Shigeru Miyamoto 'retiring from current position' at Nintendo, working on smaller games [update: Nintendo denies]

by Ben Gilbert on Dec 7th 2011 9:34PM

Update: A Nintendo spokesperson tells Reuters that the report of Shigeru Miyamoto stepping down to a different position is "absolutely not true." The company asserts the story is a "misunderstanding," and that Miyamoto has "no intention" of stepping down.

Original story: "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," Nintendo head of development and long-time game industry figurehead Shigeru Miyamoto told Wired's Game|Life blog in an interview this week. It appears, after a lengthy career spent creating some of the game industry's most popular and important franchises, Miyamoto is altering his role at the company.

"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," he explained further. Miyamoto isn't quitting development, though. Apparently he's looking to start a new project in 2012, and hopes to show it publicly by year's end.

"In other words, I'm not intending to start from things that require a five-year development time," he added. While he won't be changing roles immediately, the idea behind announcing his retirement is to spur the less veteran devs at Nintendo to step up. "I'm interested in doing a variety of many other things," he teased.

View the original article here

Miyamoto definitely not retiring, but setting up for his eventual departure

by JC Fletcher on Dec 9th 2011 9:45AM

Shigeru Miyamoto is definitely not retiring from Nintendo. But the question of whether he is "retiring" from his high-level executive position has been pointlessly contentious, with Nintendo PR countering his own claims.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, the game design legend was more guarded in his words, saying that the company should be "structured" to continue operations without him, to transition toward his eventual departure. "I should also admit that it might be better without me," Miyamoto said. "I mean that a different approach and different talent might emerge, though I shouldn't dwell on this because then the article might indeed say 'Mr. Miyamoto is thinking about retiring,' because that is not the case." Of course he will have to leave Nintendo at some point, because he ages at the normal human rate.

He reiterated his interest in spending time on smaller ideas, though the WSJ reports that he said those ideas could "blossom" into larger games.

View the original article here