{"id":538946,"date":"2026-01-24T07:37:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T07:37:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/538946\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T07:37:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T07:37:13","slug":"industry-veteran-hideki-konno-has-apparently-left-nintendo-after-four-decades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/538946\/","title":{"rendered":"Industry Veteran Hideki Konno Has Apparently Left Nintendo After Four Decades"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"scanlines\" title=\"Mario Kart 8 - Nintendo Life\" href=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/ef13d34c6980c\/mario-kart-8-nintendo-life.large.jpg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/mario-kart-8-nintendo-life.900x.jpg\" width=\"900\" height=\"500\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Mario Kart 8 - Nintendo Life\"\/><\/a> Image: Nintendo<\/p>\n<p>Following the news of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/news\/2026\/01\/nintendo-producer-kensuke-tanabe-has-seemingly-confirmed-his-retirement\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Kensuke Tanabe&#8217;s retirement<\/a> earlier this week, it&#8217;s now being reported game designer, director, producer, and Nintendo veteran Hideki Konno has also called time on his career at the Japanese firm.<\/p>\n<p>According to an update on his Facebook page, he seemingly left the company in July 2025, but the news of his departure and apparent retirement has only been discovered now. He was at Nintendo for around 40 years and started as a designer and assistant director on games such as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/nes\/super_mario_bros_2\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Super Mario Bros. 2<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/nes\/super_mario_bros_3\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Super Mario Bros. 3<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>He went on to direct multiple titles including <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/snes\/super_mario_kart\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Super Mario Kart<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/snes\/super_mario_world_2_yoshis_island\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Yoshi&#8217;s Island<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/n64\/mario_kart_64\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Mario Kart 64<\/a>. He went on to lead his own group at <a class=\"external\" href=\"https:\/\/nintendo.fandom.com\/wiki\/Nintendo_EPD_Production_Group_No._9\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Nintendo EPD<\/a> and played a role in the creation of the 3DS as the producer.<\/p>\n<p>In more recent years, he acted as a producer on games like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/nintendo-switch\/mario_kart_8_deluxe\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Mario Kart 8<\/a>, and helped run <a class=\"external\" href=\"https:\/\/nintendo.fandom.com\/wiki\/Nintendo_EPD_Smart_Device_Production_Group\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Nintendo&#8217;s mobile division<\/a>, working on titles such as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/mobile\/super_mario_run\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Super Mario Run<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/mobile\/fire_emblem_heroes\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Fire Emblem Heroes<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/mobile\/mario_kart_tour\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Mario Kart Tour<\/a>. He also worked on the DLC for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/nintendo-switch\/mario_kart_8_deluxe\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Mario Kart 8 Deluxe<\/a> for Switch and was recently given a &#8220;special thanks&#8221; credit in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/nintendo-switch-2\/mario-kart-world\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Mario Kart World<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"scanlines\" title=\"Hideki Konno - Nintendo Life\" href=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/1ef970e264e0a\/hideki-konno-nintendo-life.large.jpg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/hideki-konno-nintendo-life.900x.jpg\" width=\"900\" height=\"506\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Hideki Konno - Nintendo Life\"\/><\/a> Image: Nintendo<\/p>\n<p>This news once again follows the news of Kensuke Tanabe&#8217;s reported retirement, who was known for his work on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/gamecube\/metroid_prime\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Metroid Prime<\/a> series and many other Nintendo games throughout his career.<\/p>\n<p>In some other industry news this week, Nintendo of America&#8217;s new president and COO, Devin Pritchard, recently made <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/news\/2026\/01\/im-excited-to-meet-you-devon-pritchard-makes-her-first-public-appearance-as-president-of-noa\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">her first public appearance<\/a>. And the former president of this branch, Doug Bowser, has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/news\/2026\/01\/former-nintendo-of-america-president-doug-bowser-joins-hasbros-board-of-directors\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">joined the board of directors at Hasbro<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text source\">[source <a class=\"external\" title=\"External Link: https:\/\/famiboards.com\/threads\/hideki-konno-producer-and-game-designer-has-left-nintendo.16356\/#post-2146849\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/famiboards.com\/threads\/hideki-konno-producer-and-game-designer-has-left-nintendo.16356\/#post-2146849\" target=\"_blank\">famiboards.com<\/a>, via <a class=\"external\" title=\"External Link: https:\/\/nintendoeverything.com\/hideki-konno-nintendo-retirement\/\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/nintendoeverything.com\/hideki-konno-nintendo-retirement\/\" target=\"_blank\">nintendoeverything.com<\/a>]<\/p>\n<dl>\n<dt>Related Games<\/dt>\n<dd class=\"first\">\n<\/dd>\n<dt>See Also<\/dt>\n<dd class=\"first\">\n<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<p class=\"avatar\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"img lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/1753583950_71_avatar.jpg\" width=\"80\" height=\"80\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Liam Doolan\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Liam is a news writer and reviewer across Hookshot Media. He&#8217;s been writing about games for more than 15 years and is a lifelong fan of many iconic video game characters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Image: Nintendo Following the news of Kensuke Tanabe&#8217;s retirement earlier this week, it&#8217;s now being reported game designer,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":538947,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7],"tags":[238073,3195,394,238074,2468,395,158,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-538946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-hideki-konno","tag-industry","tag-nintendo","tag-nintendo-mobile","tag-nintendo-switch","tag-nintendo-switch-2","tag-technology","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115948935740631711","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=538946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/538947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=538946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=538946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=538946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}