Takehiro Izushi, 43 Year Nintendo Veteran, Retires From Company

Longtime Nintendo employee Takehiro Izushi has retired from the company, ending a decades spanning career.

Revealed in a post to Twitter Feb. 9, it was announced Izushi was fully retiring from the company after a 43 year career.

“This guy, Izushi, who just retired from Nintendo at age 65, worked on pretty much every game and watch,” Dylan Cuthbert, founder of Q-Games, wrote in a Twitter Post. “Best guy in the world!”

Hired in 1975, Izushi played a part in the development of a slew of Nintendo’s major titles, acting as a programmer for entries in the Game and Watch library as well as producer on Pokémon Yellow and Metroid: Zero Mission. His most recent credit came from his role as supervisor for Super Smash Bros. 3DS and Wii U. After the reshuffling of development teams under Satoru Iwata, he stepped away from development to take a position in the company’s general affairs division, where he stayed until retirement.

There are many more changes on the horizon for Nintendo, with the Switch continuing to prove one of the most successful consoles in the company’s recent history. For more on their future ventures, check out our breakdown of 8 realistic things to expect from the company in 2018.