Miyamoto retiring from current job to work on smaller games

‘I’m Retiring,’ Nintendo’s Miyamoto Tells His Staff

The creator of Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda will step down from his current position at Nintendo but remain with the company to work on smaller, more personal projects, Wired.com has learned.

In an exclusive interview with Wired.com on Wednesday, the 59-year-old head of Nintendo’s game design department said that he will move away from supervising the development of massive games like this year’s Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword and Super Mario 3D Land, passing the torch to the younger designers in the company and working on projects that won’t take as long to complete.

“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.

Miyamoto, whose creations propelled Nintendo to worldwide prominence beginning with 1981′s arcade game Donkey Kong and who is generally recognized as the world’s most influential and creative game designer, said he felt comfortable stepping away from supervising the Mario and Zelda games because his staff has done such a good job with this year’s critically acclaimed entries in both series.

“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,” he said, gesturing to banners in the interview room in Nintendo’s office that showed the logos of Skyward Sword and Mario 3D Land.

The reason Miyamoto keeps telling the younger developers that he’s going to retire is to send the message that he won’t always be around for them to work with.

“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.”

As for himself, Miyamoto seemed eager to get to work on his new ideas with a smaller, younger staff.

“Anyway, I’m interested in doing a variety of many other things,” he said with his usual cryptic smile.

Eurogamer wrote:UPDATE: Nintendo has moved quickly to deny Wired.com's report that Shigeru Miyamoto is retiring from his current position.

"This is absolutely not true," a Nintendo spokeswoman told Reuters. "There seems to have been a misunderstanding. He has said all along that he wants to train the younger generation. He has no intention of stepping down. Please do not be concerned."

Beans wrote:Meh. He hasn't been involved in anything good for so long now that I couldn't really give a toss.

Beans wrote:Meh. He hasn't been involved in anything good for so long now that I couldn't really give a toss.

Big Black Booty Daddy wrote:

Beans wrote:Meh. He hasn't been involved in anything good for so long now that I couldn't really give a toss.

Mint-Ho Ho Ho wrote:Zelda Skyward Sword?

Beans wrote:Well do you care to share his last great game with us? Last one I can think of is Mario Galaxy all the way back in 07, but even then he wasn't involved as he used to be.

Santa's Extra Presents wrote:

Beans wrote:Well do you care to share his last great game with us? Last one I can think of is Mario Galaxy all the way back in 07, but even then he wasn't involved as he used to be.

Super Mario 3D Land?

Mint-Ho Ho Ho wrote:He's listed as producer for SS.