Nintendo: Takashi Tezuka no longer Executive Officer, will keep working as Producer

Earlier this year, we learned that Takashi Tezuka would be retiring as Executive Officer on June 26th (when the 86th Annual General Meeting of Shareholders was held). However, it wasn’t clear whether the legendary creator was retiring from Nintendo altogether, or if he would keep working at the company.

But during the Q&A session at the 86th Annual General Meeting of Shareholders, the man himself confirmed that he would keep working at Nintendo moving forward. He will no longer be an Executive Officer, but will serve simply as Producer moving forward. In other words: he will keep being involved in the production of games at Nintendo, so you can expect to keep seeing his name in the credits of various Nintendo games in the future.

Here’s a translation of the Q&A:

Question: Please explain the reasons for Mr. Tezuka’s resignation as Executive Officer, and detail his future involvement with Nintendo. I would also like to hear a few words from him personally.

Shuntaro Furukawa: Mr. Tezuka joined our company in 1984, and has been involved in the development of countless games, starting with Super Mario Bros. for the Family Computer / Nintendo Entertainment System. He is stepping down as Executive Officer upon the expiration of his term, but he plans to keep being involved in our company’s development efforts.

Takashi Tezuka: If I were to sum up my 42 years at the company in a single sentence, I think it would be something along the lines of “I have had a lot of fun at work.”

When I first joined the company, the tools required to create games were not widely available, so everything began with the joy of building everything from scratch ourselves. Nowadays, working within a large-scale development organisation, there is the satisfaction of creating products by pooling the knowledge of many different people.

Furthermore, thinking about how to apply new technologies that continually emerge — such as 3D, stereoscopic 3D, and motion capture for example — to game development brings me a sense of joy and makes me feel like I could keep working as a game developer indefinitely without every tiring of it, and that’s what I intend to do in the future.

Working at Nintendo involves the entire company teaming up to develop products that many people can enjoy, manufacture them, and then deliver them to customers — all while being flexible and adapting to changes in the industry. I truly feel fortunate I work at a company that makes this possible.

Although I am stepping down as an Executive Officer, I plan to continue working at Nintendo as producer. I am grateful I was given this opportunity to address you on this occasion.

Note: the official English translation of this question (and the rest of the Q&A) will follow in the next few days.

Source: Nintendo