Topic: Nintendo Prepares for Life After Miyamoto

[NWR_DrewMG]

He's not getting any younger.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/30943

Nintendo is preparing for the eventual retirement of longtime creative force Shigeru Miyamoto, according to the recent investors Q&A held in Japan.

Although Miyamoto is not planning on leaving imminently, Nintendo Global President Satoru Iwata reassured investors that Nintendo is bringing up young developers to fill the role as the older guard of Nintendo mainstays, Miyamoto included, retire.

When the question of Miyamoto's retirement was raised, the Mario creator responded carefully due to http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/28632">last year's report that he was already considering retirement. Miyamoto stated that he was still active in his role, and that in addition to designing games like Nintendo Land, he "often think of other things, such as what the future of the Japanese movie industry will be like. I do not have any concrete visions yet, but I am trying to keep my eyes on a variety of fields and to find any small possibilities for Nintendo to be involved in one way or the other."

Mr. Iwata added, "Mr. Miyamoto still will be actively creating things but we are working for the transition of power to go to younger people at the same time. Naturally the directors here will inevitably become too old to be able to continue their current positions someday and Nintendo might decrease its competitiveness without competent replacements. We are proceeding with preparations to avoid that situation."

[StrawHousePig]

Life after Miyamoto? I don't think so. Being a creative, hopefully he will always have (or desire to have) Nintendo as an outlet for his ideas.

All you have to do is watch him talk about what he has to show you. He isn't a meat puppet like Reggie or a suit like Iwata. Rare is the instance a guy like Miyamoto has so much pull in a global industry.

[NWR_DrewMG]

He's not immortal.

[NWR_insanolord]

Life after Miyamoto? I don't think so. Being a creative, hopefully he will always have (or desire to have) Nintendo as an outlet for his ideas.

All you have to do is watch him talk about what he has to show you. He isn't a meat puppet like Reggie or a suit like Iwata. Rare is the instance a guy like Miyamoto has so much pull in a global industry.

Iwata's not just a suit; he was a game designer himself before he went into management. And I don't see this as Miyamoto retiring from Nintendo as much as moving away from his role as the head of EAD. They need new leadership among their game designers, as Miyamoto and other members of the old guard are getting older.

[lolmonade]

Good.  Love Miyamoto for what he's done for gaming/Nintendo, but they need to work on a contingency plan.

And I thought it wasn't that long ago where this was mentioned along with him wanting to work on smaller projects.. 

[NWR_insanolord]

It was, and then Nintendo denied it up and down and argued it was a mistranslation.

[Chozo Ghost]

The quality of Miyamoto's output has been in decline these last few years (Wii Music).  It sucks to get old, but its inevitable... never a bad idea to have contingency plans in place.

[Tamazoid]

It's quite showing that most directors of Nintendo's main games have been around since the NES days. It's actually quite common in most main Japanese game developers.


Wii Music was not a bad idea. It wasn't even that bad. People just expected a guitar hero killer and the bad rap it gets comes from the dodgy E3 reveal plus the gaming media treating it as an unborn fetus.

[Ian Sane]

I wonder if Miyamoto's eventual retirement will result in some sort of major decline in quality for Nintendo or if it will spark a resurgence with the younger talent being able to craft their own identity without Miyamoto filtering their ideas.  Miyamoto is a legend and was the main designer for some of my favourite games.  He is however getting long in the tooth.  Every creative talent eventually peaks and declines.  I can't help but feel that his involvement has made Nintendo stale.  Nintendo has kind of moved into this mold that he created.

What I would like is for Nintendo to find their new Miyamoto.  Not like someone who can make good Mario and Zelda games.  I mean someone who creates the NEXT Mario and Zelda.  Someone with Miyamoto's talent but makes different games than Miyamoto himself would have made.

[pololmejor]

So, what this means is that Miyamoto will be leaving soon?

[SPP25]

They could just clone him.  prob not though.

[house3136]

 I just read the entire shareholders Q&A, and it just reemphasized his position as a general manager. Miyamoto isn’t necessarily the creative force behind every game; but shares his opinion and directs the path of the game development; and probably not as much as people think, he’s not the director or producer for games anymore, he just oversees the project as the Senior Producer for games like Skyward Sword, for instance. Although the specific question was directed at Miyamoto, Iwata addressed the question that they were training competent replacements for all the eventual retiring employees. In fact they even alluded to how the media prematurely reported Miyamoto’s retirement incorrectly. Basically he was saying to younger staff members, “If I’m not here tomorrow, will you be able to handle this project?â€�

[Chozo Ghost]

In all honesty, I'd rather see Sakamoto retire than Miyamoto.

[joshnickerson]

In all honesty, I'd rather see Sakamoto retire than Miyamoto.

This. VERY this.

[NWR_insanolord]

In all honesty, I'd rather see Sakamoto retire than Miyamoto.

I don't usually agree with you, Chozo, but I'm with you 100% on that one.

[Kairon]

Harsh guys. Harsh.

[NWR_insanolord]

Hey, look at the Prime games and then look at Other M and then tell me the series isn't better off without him involved.

[ThePerm]

this is news re-interation, i swear this was a news item months ago

edit: now having read the article to where my statement is redundant, i still don't see the point of this article.

[NWR_insanolord]

this is news re-interation, i swear this was a news item months ago

edit: now having read the article to where my statement is redundant, i still don't see the point of this article.

It was, and then Nintendo denied it up and down and argued it was a mistranslation.

[Caliban]

He's not immortal.

He does look younger than what his age is.

[MegaByte]

Hey, look at the Prime games and then look at Other M and then tell me the series isn't better off without him involved.

Then look at everything else he does that's not Metroid.

[Luigi Dude]

Hey, look at the Prime games and then look at Other M and then tell me the series isn't better off without him involved.

Then look at everything else he does that's not Metroid.

Also look at Fusion and Zero Mission which were both great Metroid games as well.  Seriously, the Sakamoto hate is getting ridicules at this point.  He makes one game some people didn't like and suddenly they act like he's some kind of child rapist that needs to go to prison.

[NWR_insanolord]

Hey, look at the Prime games and then look at Other M and then tell me the series isn't better off without him involved.

Then look at everything else he does that's not Metroid.

I understand that he does other good things, but frankly I don't care about those as much as I care about Metroid. I'm fine with losing them as long as Metroid benefits. I'm sorry, but hat's how I feel.

Hey, look at the Prime games and then look at Other M and then tell me the series isn't better off without him involved.

Then look at everything else he does that's not Metroid.

Also look at Fusion and Zero Mission which were both great Metroid games as well.  Seriously, the Sakamoto hate is getting ridicules at this point.  He makes one game some people didn't like and suddenly they act like he's some kind of child rapist that needs to go to prison.

Zero Mission was brilliant, but it was also eight years ago. If Sakamoto comes up with another one that good or even close I'm more than happy to reconsider my opinion.

[Chocobo_Rider]

 I think Miyamoto will be around for a while in some capacity or another. Even when he goes, I think Miyamoto's spirit is securely intact at Nintendo.

And even if Sakamoto ever leaves, they would have to reboot the franchise to change Samus' character - which I assume is the cause of the Sakamoto venom.

[Luigi Dude]

Zero Mission was brilliant, but it was also eight years ago. If Sakamoto comes up with another one that good or even close I'm more than happy to reconsider my opinion.

Well he's got to make it first.  Hence why the Sakamoto hate is still very silly and not justified.  If the next Metroid he makes is just like Other M quality wise then all the haters will finally have a point because he will have shown a clear pattern of his work on Metroid downgrading.  But right now Other M is just one game and one game only which makes calls for his head ridicules since his last Metroid before it Zero Mission was amazing.  For all we know his next Metroid could be Zero Mission quality but we wont know until he actually makes it now will we.