Whatever you think of Nintendo's current direction, it's hard to dislike the charming president of Nintendo, Satoru Iwata. But Iwata won't be attending E3, according to Polygon.

Nintendo told the publication Iwata was advised by his physician to skip the event.

Iwata will not be making any overseas trips in the "immediate future," said the company, but he continues to participate in his duties as the leader of Nintendo and will, in some ways, still be involved in Nintendo's E3 activities.

Nintendo didn't provide any other details on Iwata's health, but here's hoping there's nothing to worry about. Chances are we can expect him to still host the company's digital E3 "event," aka Nintendo Direct at E3.

Very sad. Hopefully everything is ok.

Maybe that will mean more Reggie

NOOO!!

E3 is now officially 50% less cute.

Was he even there the last couple of E3s? I mean, wasn't he only shown on these weird video segments, like with the bananas?

I thought Nintendo stopped attending E3 in general in favor of Nintendo Directs.

No they just stopped doing the big press conferences. They still maintain a presence.

@video_game_king: Nintendo have to turn up so they can spout racist Italian stereotypes.

This is a really bizarre way to market your upcoming Quality-Of-Life platform, Iwata.

That sucks to hear, hope he gets better. Iwata is definitely one of the best CEOs I've seen in gaming, if not for what he does, but for his enthusiasm & charm.

hope it's nothing serious and he makes a speedy recovery. i do love the guy :(

Please understand Mr. Iwata will need a little bit more time to bring the news DIRECTLY to you.

I hope it isn't serious.

I hope he is ok, Dr Luigi can't afford another medical malpractice lawsuit.

His body wasn't ready

Life as Nintendo's CEO must be really stressful, especially these days. Hopefully he can take it easy and keep things OK.

An apple a day keeps Dr. Mario away. Two years of financial losses and he induces you into a coma.

Has he gotten a second opinion from Dr. Luigi or Dr. Wario?

Seriously though, get well soon Iwata.

I wish the best of luck to him and I hope he gets better.

Nintendo has the largest booths this year. It's only the live press conference that they aren't doing, same as last year. They are using that space for Smash Bros. tournaments though.

@video_game_king: they've opted out of stage shows, replacing them with Nintendo Directs. However they've always had a huge presence on the show floor.

That headline was a roller coaster.

Nintendo's Satoru Iwata

Yay!

Missing

What?!

E3

Oh, whew.

Over Health Issues

Noooo!!

Hope the man's gonna be okay.

You can beat cancer if you give it your all, Iwata.

Play the game.

Funnily enough I was so busy studying that I read it just like that haha

Get better soon!

good reggie should be in charge of the US stuff anyways iwata is bad at speaking english and makes people bored when he speaks cause he never sounds like he cares and the sad part is even if iwata is fired the guy in charge of deciding the ceo of nintendo is just as out of touch with reality as iwata has been i mean iwata is a ceo who single handedly admitted he failed multipule times even took a pay cut while admitting he failed and is still left in charge so forgive me if i don't feel bad for this guy for trying to be 50 places at once instead of being smart about each part of the world iwata doesint need to be fired he just needs to stop trying to be the voice of every part of nintendo outside of japan and let the respective people who can speak those languages speak to there people

Came here for the banana image. Wasn't disappointed.

As long as Reggie is there, I don't care about anything else.

Get well soon Mr Iwata.

Let me introduce you to something called a 'full-stop' or 'period'. It looks like this: .

Shouldn't have canceled that Vitality sensor.

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! D:

I'm seriously bummed out by this. Hopefully it isn't too serious. Get well soon, Iwata!

aw man, I hope he gets well soon.

This is strangely sad to me. It's like I need to go buy a WiiU and play Mario Kart 8 because that'll somehow help! Right?

Feel better, Iwata. Gaming would be sinister and extremely un-cute if it wasn't for you.

Hope he gets better but I also hope he steps away from Nintendo.

I hate the direction he's taking the company.

Oh no, feel better soon Iwata, you adorable CEO.

Sad news, but that image will never not make me laugh. Make that the E3 building giant banner next year.

@zyba27: First, punctuation is your friend. Use it.

Second, regardless of what you think of his leadership, your words are incredibly mean-spirited. Regardless of how you feel about Iwata's leadership, he's a human being in a high-stress job with health problems. Surely you can sympathize with that.

Hopefully it's just one of those common maladies that is impacted by air travel, like an ear infection, and not something serious.

Maybe this is just a ploy to get Nintendo to make health sensors again

well, I'm sure his blood pressure is high right now. How can the man at the top not be a bit stressed during a period when the company is suffering losses. I sure hope they have Zelda at the show, that's pretty much the last game I'm interested in from Nintendo at this point. Would be real nice to be playing it this holiday season but I'm kidding myself. We probably wont' be getting that until November 2015 at the very earliest. We haven't even seen any concept art yet.

In b4...

Damn.

Iwata seems like a cool dude.

Get well soon, Iwata!

Feel better as soon as possible Iwata!

@chumley_marchbanks: Say-a what-a you will about-a Mussolini..

Never judge a man by the size of his Banana

Does Luigi's rage know no bounds?

Get better Iwata!

Shacho-san

Ganbatte, kudasai!

I hope this is not a serious health problem. Get well soon Iwata San.

I hope he feels better. That said he better have a Doctor's Note - otherwise Unexcused.

He's one of my favorite video-game people/CEOs in general. I wish all company CEOs fell as comfortable being silly as he does.

Hope he gets better soon!

You gotta do what you gotta do. Hope its nothing life threatening.