Miyamoto Prepares Nintendo For His Retirement

Steven Bogos

The Taco Man
Jan 17, 2013
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Miyamoto Prepares Nintendo For His Retirement


The man who created Mario, Zelda, Pikmin, StarFox, and Donkey Kong turns 61 this year, and has to start thinking about what the company will do when he's no longer there.

Shigeru Miyamoto, the man who created a large bulk of Nintendo's most popular franchises, is getting old, and his retirement is on the horizon. Some would say that Miyamoto is Nintendo, so the thought of him eventually leaving the company is a very frightening scenario. To ease our minds, Miyamoto told Gamespot [http://uk.gamespot.com/news/miyamoto-strange-not-to-think-about-retirement-6404904] that he has taken measured steps to prepare the company for his retirement.

"This year I'm past 60; I'm going to be turning 61 this year. So for me to not be thinking about retirement would be strange," Miyamoto said, but assures fans that "the number of projects I'm involved in--and the volume of my work--hasn't changed at all." He says that, working on the assumption that the day when he no longer works at Nintendo is drawing near, an initiative to prepare the company for the next generation is now underway. "What I'm doing is pretending like I'm not working on half the projects that I would normally be working on to try to get the younger staff to be more involved."

Miyamoto adds that the initiative is more of an adjustment to Nintendo's organizational structure, rather than being directly related to his retirement. "For a long time I've been thinking that we need to try to break [the] structure down so that the individual producers that I'm working with are really taking responsibility for the projects that they're working on," Miyamoto said, telling us that he wants his junior producers to stop constantly looking to him for direction.

"And as I like to say, I try to duck out of the way, so that instead of them looking at me, they're looking at the consumer and trying to develop their games with the consumer in mind rather than me in mind. So it's really more of looking at this as sort of an opportunity to really try to help develop them and bring them up."

Pikmin 3 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/121333-Miyamoto-Wants-Pikmin-3-to-Stress-You-Out], due out later this year for the Wii U, will be the next major title produced by Miyamoto. Will it also be his last?

Source: Gamespot [http://uk.gamespot.com/news/miyamoto-strange-not-to-think-about-retirement-6404904]

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Skeleon

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Nov 2, 2007
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Is that a recent picture? Because if it is, man, does he not look his age.
 

Evil Smurf

Admin of Catoholics Anonymous
Nov 11, 2011
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Skeleon said:
Is that a recent picture? Because if it is, man, does he not look his age.
http://cdn.themis-media.com/media/global/images/library/deriv/28/28120.jpg
Is he immortal?
 

Dryk

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Dec 4, 2011
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He's right, it's reasonable at his age and weaning the producers off their boss will be beneficial in the long run.

Evil Smurf said:
Skeleon said:
Is that a recent picture? Because if it is, man, does he not look his age.
http://cdn.themis-media.com/media/global/images/library/deriv/28/28120.jpg
Is he immortal?
I hope so... god I hope so...
 

Terramax

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Jan 11, 2008
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Skeleon said:
Is that a recent picture? Because if it is, man, does he not look his age.
He has the money for facial implants.

Anyway, not a moment too soon I say. The more old timers like him leave the company, the better possibility we'll see some fresh franchises from the company.
 

ScruffyMcBalls

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Apr 16, 2012
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The man has given us some of the greatest games in our precious industry's history and I think he's done more than enough to earn our respect and a much needed break. It'll be sad to see him eventually retire, but I'm glad he's using it as a tool to better his company.

Shine on you crazy sonufabitch.
 

LazyAza

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May 28, 2008
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While I've never been the sort to play many Nintendo games or even own most of their products at all I certainly respect the man for all he has done for the industry and I'm sure he's already managed to teach other staff how to be and think like him over the many years of work he's done so their is probably little to worry about when he does inevitably retire.

Hell for all we know if he leaves we might finally get something completely new and different from Nintendo at long last instead of just Mario and Zelda. lol
 

WhiteTigerShiro

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Sep 26, 2008
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So how exactly does it work over in Japan, anyway? Does he have to retire, by law, at a certain point, or could he work until he dies if he really wanted to?
 

piinyouri

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Mar 18, 2012
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Terramax said:
Skeleon said:
Is that a recent picture? Because if it is, man, does he not look his age.
He has the money for facial implants.

Anyway, not a moment too soon I say. The more old timers like him leave the company, the better possibility we'll see some fresh franchises from the company.
Yup, I agree.
I do enjoy a few of the franchises he's created, but it is long past time for some new ideas.
 

james.sponge

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Mar 4, 2013
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Hope to see some new ips from Nintendo after that. Their games are enjoyable, nevertheless it's always good to see some fresh ideas not necessarily utilizing old characters and designs, no?
 

Riobux

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Apr 15, 2009
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I thought he already discarded his physical form in favour of dumping his mind into a glucose tank hooked to a computer that allows projections of his physical self as he remembers it being?
 

snekadid

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Mar 29, 2012
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Capitano Segnaposto said:
Evil Smurf said:
Skeleon said:
Is that a recent picture? Because if it is, man, does he not look his age.
http://cdn.themis-media.com/media/global/images/library/deriv/28/28120.jpg
Is he immortal?
He is in a special group, along with Betty White and Sean Connery. Still looking exactly like they did the previous 20 years.


OT: Eek. I am a huge fan of Miyamoto's and I am definitely going to be sad when he leaves the company.
sean connery and betty white? How about:





While I stopped liking mario after the gamecube generation, I always have been a fan of legends of zelda and so that maniac maintains a healthy level of my respect. ^_^
 

Micah Weil

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Mar 16, 2009
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Retirement?
Oh, you mean his inevitable death? :p
All that I can do is hope that his leaving the company (by whatever means necessary) doesn't turn Nintendo into something like EA or Ubisoft.
 

Canadamus Prime

Robot in Disguise
Jun 17, 2009
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Miyamoto, if you must go, before you do I wish you'd strive to bring back the spark that Nintendo once had because IMHO Nintendo has lost it.
 

Covarr

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May 29, 2009
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LazyAza said:
Hell for all we know if he leaves we might finally get something completely new and different from Nintendo at long last instead of just Mario and Zelda. lol
They'll never cut back on Mario and Zelda, they're just too big of cash cows. Not to mention, Miyamoto may have created Zelda, but it is Eiji Ounuma's baby nowadays, and has been pretty much since Ocarina of Time.

That said, I do appreciate that his design focus continues to be on the customer, rather than the company. That attitude has played a large part in the continuing high quality of many of their franchises. Games that the developers clearly made for either the company (Call of Duty) or themselves (Metroid: Other M) are consistently not as good as games that are just made to be pure fun and a good consumer value, like Super Mario Galaxy 2.

P.S. Thanks