Miyamoto is a celebrity for gamers everywhere. As the man behind some of Nintendo's most prized franchises, it's really hard to levy a criticism against the guy. So this may come as bad news - or good news depending on how you look at it - Shigeru Miyamoto has stated that he is going to retire from his current position at Nintendo and take up a new spot within the company - sort of like the rumored departure of Ueda from Sony.
Update: Nintendo denies Miyamoto's retirement or any change in his position.
Nintendo issued the following statement this morning:
"Video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto's role at Nintendo is not changing. He will continue to be a driving force in Nintendo's development efforts. In discussing his priorities at Nintendo in a media interview, Mr Miyamoto explained how he is encouraging the younger developers at the company to take more initiative and responsibility for developing software. He attempted to convey his priorities moving forward, inclusive of overseeing all video game development and ensuring the quality of all products. Mr Miyamoto also discussed his desire to pursue fresh ideas and experiences of the kind that sparked his initial interest in video games."
Original post as follows:
Yes, through some poorly thought-out and slightly panic-spurring wording, Miyamoto will leave his job as Nintendo's head of game design to gain a more direct involvement on gaming, simply meaning that he will now be more involved in working on smaller projects instead of supervising the development of Nintendo's larger franchises.
Miyamoto's hope is to be able to create a game that won't have a five year development period and instead work on smaller games, and hopefully with younger teams too.
“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"
Nintendo fans don't need to worry as Miyamoto says the reason he feels comfortable doing this is because of how much he has nurtured the development teams at Nintendo, meaning that even with his "absence" Nintendo will still be able to craft the same high quality games we all know and love.
“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."
Really, what I hope this means is that we may see something new from Miyamoto as opposed to the same franchises Nintendo has been releasing for years. Not that there's anything wrong with these games - as our Skyward Sword review shows Nintendo's oldest IP's still have some kick left in them, but it would be great to see something new and refreshing from the man who brought us Super Mario.
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