After leaving Fire Emblem studio, Donkey Kong veteran and Mario's Picross creator couldn't hire his former co-workers or he'd face Nintendo's wrath: "It shows a lack of decency"

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"If I took even a single employee from Intelligent Systems with me I knew that I would lose the ability to work with Nintendo"

Mario
(Image credit: Nintendo)

Mario's Picross creator and CEO of Jupiter Corporation, Makoto Nakayama, says that he couldn't coax developers from his former workplace to join him at his new company, because he was worried that Nintendo would no longer work with him.

Nakayama was previously one of the founding members of Nintendo first-party developer Intelligent Systems, which helped develop Mario Bros., Metroid, and Fire Emblem during his tenure. While he worked with a number of omega-talented superstars over the years, such as Satoru Iwata, Masahiro Sakurai, and Mario's dad Shigeru Miyamoto, he knew that if he coaxed "even a single employee" from his former studio to his new company, he would no longer be able to take advantage of his juicy connections.

George Young
George Young
Freelance News Writer

Freelance writer, full-time PlayStation Vita enthusiast, and speaker of some languages. I break up my days by watching people I don't know play Pokemon pretty fast.

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