First off, here's the good news: Shigeru Miyamoto still works for Nintendo. The bad news is that he's taking a simpler position within the company. Instead of overseeing the biggest titles for the dev, from now on he'll be working on smaller projects and letting others oversee the huge franchises he helped create.
In an interview with Wired, the legendary game maker revealed the change in his career path. “I’m not saying that I’m going to retire from game development altogether,” he clarified. “What I mean by retiring is, retiring from my current position.” For years Miyamoto hadn’t been heading up just a couple of games, but instead overseeing and giving guidance to almost all the development teams within Nintendo. Apparently now he feels like the teams he’s led for years on franchises like Mario and Zelda have grown enough that they no longer need his guidance. “I’m saying this because I have a solid reaction from the existing team… I was able to nurture the developers inside Nintendo who were able to create something like (Skyward Sword or Super Mario 3D Land).”
What’s next for him? Smaller productions that he can create with less people and release in a matter of months, not years. “What I really want to do is be in the forefront of game development once again… working on a smaller project with even younger developers.” He indicated that he’d like to start and finish his first project within the next year.
So don’t fret doom and gloomers. Though it may sound sad that Miyamoto has seemingly divested himself from his biggest franchises, if anything this means you’ll get to play the first new project directly overseen by Miyamoto in years. We can’t wait to see what it is, and if everything goes according to plan, it hopefully won’t take long.
Source: Wired
