This really came out of nowhere, I was worried it was going to happen last year reading about his apparent illness , maybe I'm just cynical but whenever I hear about a public face taking time away from the public because of health reasons I immediately think it's cancer and that it's not going to work out. It happened with Steve Jobs , it happened in Canadian federal politics with Jack Layton (head of the official opposition for about a month before cancer rapidly took him down).
Cancer sucks. It makes it worse that Iwata finally started showing up again in videos and interviews , a little worse for the wear (he lost a ton of weight) but seemingly on the mend so this happening now ? it's like a punch to the gut.
May he rest in peace.