Nintendo's Hidemaro Fujibayashi makes the 2023 Variety500

Decades after his debut, Shigeru Miyamoto remains the most high-profile developer at Nintendo. He could actually be the most well-known game developer in the entire industry, but clearly the gang at Variety is out to change that, as they feel one other big name at Nintendo deserves major recognition.

Variety has released their 2023 installment of the Variety500, which is an index of the most influential business leaders shaping the global media industry. Among the list of 500 “Entertainment Business Leaders” that Variety put together is none other than Hidemaro Fujibayashi, the Director on both Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

Nintendo’s Eiji Aonuma has spoken at length about just how important Fujibayashi is to The Legend of Zelda, with his contributions to Tears of the Kingdom making the game what it is. It’s very clear that the future of Zelda is going to be steered largely by what Fujibayashi can do, and that certainly makes it seem like the franchise is in very capable hands.

If you’d like to read Variety’s writeup on Fujibayashi, you can find the complete piece here.