It’s been confirmed that eccentric game design star Keita Takahashi has left publisher Namco Bandai, after seemingly becoming disillusioned with the general direction that the videogame industry has begun to take with regards to motion technology, stereoscopic 3D, and expensive development cycles.

The news of Takahashi’s departure was confirmed to consumer site Play.tm by a Namco Bandai spokesperson.

Takahashi would best be known for his work on designing the playful ‘ball rolling simulator,’ Katamari Damacy, while the last game he worked on was the quirky, ultra-experimental Noby Noby Boy.

Speaking to Official PlayStation Magazine in August, Takahashi expressed his disinterest in motion controllers and their affects on games, saying (as quoted by CVG):

“I’m actually not thinking about a future in games. It’s not that I’m not interested in them, but I want to try lots of different things.”

“At E3 I saw people putting on speeches but I thought the future seemed a bit dark. The 3D games didn’t spark my interest. I think motion control’s a bit old now. I don’t think those games are the future. It all seemed a bit dull.”

In an interview surfacing last week on tech blog The Setup, Takahashi referred to Namco Bandai Games as a “so-so company” and (probably sardonically) said that he is “so inefficient” that he’s only been able to make “four games in 11 years.”

While it’s not known whether or not this spells the end for Takahashi’s involvement in the videogame industry, it is known that he has been helping to redesign a park in Nottingham, UK, where he hopes to build a fun, interactive and safe environment for children to play in, and hopes to ensure that visitors to the park will never become bored with its range of activities.

It is also known that Takahashi wishes to try his hand at crafts other than videogames, and would like to investigate the design of things such as toys, buildings, furniture and anything else that requires careful design practices and thought.

Source: Play.tm