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Masaya Nakamura, founder of the company behind hit Japanese arcade game Pac-Man, has died at the age of 91.

Nakamura reportedly died on January 22. Namco confirmed his death on Monday, but did not comment on the cause of death or other personal details, citing his family's wishes.

Having attended technical university in Yokohama, Nakamura founded Namco in 1955. The company started out running children's rides with two mechanical horses on the roof of a department store.

(Image: Bettmann)

It went on to pioneer games arcades and amusement parks.

Namco's first original video game was Gee Bee, in 1978. It was followed by Galaxian in 1979 - which revolutionised the industry as the first video game to use RGB colour graphics.

However, it was Pac-Man, released in 1980, that came to define Namco's legacy, going on to become a fixture in popular culture.

(Image: Getty Images North America)

The idea for the game, designed by video game-maker Toru Iwatani, came from the image of a pizza with a slice carved out.

Nakamura reportedly chose the word "Pac" to represent the munching of the Pac-Man devouring its prey.

It launched at a time when there were few rival games, such as Space Invaders, and later expanded onto consoles. It is estimated to have been played more than 10 billion times.

(Image: AFP)

Pac-Man is still a mainstay of Japanese culture, spawning massive merchandise sales, TV series, theme parks and a film.

In 2008, Guinness World Records named it the world's most successful coin-operated arcade game.

Namco merged with Japanese toy maker Bandai in 2005. Nakamura remained a key player in the business, and still held an honorary position when he died.

Following the announcement of his death, social network Twitter was flooded with touching tributes to the "Father of Pac-Man":