As you may have heard, Hiroshi Yamauchi, Nintendo President since 1949 passed away today at the age of 85. Anyone who has ever played any Nintendo product- by extension, nearly all video gamers- owes a debt of gratitude to this man, who shifted Nintendo's focus from playing cards and Japanese stationary, to a wide range of products and services, until settling on video games in the 1980's. The company would become synonymous with video games for decades to come, even to this day. He is the co-inventor of the Game Boy with Gunpei Yokoi, who died in 1995 in a car accident, and the inventor of the D-pad, as well as creative consultant for every Nintendo controller up to this point, and was also the company's main shoreholder. He was also the owner of the Seattle Mariners.