Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com
Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda has announced his retirement from his current position at Nintendo. The designer will leave as head of Nintendo's game design department and states that while he will remain at Nintendo, he plans to work only on smaller titles.
“Inside our office, I’ve been recently declaring, ‘I’m going to retire, I’m going to retire,’” Miyamoto said through his interpreter. “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,” Miyamoto said. “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.”
Miyamoto said that he’s hoping to start work on a project in 2012, and hopefully show the game off publicly within the year.
“In other words, I’m not intending to start from things that require a five-year development time,” he said.
“What I really want to do is be in the forefront of game development once again myself,” Miyamoto said. “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.”
Miyamoto said that he’s hoping to start work on a project in 2012, and hopefully show the game off publicly within the year.
“In other words, I’m not intending to start from things that require a five-year development time,” he said.
Widely accepted as being the most influential designer, he feels that the teams working on his creations now are doing a terrific job already and need no more supervision on his part.
“I’m saying this because I have a solid reaction from the existing teams,” he said. “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,” he said. “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.”
“The reason why I’m stressing that is that unless I say that I’m retiring, I cannot nurture the young developers,” he said. “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.”
This news comes as a Wired.com exclusive interview with Miyamoto. That interview is slated to be published next week.