Keita Takahashi Collects Items And Leaves

After Duke Nukem Forever's earthquake of an announcement almost a week ago, a smaller aftershock hit the game industry today, when Keita Takahashi announced he was leaving Namco Bandai.  In a way, this should come as no surprise, since he's been uncharacteristically -- for a Japanese worker -- critical of the industry and his company for quite a while.  Now that he's out of the game business he'll now focus on his playground redesign in England.  I'm going to guess that Namdai won't be sponsoring those trips anymore.

As one of the few real game designers out there, I was a little sad at the announcement.  Could the community's pleasure towards a new Duke Nukem game be Takahashi-san's final indication that the videogame world has left him behind?  I can only hope that the independent community can draw him back into the world of gaming, because I like the way he thinks, and the world would be much better off playing his games than the next big-budget shooter.