Miyamoto retiring from his current position at Nintendo, will work on smaller projects
December 7th, 2011 Posted in General Nintendo, News, Posted by Valay
Shigeru Miyamoto will no longer be in charge of Nintendo’s most significant games. This includes the likes of Mario and Zelda. Miyamoto has previously hinted at – and has now confirmed – that he’ll be allowing the younger staffers at Nintendo to lead the company’s more significant projects.
Miyamoto told Wired:
“Inside our office, I’ve been recently declaring, ‘I’m going to retire, I’m going to retire.’ I’m not saying that I’m going to retire from game development altogether. What I mean by retiring is, retiring from my current position. What I really want to do is be in the forefront of game development once again myself. Probably working on a smaller project with even younger developers. Or I might be interested in making something that I can make myself, by myself. Something really small. …In other words, I’m not intending to start from things that require a five-year development time.”
Why is Miyamoto going in this direction? He explained:
“I’m saying this because I have a solid reaction from the existing teams. I was able to nurture the developers inside Nintendo who were able to create something like this or something like that. … The reason why I’m stressing that is that unless I say that I’m retiring, I cannot nurture the young developers. After all, if I’m there in my position as it is, then there’s always kind of a relationship. And the young guys are always kind of in a situation where they have to listen to my ideas. But I need some people who are growing up much more than today. …Anyway, I’m interested in doing a variety of many other things.”
Miyamoto is currently planning to begin making a new title in 2012. If all goes well, he hopes to reveal the game to fans within the year.
- Nintendo’s trick to cut down on work for Adult/Young Link, N64DD difficulties Published on: June 16, 2011
- GDC director: Nintendo is in a position make announcements if they wish Published on: February 28, 2011
- Miyamoto doesn’t believe tilt controls and 3D would work well together Published on: October 24, 2010
- Nintendo engineer teases two hardcore/secret projects Published on: October 30, 2008
- Nintendo skips Leipzig for smaller venues Published on: May 23, 2008
12 Responses to “Miyamoto retiring from his current position at Nintendo, will work on smaller projects”
By bob on Dec 7, 2011
i almost just shat myself when i saw this title on my twitter
By ThomasN on Dec 7, 2011
Even though Miyamoto is a prominent figure in video game development, too many people gives the impression that he is a creator. He is actually a producer and supervisor and people tend to ignore the younger developers who do the actual work. Video game development, like film development, is a collaborative work involving many people, most who are un-sung while the top staffers (like Miyamoto) tend to get the credit.
By Ronin180 on Dec 7, 2011
It had to happen eventually.
@ThomasN
Very well said Thomas.
By invader_quirk on Dec 7, 2011
The people he’s trained to take his place are doing excellent jobs. I look forward to seeing what he can come up with without so much responsibility bogging him down.
By Mizuy on Dec 7, 2011
@bob My reaction too.
Then I was about to cry, but then he says he’ll not go away completely…
By Millah on Dec 8, 2011
@ThomasN while that may be true, he’s still largely influential on the end result. I see his role very similarly to Steve Jobs. Not the person writing every line of code, or coming up with all the ideas, but more or less the leader who passes off on everything and says what things are good and what things need to be fixed. A mentor for the rest of the team who curates ideas, fixes things, and even offers ideas of his own. Like for example, we know Skyward Sword had a bad intro portion until Miyamoto played it and said it was crap and needed to be fixed. So he might not have been the one who created the intro portion, but the end result ultimately became what it was become of Miyamoto telling Aonuma what was wrong with it and how to make it better.
That type of person is very important in a team. Ideas are nothing without a leader with the cohesive vision to put all the ideas into place, recognize which ones work and which ones don’t, and polish the hell out of the final product.
By Captain N on Dec 8, 2011
There seems to be a misconception of Miyamoto……. he is a creator, he created almost every noticable Nintendo Character that we play with, he created Donkey Kong, Mario, Link. Fox Mccloud, Pikmin,Nintendogs……. but I do understand he is making every aspect of the current games, and he doesn’t have to. That’s why he has these people under him. The make the new games and he says yes or no. These are his babies and his stories, he has made sure to stay true to the formulas he once started. I do understand its time to pass the torch, which he has been gradually doing with Zelda and Mario and I’m glad he’s not leaving. I always pictured him working with Nintendo till the day he dies! I’m a bit worried though about not starting any more big projects though because a few years back I do believe he said he wanted to make a new franchise/character, and if this was the case it would have to be a big deal. I hope his small projects he works on lead to bigger things in Nintendos portfolio in the future.
By Captain N on Dec 8, 2011
Ment to say I understand he isn’t making every aspect of the current games
Valay where did the edit feature go
????
By Nagix3 on Dec 8, 2011
Nooo Miyamoto! Wow I’m actually in loss of words. God can’t just quit!
By Venox2008 on Dec 8, 2011
I, I , I actually don’t know if it’s good or bad, still he’ll make other projects and maybe will advice younger devs at nintendo on bigger projects..
By Triskiller on Dec 8, 2011
This makes me sad in a lot of ways, but you can’t work in such a high profile position forever. He has trained many people to think like him and I believe that those people will continue his tradition of innovation and creation.
By Triskiller on Dec 8, 2011
Update: Miyamoto is not stepping down!
http://uk.wii.ign.com/articles/121/1214255p1.html
Read the last update!