Goro Abe (the director for the WarioWare series and programmer for Wario Land 4), has now resigned from Nintendo. The former staff announced on Twitter that he’s left the company, and will be working at Osaka Electric Communication University as a professor for their new Game & Social Design Course. Here’s his original post:
任天堂を2月いっぱいで退職しました。
4月からは大阪電気通信大学の教授として働きます。
所属は新設される「ゲーム・社会デザイン専攻」です。
ゲームに関わる研究や、ゲーム制作にも取り組む予定ですので、これまで以上に広く、さまざまな方々と関わっていけたらと思います。— 阿部悟郎 / GORO ABE (@goroemon) March 9, 2026
Plus, a loose translation of the whole thing:
I retired from Nintendo at the end of February. Starting in April, I will be working as a professor at Osaka Electric Communication University with the newly established “Game & Social Design” department. I plan to work on game-related research and development, so I hope to be able to interact with a wider range of people than ever before
So, we wish him well. He’s done a great job with the WarioWare series (and Wario brand as a whole), and we’re sure he’ll do equally well in his role as a university professor too.
That said, it does make us wonder a few things.
Firstly, how much did the sales of WarioWare: Move It and uncertain direction for the series play into this decision?
Because WarioWare hasn’t been in an amazing place recently. WarioWare: Get It Together did decently well all things considered, but Move It was apparently a flop in the sales department, and both got a mixed reception from fans and critics.
Indeed, with the series kinda struggling to find a direction after Gold acted as an amazing finale for the series, we have to wonder if that inspired Abe’s decision here. Perhaps he realised he’s done everything he wanted to at Nintendo and wanted a change of scenery. Or that WarioWare was getting a bit played out, and should potentially be rested for a bit before being given to someone else.
Similarly, we also wonder where the series might go too. After all, modern Nintendo consoles haven’t exactly been as gimmicky as those from earlier in WarioWare’s history, with the Switch 2 not really rocking the boat in the gameplay innovation department.
Hence while they could just go with mouse mode or something like that, we do have to wonder if instead they might decide to change up the genre or overall formula. Maybe the next game will be a Super Mario Bros 35 or F-Zero 99 style experience with lots of players competing in a microgame based battle royale. Or perhaps the WarioWare name will be retired for a bit, and the characters put into a different type of game based on their personalities and quirks. Maybe an RPG or adventure game or general party game or something else of that nature.
Finally, there’s also the feeling that quite a few longtime Nintendo employees might be stepping away in recent times too. I mean, many of these guys have been with the company for 2, 3 even 4 or 5 decades at this point. Hence just like Goro Abe and Kensuke Tanabe, perhaps a few others might decide retirement is a good idea about now.
Regardless, that’s Goro Abe’s retirement from Nintendo, and some of the effects it may have on the company. So, what do you think? Are you a fan of the WarioWare series or any other games he worked on? What do you think the future of those franchises could be like now he’s left?
Leave your thoughts in the comments below, on social media, or on our Discord server today!
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