Veteran Nintendo designer and director Takashi Tezuka is retiring from the company after more than 40 years.
Tezuka joined Nintendo as a part-time employee when he was at university in 1984. He went on to become an assistant director for the original 1985 Super Mario Bros, a game he was also a designer on.
In the years since, he has worked on a huge number of the company’s most high-profile and beloved titles. Think of any Nintendo series andTezuka will likely have had some part in it. During his tenure, he directed multiple games from iconic series, including the original Legend of Zelda, Super Mario World, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
More recently, he has served as a producer or production supervisor on games such as Super Mario Bros. Wonder, Super Mario 3D World and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and has also had a hand in the Animal Crossing and Pikmin franchises.
Today, as part of its latest financial report, Nintendo confirmed Tezuka will retire from his role as an executive officer on 26th June. He will be 65, the typical age of retirement for Nintendo employees (a notable exception to this is Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto, who is in his 70s). Tezuka and Miyamoto frequently collaborated on projects together.
As well as Tezuka, three other Nintendo directors will also be retiring in the coming months: Katsuhiro Umeyama, Keiko Akashi and Takuya Yoshimura.
Elsewhere in today’s financials, Nintendo announced a price rise for its Switch 2 console in the US, Canada, Japan and Europe.