Virtual Boy wasn’t Gunpei Yokoi’s downfall
With the Virtual Boy’s 15th anniversary for Japan having passed last week and its U.S. birthday coming up, I thought I’d take a moment to correct a long-held misconception about the maligned red and black console.
As if the system doesn’t already receive enough hate from gamers, you’ll find many online sources claiming as fact that the Virtual Boy’s failure compelled Nintendo to force the resignation of its creator, Gunpei Yokoi – also the father of the Game & Watch, the Game Boy, the WonderSwan, and several memorable NES franchises.
According to Nintendo Magic and Yoshihiro Taki, who worked under Yokoi at Nintendo and later served as president and CEO of WonderSwan developer Koto, that wasn’t the case at all:
“In August 1996, Yokoi retired from Nintendo at the age of 54, and a month later he founded Koto, a small toy company, in Kyoto.
At the time, there were whispered speculations that he had left Nintendo to take responsibility for the Virtual Boy’s failure, or that there had been a fight with [Nintendo’s former president Hiroshi] Yamauchi, but Taki – who was there to see – says none of this is true.
Yokoi had originally decided to retire at 50 to do as he pleased. His retirement had simply been a bit later than planned.”
So, no, Nintendo didn’t fire Yokoi or shame him into resigning. Nor did it put a hit on him that was eventually carried out by the enigmatic Groove Raider.
See also: Tiny Review: Nintendo Magic, Yokoi on stereoscopic 3D consoles, and lots of Virtual Boy posts
[Image via Otoko]
