It has recently been revealed that Nintendo veteran Hideki Konno retired from the company last summer after almost 40 years.
Joining Nintendo in 1986, Konno shaped many of the Japanese game company’s major series. He worked as assistant director on Super Mario Bros. 2 and 3, as well as designing the games’ levels and characters. Later, as a director, he helmed games including Yoshi’s Island, the SNES version of SimCity, and Luigi’s Mansion on the GameCube.
However, Konno is probably best known for his extensive work on the Mario Kart series. He directed the original Super Mario Kart and Mario Kart 64, before going on to produce Mario DS, Mario Kart Wii, Mario Kart 7, Mario Kart 8 (plus the Deluxe version), and Mario Kart Tour. He got a special thanks credit on Switch 2 launch title Mario Kart World.
Konno produced many other games like Nintendogs and was also hardware director for the 3DS. As head of Nintendo mobile, he produced titles such as Animal Crossing Pocket Camp and Fire Emblem Heroes, as well as contributing to the global success of Pokémon Go!
As reported by Japanese news outlet Game*Spark, last year Konno updated his employment status on Facebook to say that he left Nintendo in July 2025. This was recently spotted by fans over on the Famiboard forums and has become a talking point on Twitter / X over the weekend.
Noticing the discussion of Konno’s departure, Takaya Imamura (another former Nintendo employee who was art director on Star Fox 64 and The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask) tweeted: “Konno’s resignation is starting to attract attention. The people who defined an era are leaving Nintendo.” Imamura himself departed Nintendo in 2021 to pursue his own projects, resulting in the Omega 6 manga and Switch game Omega 6: The Triangle Stars (he even wrote a blog post on why he left).
Last week, it was revealed that another longtime Nintendo creator, Kensuke Tanabe, had recently retired, with Tanabe confirming that Metroid Prime 4 was his last game at Nintendo (as reported by Video Games Chronicle). Many of the legendary game creators who shaped the NES and SNES eras are now in their 60s and 70s, including Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto (72). We will likely be seeing many more of these influential game designers departing Nintendo in the coming years, especially with the Switch 2 out the door.
Photo by Andreas Rentz/Getty Images.
Verity Townsend is a Japan-based freelance writer who previously served as editor, contributor and translator for the game news site Automaton West. She has also written about Japanese culture and movies for various publications.
