Spoilers for Metroid Prime 4: Beyond ahead.
Kensuke Tanabe, the longtime Nintendo producer known for his work on the Metroid franchise, has reportedly announced his retirement. A producer at Nintendo for nearly 40 years, Tanabe’s first work with Nintendo came as the director of 1987’s Yume Kojo: Doki Doki Panic!, a title that would later be converted into Super Mario Bros. 2 for American audiences. From there, Tanabe became a script writer on back-to-back entries in The Legend of Zelda franchise, those being The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening.
In 2003, Tanabe moved to Nintendo Software Planning and Development, where he took over as the manager of Production Group No. 3. Since then, he has produced a bevy of games for Nintendo and is most recognized as a long-running producer on the Metroid Prime series alongside Retro Studios. Most recently, he oversaw the franchise’s latest entry, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, which released in December 2025, over eight years after its official announcement.
Nintendo shares the official position of the newly-released Metroid Prime 4: Beyond in the overall timeline for the sci-fi franchise.
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