We had a bit of excitement earlier this week with word coming from Wired that Nintendo superstar Shigeru Miyamoto would be taking his leave of the company. In the time since shareholders have wavered, Nintendo has been quick to deny and, finally, Miyamoto has made a statement clarifying his intent. In an interview with MSBC's In-Game he states that “There is no plan to retire."
He goes on to intimate that the company probably would not "allow [him] to retire." Apparently that last bit is a joke. However, the company's stock dropped 2% soon after his supposed retirement was announced, so there's an obvious need for him, or someone like him. That, Miyamoto continues, was his intended meaning in the Wired interview.
"For many years now I’ve been repeatedly telling this to the team at Nintendo so they can be more responsible. So they can take on more important assignments and take the initiative to make quality games to finalize and commercialize for the company.”
He looks at recent works like Super Mario 3D Land and Skyward Sword as proof that his teams are finally growing into his shoes. His goal is to have teams in place that can manage themselves without his presence after his eventual retirement.
So there you have it: Miyamoto's not retiring and all is well.
Miyamoto says he has 'no plans' to retire, but is preparing devs for his eventual departure [MSNBC via GoNintendo]
Contest:
3:00 PM on 12.10.2011 | 
You mean he's happy that those young developers are going to be as out of touch and trapped in Ninty's bubble as he is? Great.
Im surprised he hasnt been featured as a head in a jar in Futurama yet
Interesting that he is having to cultivate a company to carry on without him. It's like he's Jesus.
I thought he was! O_O
Although the people at Nintendo will probably go on an epic quest for the Fountain of Youth before they let Miyamoto retire.
See this is how this story spiraled out of control in the first place, because people just read the word “Retirement” and jump to conclusions. He never said he was leaving the company. At the very worst case scenario, he said he'll eventually step down from his current position to work on smaller games, that could become big project in the future for Nintendo.
So that's not leaving Nintendo in any way, shape, or form. He wants to work with the next generation of Nintendo developers, who will take over when he actually does retire, but that's not going to happen anytime soon. Either way him leaving Nintendo, was never part of the equation!
I'd say the other Nintendo teams have proved themselves more than ready to fill Miyamoto's shoes and ultimately surpass him.
He's going to pull an El Cid and stand tall even in death at E3.
Miyamoto doesn't want to do this, but the business side isn't going to allow his other developers' selfishness to destroy the company. So he's stepping back down to just being a developer so he can do whatever he wants. The good news is that he stop running the company into the ground and that now we can get someone to fill his shoes that's going to make the kind of games that people want, and not what Nintendo's developers want to make (because that's all they've been allowed to do lately and so far they're firing blanks outside of 2D Mario and Mario Kart).
Cutting through the bullshit and reading between the lines, that's what is really going at Nintendo and all talk to the contrary is just Nintendo doing damage control and the like. Miyamoto himself has become toxic to the company and to its games, and the sooner that the self-absorbed stubborn old fool has left Nintendo the better off gaming will be for everyone.