Miyamoto:
“I am surprised at this sudden news and overcome with sadness,” Mr. Miyamoto said in a statement issued through the company on Monday. He said he would maintain the game-development stance that he and Mr. Iwata established and work with developers to create the kind of future successes that the late president would have wanted.
Itoi (creator of Earthbound, close friend and co-founder of HAL Laboratory alongside Iwata):
In any farewells, all you have to say is "See you again".
Friends see each other again.
There's nothing strange about it.
Yes. See you again.
I heard that you are going on a long journey.
It was supposed to be in the far future.
You never said it in words, but wearing your best outfit, you were saying "Sorry for it to be so sudden".
You always looked after somebody instead of yourself.
As such friend, maybe this journey is your first time being selfish.
To be honest, I still don't really believe anything.
I feel like you'll be sending me email to ask for lunch.
Just like always, you can call me and ask "If you have some free time".
Of course, I can always ask you too.
Anyway, "See you again".
You can call me anywhere, anytime, and I'll be calling you too.
There are things I want to discuss, and good ideas I want to tell you.
See you again.
No, we are seeing each other right at this moment.
Shuhei Yoshida:
"I always admired his personal, easy to understand commentary on games in development in his Nintendo Direct. He was an inspiration as a leader of one of the most influential companies in the game industry, who used to make games himself and has always been a gamer. I had a couple of times I had conversations with him at some international industry events, he was always friendly and nice to talk with. I was dreaming someday to have an open exchange of Tweets or to be on a same panel session with him to talk about industry and games we play. I even tweeted when I was leaving for E3 this year with #iwatter as I saw he started tweeting Nintendo E3 news with the hashtag. I have always respected Nintendo's games, how they are super accessible and polished for everyone to play and enjoy, and I understand Iwata-san was one of the key individuals to have kept that high quality standard across all Nintendo titles. I just wish he will rest in peace. Thank you for all your work for the better game industry
Phil Spencer:
"Honestly I wasn't a huge Nintendo gamer growing up. I grew up on Atari 2600 and PC games. When I entered the 'industry' and learned what it meant to build games, grow franchises and really become part of the industry is when I learned what why Nintendo was special. Iwata-san has been President of Nintendo really for as long as we've been in the Xbox business. I think it was GDC 2005 when he stated 'On my business card, I am a corporate president. In my mind, I am a game developer. But in my heart, I am a gamer.' It's a quote I think about daily as I make decision for Xbox. Nintendo has defined excellence, longevity and self-confidence in their own vision. In the times I've met Iwata-san I always took away someone who believed in the 'why' behind the games and platforms they built. I think this was born out of the fact that he was a gamer at heart."
The fact that he took such a big pay cut so that he wouldn't have to fire any of his employees at Nintendo just went to prove how much of a good guy he was. The fact that he never made a deal of paying such a good chunk of money to the relief in Japan when disaster hit showed how humble he was. The fact that he helped to program for games that were behind schedule since he viewed himself still as a developer showed how cool he was (not thinking himself above anyone) and was the perfect kind of boss we could all do with. The fact that he kept running the business to the best of his abilities [whilst also taking radical steps with the business such as the mobile games and new console] despite his terrible ill health showed just how dedicate he was.
It really seems like everyone in the industry really liked him too.
This is definitely the first death in the games industry that hit me in the gut. I was never a Nintendo fanboy by any means (although I was and still am a huge fan of the Nintendo DS handheld range), but the man was just so respectable and just a great guy. People in the industry keep citing that he viewed himself as a "gamer in his heart", I think he was just a good guy in his heart. RIP Mr. Iwata. *bows*
Despite the surgery and all I didn't expect this for some reason. 
