Shigeru Miyamoto says he isn't thinking about retiring
Game's not over yet
Shigeru Miyamoto is probably the most famous and well regarded game designer of all time. At the age of 71 and after several decades of service, might he be considering retiring from the industry? According to a new interview with The Guardian, the answer is a resounding “no”.
Miyamoto makes it clear that he’s not thinking about retiring any time soon. That doesn’t mean he isn’t thinking about future plans in case something happens to him though. Here’s what he had to say on the subject:
“More so than retiring, I’m thinking about the day I fall over. In this day and age you have to think about things in a five-year timespan, so I do think about who I can pass things on to, in case something does happen.
“I’m really thankful that there is so much energy around things that I have worked on. These are things that have already gone out into the world … they’ve been cultivated by others, other people have been raising them, helping them grow, so in that sense I don’t feel too much ownership over them any more.”
Sounds like Miyamoto is committed to working as long as he’s able, which is good news for gamers. What exactly is he working on? We’ve heard that in recent years, Miyamoto has taken on the role of overseeing larger projects rather than personally getting involved in the specific design and direction of them. Here’s another quote which illuminates a little bit more of what he’s up to lately:
“[These days] I don’t think of myself as a game designer. I’m about finding unique opportunities for Nintendo. The way things work here is that, more so than having a plan and following it, we come across certain things and from there, we try to find our own new path. The movies, the amusement parks, I’m excited to see what kind of organic things result from those … I’m still very new to [the movie] industry and I’m still learning, but I’m trying to read a lot of scripts these days and learn about how they are developed, to see how we can create uniquely Nintendo films.”
Miyamoto may not be directly involved in all of Nintendo’s big games anymore, but he is working toward building a long lasting legacy with the characters he created. Check out the full interview for more about Miyamoto’s history with Nintendo, and other tidbits relating to his work in the industry.
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hawk
4M agoI hope he's still mentoring a replacement, though.
He has talked about mentoring the next generation before. I don't think Miyamoto will publicly appoint a sole person as that would be for Nintendo to decide who gets to helm what.
tendonin
4M ago“You think I’m gonna let Miyazaki beat me?! *laughs*”
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