Naoto Ohshima (大島 直人, Ōshima Naoto) was born on February 26, 1964. He is a Japanese video game designer and artist, most famous for creating Sonic the Hedgehog and Dr. Eggman for Sega’s Sonic the Hedgehog series.
Yuji Naka (中 裕司, Naka Yūji; born September 17, 1965), sometimes called YU2, is a Japanese former video game designer and programmer. He co-created the Sonic the Hedgehog series and was the president of Sonic Team at Sega until he left in 2006. Naka joined Sega in 1984 and worked on games such as Girl’s Garden (1985) and Phantasy Star II (1989).
Koji Kondo (Japanese: 近藤 浩治, Hepburn: Kondō Kōji; born August 13, 1961) is a Japanese composer and important leader at the video game company Nintendo. He is most famous for creating music for the Super Mario and The Legend of Zelda video game series. His music for Super Mario Bros.
Nobuo Uematsu (植松 伸夫, Uematsu Nobuo; born March 21, 1959) is a Japanese composer and keyboardist who is most famous for creating music for the Final Fantasy video game series by Square Enix. He taught himself how to play music and began playing the piano when he was twelve years old. Uematsu joined Square in 1986, where he first met Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of Final Fantasy.
Hironobu Sakaguchi (坂口 博信, Sakaguchi Hironobu; born November 25, 1962) is a Japanese game designer, director, producer, and writer. He worked for Square (later Square Enix) from 1983 to 2003. In 2004, he left the company and started an independent studio called Mistwalker.
Masayuki Uemura (上村雅之, Uemura Masayuki; 20 June 1943 – 6 December 2021) was a Japanese engineer, video game producer, and professor. He worked for Nintendo from 1971 to 2004 and played an important role in creating the Family Computer. Before joining Nintendo, Uemura was employed by Sharp Corporation.
Gunpei Yokoi (Japanese: 横井 軍平, Hepburn: Yokoi Gunpei; September 10, 1941 – October 4, 1997) was a Japanese toy maker and video game designer. He worked for Nintendo for many years and is best known for creating several important Nintendo products, such as the Ultra Hand toy, the Game & Watch, and the Game Boy handheld game systems. He also helped produce popular video game series like Metroid and Kid Icarus.
Shigeru Miyamoto (Japanese: 宮本 茂; born November 16, 1952) is a Japanese video game designer, producer, and game director who works for Nintendo. Since 2002, he has been one of Nintendo’s representative directors as an executive. He is widely known as one of the most successful and influential video game designers in history.
Tōru Iwatani (岩谷 徹, Iwatani Tōru) was born on January 25, 1955. He is a Japanese video game designer who worked for Namco for most of his career. He is most famous for creating the arcade game Pac-Man, which was released in 1980.
Tomohiro Nishikado (西角 友宏, Nishikado Tomohiro) was born on March 31, 1944. He is a Japanese video game developer and engineer. He created the arcade shooting game Space Invaders, which was released to the public in 1978 by the Taito Corporation in Japan.