was a Japanese game programmer and businessman who served as the fourth president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Nintendo. He is widely regarded as a major contributor in broadening the appeal of video games to a wider audience by focusing on novel and entertaining games rather than top-of-the-line hardware.