PIONEERS PASS AWAY

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In 2021, we celebrated 50 years of the commercial videogame industry, and with that milestone comes the sobering reality that many of the pioneering creators that have built the games we love have reached an advanced age. We recently learned of three major figures in the industry that have passed away. Hiroshi Ono passed away on 16 October at the age of 64, Masayuki Uemura passed away on 6 December aged 78, and Ian Hetherington passed on 14 December at 69.

Hiroshi Ono was an, and . Ono would remain with Namco until going freelance in 2013, after which he contributed to a variety of games including . In 2020 Ono revealed that an illness had taken most of his mobility, and that many of his early Namco artworks had been stolen in a burglary at his storage facility. A Japanese crowdfunding effort was set up earlier in 2021 in order to create a documentary about Ono’s life and work, and successfully reached its goal. The producers have since confirmed that the project will continue. Many of Ono’s colleagues in the industry have paid tribute, including Yuzo Koshiro, who posted some of Ono’s work on Twitter with the message, “My daughter found this and said with a smile a while back, ‘I love the red cat. So cute!’ I was impressed his pixel arts didn’t only inspire my generation strongly but also stood the test of time. I know they will all miss you too… RIP Hiroshi Ono-san aka Mr Dotman.”