Shigeru Miyamoto Addresses His Future at Nintendo

One day, there will be a Nintendo without Shigeru Miyamoto around, and Nintendo is keeping that in mind as time marches forward.

An interview with Miyamoto that appeared on Wired a few months back caused a stir, suggesting the acclaimed designer was actively telling staff about retirement. The story unsurprisingly spread like wildfire, causing Nintendo to clarify Miyamoto’s statements. According to Nintendo, Miyamoto was telling staff about his possible retirement to ensure they were aware of the impending reality.

Nintendo recently held a shareholders meeting at its headquarters, and the company addressed what the future of Miyamoto’s ongoing role at the company would be.

“As I am getting older, I have already started thinking of Nintendo without me in the future and I strongly feel that the company has steadily been preparing for doing business after I leave here,” said Miyamoto. “ However, last year when I said at an interview overseas that I was doing various things in prospect of Nintendo without me, it led to a direct report on my retirement. So I am aware I have to be careful in talking about this sort of thing.”

In line with previous statements, Miyamoto made it clear he will continue to oversee and collaborate on Nintendo’s biggest games, but he’s spending more and more time on smaller projects that could have the potential to become a huge part of Nintendo’s bottom line in the future, even if that potential has yet to be realized.

“Even now, I am making things and interested in the creative side just as I was before,” he said. “However, with regard to the big picture of, say, a new Mario Kart or the Super Mario series, younger people are already taking the main roles and I am just thinking as one of their co-workers. One big thing I recently handled is the Audioguide Louvre, referred to earlier in this meeting. This has not made money yet, but it has the potential to be one of our core businesses in the future.”

Audioguide Louvre is an audio and visual guide to the Louvre art museum in Paris used on a 3DS.

Miyamoto was choosing his words wisely, but nonetheless echoed his message to Nintendo’s staff.

“As I would like people working on each project to be able to do that kind of thing by themselves in the future,” he said, “I repeatedly say to them that today might be my last day at Nintendo and work with them today at the forefront of development.”

I'm sure he's tired.

Every time I read something like this it makes me think about how the world will be when Miyamoto is gone and how much we all benefited from his genius.

Even with him I feel like Nintendo is slipping further and further as time goes on.

I miss the N64 :/

Miyamoto will die within your lifetime

Things like the louv're project make me think he's doing well. Titles like Nsmb2 make me think this really is the next-gen working on the marquee titles now. I wonder what involvement he'll have with the Wii-U Zelda.

I'm very curious to see what Nintendo does with its next generation.

Gotta happen at some point. I'm glad that he will be involving himself in smaller projects. Such small projects usually yield interesting things.

I would like nothing more then to see Miyamoto work on small games that have no ties to a Nintendo series.

“I repeatedly say to them that today might be my last day"

That's a creepy thing to say at work! It makes people speculate he has a bad heart, and could keel over any day. Maybe the video game press will now go crazy spreading that theory!

Dude needs a break!

@GalacticPunt: Its has a very "we could be dead at any moment" kind of feel to it, which is pretty fucking morose for Miyamoto.

@jillsandwich: I'd be tired of working on all the crap they have him working on too.

As much as I enjoy seeing Miyamoto being involved in Nintendo at E3 and other events I hope he gets the rest that he deserves. It's time that the new generation stand on their own feet and build the future for the big N.

To be honest I haven't really been that amazed with what he's done for the past 10 years. Maybe it's the right time for someone else to take the helm.

I hope Shiggy retires someplace nice and has happy times till the end.

@slot9: Considering he's had little, if anything, to do with Zelda since Ocarina, probably nothing. With Skyward Sword he oversaw the Wii Motion Plus integration, but not so much on the actual game.

He deserves to take a nap and ride off into the sunset. Most important figure in Video Game history. His accomplishments will never be met by anyone.

I don't know why people flipped out. I thought the last game he was truely involved in was Ocarina of Time.

@chrismafuchris said:

Miyamoto will die within your lifetime

@GalacticPunt said:

@chrismafuchris said:

Miyamoto will die within your lifetime

:(

@hagridore said:

I don't know why people flipped out. I thought the last game he was truely involved in was Ocarina of Time.

What, Pikmin and Nintendogs weren't in the top 10 greatest games of all time for you?

j/k. Yeah, he really has been working on so many sequels the past ten years it's pathetic. I hope he still has some good ideas left but I'm not holding out hope that he has another Mario64 left in him. Though Galaxy was an excellent game.

Hopefully he doesn't retire too soon.

Truly the Walt of video games.

@TheHT said:

I hope Shiggy retires someplace nice and has happy times till the end.

Shiggy? Makes him sound like rapper... which would be kind of awesome if that was what he started doing as a hobby after he retires from Nintendo.

@BBQBram said:

Truly the Walt of video games.

So your saying he is a horrible person who will spend the second half of his life merely securing copyrights so he can pump out plastic crap for theme parks?

It will be a sad day for the video game industry as a whole when Miyamoto retires, it is inevitable but still saddening to see the man who helped save the home console market from the brink of extinction leave. I have very fond memories of playing game series he created and games he helped craft.

@mattcrwi: You jest, but Pikmin 2 was a mighty fine game. To me it has only been since the release of the Wii that Miyamoto's hit rate seems to have lessened, but that impression is no doubt symptomatic of the direction the company as a whole chose to follow. I'm not precisely sure how much he was involved with the Galaxy games, but if his input was significant then I'd say he's probably still 'got it'.

If that's the case, I can't think of anything better for Nintendo fans at this stage than for him to get to focus on smaller projects that are more open to creative possibilities than some of Nintendo's huge franchises currently are, provided that those smaller projects are for the most part interesting games and not slightly left field ventures like the 3DS at the Louvre thing that he cited in the interview.

Interesting fact. I've never owned a product that Miyamoto worked on but I still see him as a legend of the industry.

@chrismafuchris said:

Miyamoto will die within your lifetime

No, we'll take him upstate where he can have a great big farm to run around on and, and, chase rabbits and, you know, just have a good time.

@Stubee said:

Interesting fact. I've never owned a product that Miyamoto worked on but I still see him as a legend of the industry.

Where's the interesting fact?

I wonder how much of a hit Nintendo's stock will take when he does retire? He'll probably stay on as an ambassador or something. Anyway he deserves a bloody good break.

@GalacticPunt said:

“I repeatedly say to them that today might be my last day"

That's a creepy thing to say at work! It makes people speculate he has a bad heart, and could keel over any day. Maybe the video game press will now go crazy spreading that theory!

It probably loses its flavor in translation. Probably the funniest pun imaginable in Japanese.

He's gonna take one hell of a vacation when that day comes. He bloody deserves it.

Hopefully this means the Wii U eShop will be as good as XBLA and this also means he will make tons of awesome games for that, whether it be brand new stuff or like a Zelda game in the style of the original, or like Super Metroid type thing or a pixel based Mario, I'm sure they will be brilliant.

Just retire! Seriously! Nintendo hasn't made anything exciting since the N64. They need to create new characters and IP's E3 proved that they are done trying Pikmin 3 looks just like Pikmin 1 and that was supposed to be the big reveal. Get sone new talent in abd give them a go at making some games.

He looks maniacally happy in that pic. T'will be a sad day for the gaming world when Miyamoto no longer plays a part in it.

OOT was one of my first video games I ever played. No other Zelda games that came after it have been anything more than a footnote. If he has it in him I would like to see him do one more great Zelda game before cashing in. If he can't or won't do it, it will never get done. No one else can do it.

"I repeatedly say to them that today might be my last day at Nintendo..." may be one of the most depressing quotes I've ever heard EVER. Like he's preparing for when he ascends or something. I've never gotten "upset" or anything over a celebrity passing, but I'm gonna pour one out for Shiggy when the time comes.

Woof! There's that "death and the universe" thing popping into my head. I'm gonna go drink, guys.

the beginning of the end of nintendo

@mattcrwi said:

@hagridore said:

I don't know why people flipped out. I thought the last game he was truely involved in was Ocarina of Time.

What, Pikmin and Nintendogs weren't in the top 10 greatest games of all time for you?

j/k. Yeah, he really has been working on so many sequels the past ten years it's pathetic. I hope he still has some good ideas left but I'm not holding out hope that he has another Mario64 left in him. Though Galaxy was an excellent game.

Even titles like Pikmin & Nintendogs are just based on concepts he sketched up. Don't think he's had a "director" credit since the N64 days. And if you love Mario Galaxy, not much of that is to do with him - he only consulted on it. Not trying to downplay his work, just pointing out Nintendo has been managing without him as a creative director for over a decade now.

I'd love to see Miyamoto tackle something really dark. Take his thoughts on mortality and moving on to the next stages of life and just see what the dude comes up with.

I'm seeing something like Brutal Legend without the fun & snark and with the self-seriousness of Demon's Souls. Guitar bass chugging, rivers of blood, Link wading through bodies with a double-edged battle axe.

My time with Nintendo stopped at SNES. I've never gotten hooked up with any of their following consoles even though I own all of them.

i wouldnt worry about him, but worry Nintendo instead, after E3 like that, it aint showing great things to come for them with WiiU

Miyamoto signs with Microsoft, the Outsiders style: CONFIRMED

I'll be as sad when Miyamoto goes as much as when Gunpei Yokoi died.

@tourgen said:

I'd love to see Miyamoto tackle something really dark. Take his thoughts on mortality and moving on to the next stages of life and just see what the dude comes up with.

I'm seeing something like Brutal Legend without the fun & snark and with the self-seriousness of Demon's Souls. Guitar bass chugging, rivers of blood, Link wading through bodies with a double-edged battle axe.

Maybe it's just me, but that actually sounds unappealing to me. Gore and dark are two different things. You can make something dark without gore, and you can make something bloody as hell but not dark at all.

I would like to see Miyamoto start a new project, like a new Nintendo horror game, and see what they make. Not something disgusting or bloody, just something that is genuinely terrifying.

I'm fine with Miyamoto retiring. He's more a mascot now than an actual game design genius. The last round of games he designed were on Gamecube or N64 or something, and they weren't amazing. Did Pikmin help the Gamecube destroy the Xbox or PS2? Does anyone care about that series besides some vocal game journalists (mostly IGN)? No. Besides that turd, he's mostly been championing the stupid "Wii _____" series of minigame collections. And yeah, LEGIONS of stupid senior citizens bought the Wii because of Wii bowling, but considering the failures of stuff like Wii Music, and the underperformances of Wii Sports Resort and Wii Party, who cares about this series? Now we're getting Nintendoland, a game that doesn't show off how powerful their new HD console is at all. Bravo.

The best Nintendo games from the past decade/15 years have been directed by OTHER guys; underrated dudes like Eiji Aonuma (Mr.Zelda), Yoshiaki Koizumi (Super Mario Galaxy) and Koichi Hayashida (Super Mario 3D Land). Not to mention other studios long since taking over franchises, like Retro with Metroid and Donkey Kong Country. Personally, I think Nintendo would be fine if Aonuma-san took over Miyamoto's "baby face role" (to borrow a wrestling term) at the company.

He has a legendary career, so he's good to go. And he's given us all some of the greatest THINGS of all time, period. Including my favorite game of all time, Super Mario 64. So he'll have my props forever. But he hasn't brought Nintendo anything amazing in a long time though; they'll be fine without him.

@chrismafuchris said:

Miyamoto will die within your lifetime

Not if I kill myself first!

I know Miyamoto hasn't properly worked on a game in a while, but damn if I don't love the dude. The idea of Nintendo without him just seems...wrong.