Metroid Database.com

Canadian magazine The Examiner has picked up a copy of Nintendo Magic: Winning the Video Game Wars, which clears up some of the history of Gumpei Yokoi, creator of the Game Boy and producer of the first three Metroid games. Many people have speculated over the years that Mr. Yokoi left Nintendo due to the spectacular failure of the Virtual Boy and the company's resulting lack of faith in his abilities. However, this was simply not the case: his colleague and CEO of Koto Labs, Yoshihiro Taki, explains that Mr. Yokoi's departure was actually something he had been planning for a long time:

Yokoi had originally decided to retire at 50 to do as he pleased. His retirement had simply been a bit later than planned.

I think we can now firmly lay to rest this unpleasant rumor knowing that Nintendo still had strong faith in Mr. Yokoi's abilities as well as support in his future endeavors. He simply postponed his retirement for another four years to help out at Nintendo while designing Game Boy systems and serving in the role of producer for Super Metroid, among other titles. After leaving in 1996 to form Koto Labs, he tragically died in a car accident in 1997. Mr. Yokoi had worked for Nintendo since 1965.

Until next time...
Captain Commando