Today it has been confirmed by the firm of Bandia Namco that founder of Namco, Masaya Nakamura, has died at the age of 91.

Often known as the “father” of Pac-Man, a game Namco released which went on to have massive commercial success in many countries, he started Namco as Nakamura Manufacturing which went on to become Nakamura Amusement Machine Manufacturing Company (Namco) in 1956. The first job completed was the installation of two electric horses on the roof of a department store in Japan as amusement rides.

Pac-Man came much later in 1980, developed by Toru Iwatani, and eventually became shipped to arcades across the world. Pac-Man named in 2016 as the highest-grossing arcade game of all time by website US Gamer.

Nakamura was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, a Japanese government honour in 2007, inducted into the International Video Games Hall of Fame in 2010 and was an honorary advisor at Bandai Namco up until his death on the 22nd of Janaury.