Sakamoto started off crafting pixels before he created Metroid, while Yokoi was the janitor before he created Donkey Kong and went on to mentor Miyamoto and Sakamoto. I guess at Nintendo you have to start at the bottom.
What suddenly struck me while reading the interview though, is the loyalty that all the old Nintendo guard have for the company. Has Nintendo ever lost any key developers?
I don't think that's strange for a large company like Nintendo. Isn't it part of Japanese culture to essentially work at one company for the majority of your life? It might be changing now with Generation Y but for older people like the Miyamotos and Sakamotos, it's probably just how things work out.
One thing I'm concerned about with Nintendo is their reliance on these older designers. There are few hot shot young people at Nintendo making a name for themselves. I guess Iwata is probably the youngest!
Compared to Square Enix, Sega, Capcom, et al., Nintendo seems to have a fraction of the turnovers. Who ever left Nintendo to start their own game studio or work freelance? Almost 30 years later, Koji Kondo is still making music to Shigeru Miyamoto's games, while Sakamoto is supervising his ninth Metroid title, and Katsuya Eguchi is making Animal Crossing and Eiji Aonuma is making Zelda. The only key figure who ever left Nintendo for greener pastures was Gunpei Yokoi.
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