In case you haven’t been on, quite literally, any website on the internet lately, then you probably don’t have the internet but just in case you do and this is the first site you choose to visit after going for days without it, let me fill you in on a little story flooding the web right now. That story is about Nintendo developer and creater of Mario himself, Shigeru Miyamoto and whether or not he is retiring.
According to a new report released by Wired magazine earlier this week, Miyamoto said he was planning on “stepping down” from his current position in favor of helping train younger developers as well as work on independent projects. See also; not retiring. Then Nintendo followed up the report (after their stocks took a pretty big plummet) by saying Miyamoto wasn’t going anywhere. Wired responded by saying they stand by their interview. So great, we have two separate parties saying two very different things. Well, finally, the man himself stepped in and said he wasn’t stepping down just yet, that it was more him having a hard time getting his words across during the interview. But he did mention that in order to better train younger developers, it would make sense for him to step down. So you can make of that what you will. Regardless, he isn’t stepping down or retiring just yet.
Now, the internet is all a buzz about this news, which I can understand. When you hear that the most beloved and respected developer in gaming history might be retiring, it’s pretty big news. But he isn’t retiring and he never was, just moving to a lower position, so I personally think people were worrying for nothing and that’s the reason I’m writing this article. Because I have an opinion and I demand everybody know it!
Look, I love Miyamoto, he’s an idol, not just for me but the majority of the gaming community and development world alike. Video games owe pretty much everything to him, he’s managed to change so much about gaming practically by himself. However, I don’t think him stepping down or retiring would ever be the end of Nintendo.
From what he said, he’s just stepping down to train younger developers and work on independent projects. I don’t see why people were freaking out about this so much. He’d still be at Nintendo, he’d still help out and give his ideas when needed. Mario, Zelda, the Mii games, none of those franchises were going anywhere. Miyamoto wasn’t going anywhere. In fact, the idea of him training younger developers is a grand one because believe it or not, it takes more than one person to develop games these days. Development teams, especially on games as big as Nintendo’s, can have people in the hundreds working on one single game. Miyamoto himself is not Nintendo and we need developers to be taught the Nintendo way to continue to uphold their legacy of making outstanding games. Even if Miyamoto was to retire, I don’t think Nintendo would even change all that much because he isn’t the only person developing games over there. There are tons of minds over at Nintendo and they almost always produce a great product, whether Miyamoto happens to be involved or not.
I don’t want Miyamoto to retire and it will be a sad day when it happens, things will change but not as drastically as everybody seems to think. He isn’t alone at Nintendo. It’s a big company with a lot of great developers and Miyamoto is going to train even more of them than I say go for it. The more the merrier!
Also, let’s face it guys, he’s going to retire someday. As I already said, it’ll be sad and I don’t want it to happen but it’s going to happen and honestly, he deserves it. He’s one of the hardest working men in gaming right now and has been since Nintendo first went into making games. He not only shaped that company into what it is today but gaming as a whole. If anybody deserves to retire, it’s this man. And honestly, he could likely retire at any time he felt like it. I’m sure he has enough money to spend the rest of his days without working. But that’s not who he is. He loves making games and he’s going to keep doing it until he feels it’s absolutely necessary he retires. And even when that happens, I don’t think anybody should worry. Nintendo will be fine, even if the gaming world suffers it’s biggest loss in history.
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