Slashdot Mirror
Miyamoto Steps Down As Nintendo Game Design Head
RobinEggs writes "Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator and producer of the Zelda and Mario franchises among other works, is stepping down at Nintendo. After personally managing Nintendo's blockbuster franchises for ~20 years, Miyamoto said today: 'What I really want to do is be in the forefront of game development once again myself. Probably working on a smaller project with even younger developers. Or I might be interested in making something that I can make myself, by myself. Something really small.'" Update: 12/08 21:35 GMT by T : Note that Nintendo is careful to say that this is not retirement, even if Miyamoto's role at Nintendo changes.
Reading the headline, I was quite sad, but the summary makes me excited for what he's going to come out with! Rock on Miyamoto!
... thought of Miyamoto Musashi and/or pictured Mifune Toshiro in their heads?
Nintendo already came out and said he was not stepping down. slashdot is behind like always
Nintendo has apparently already denied this.
http://spong.com/article/25917/Nintendo-Strongly-Denies-Miyamoto-Retirement
...Michael Bay, James Cameron, George Lucas or Steven Spielberg, then I'll be happy.
Operation Guillotine is in effect.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/114616-Miyamoto-is-Not-Stepping-Down
http://wii.ign.com/articles/121/1214255p1.html
Word from Nintendo is that Miyamoto is NOT stepping down and this was a misinterpretation.
Nintendo is at a crossroads. The 3DS appears to be bombing, the Wii is sliding into irrelevance, and the Wii-U doesn't look like it's going to be repeating the success of the Wii when it came out. Everyone I know seems to only bust out their Wiis either for a Brawl party or for the newest Zelda\Mario game. I love Nintendo, but it seems like they've gotten back into the funk they were in back in the pre-DS days. I wonder if Miyamoto doesn't see them getting back out.
Or I might be interested in making something that I can make myself, by myself. Something really small.
He's in the right country for making small things I guess.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
It's better to burn out than to fade away, Shigeru. Live strong!
The worst and best video game news of the week, right here. Hopefully he comes out with another great franchise with some amazing mechanics that are just plain old fun.
There's a reason there is no "Disagree" mod...
http://blog.esuteru.com/archives/5428429.html
I found this page recently, it's scans of a Japanese magazine interview where Hayao Miyazaki (of Ghibli) talks with Shigeru Miyamoto about game ideas. It was in the '90s.
I don't have time to translate the thing, so maybe someone here could try?
There's a part where Miyazaki seems to be proposing a open-world game where you could be a WWII pilot flying off on a mission - or stay on the ground and grow potatos until you're captured by the Americans.
Shigeru's response: "Hmmm"
I bet he's had to deal with a lot of strange ideas over the years :D
Miyamoto-san just 1-up'd Nintendo. I'm looking forward to his new venture.
Mess not in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and good with ketchup.
He probably saw minecraft's influence.. as much as he helped totally change gaming by evolving Mario, Link from 2d ORIGINALS with *true* gameplay that has lasted the test of time (SMB1,2,3 & Link to the Past), and then moving Mario, Link into 3D very successfully.. he probably saw that one dev DOES has the power to affect gaming and gameplay (please, not talking about angry birds and crap like that).
Mr. Miyamoto, please make some cool original stuff like Minecraft did. Blaze the trail !
Hey, apparently this isn't true. Nintendo's official denial has been circulating for a few hours now - before the original post.
"Video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto's role at Nintendo is not changing. He will continue to be a driving force in Nintendo's development efforts. In discussing his priorities at Nintendo in a media interview, Mr. Miyamoto explained how he is encouraging the younger developers at the company to take more initiative and responsibility for developing software. He attempted to convey his priorities moving forward, inclusive of overseeing all video game development and ensuring the quality of all products. Mr. Miyamoto also discussed his desire to pursue fresh ideas and experiences of the kind that sparked his initial interest in video games."
from http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2011/12/nintendo_miyamoto_is_not_stepping_down
and many other places.
This is a man who probably more responsible for the modern video game industry than any other. While it's not likely he'll re-revolutionize games, seeing his new work could be both interesting and enjoyable.
What I'm personally more interested in is the direction that Nintendo will take in his absence. His franchises are the core of their offerings on every platform for the past 25 years or so. Will those franchises continue to balloon beyond the bounds of reason? Mario and Link will likely sell more games and merchandise than anything they could possibly replace them with. I would love to see Nintendo take a new direction with their franchises and perhaps even introduce a single deep or interesting character (which as far as I know they have never done). I wouldn't bet on it though. That's certainly not to say that Nintendo isn't a great company with great products. They are. I just wonder if they can do more.
My other sig is clever.
Obviously the man has a passion for what he does and a hell of a lot of skill. That combination has made him successful but he is driven by passion, not success. More power to him.
> Something really small.
So not a controller for the Wii-U then.
I read that as he wants to make iPhone games. So much of his stuff is really experimental. If he wasn't tied to alway making another "blockbuster" for Nintendo, we'd probably see a lot more games.
He would mop up the cash with 2-3 new franchises and the Angry Birds model of small, regular updates.
All you people are screwing up my games. I'd rather go do something else without you.
Apparantly he is working on a new game called Happy Avians.
It's about smiling birds that build houses for friendly pigs.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
please, not talking about angry birds and crap like that
Which is why one of the NES launch titles was a game where you shoot the birds and a dog grabs them by the neck.
Unless someone's just frustrated that Nintendo doesn't have a developer program that's as inclusive as Microsoft's or Apple's. Anyone with $1500 down and $100 per year, including developers that are family businesses run from a home office, can get started developing games for Xbox 360 or the iPhone. Nintendo is a long-time opponent of home-based development.
My reward for being a good designer/coder was to oversee a large design/code team. I miss designing/coding.
I already have a copy of that game, and it's actually called Animal Crossing. It's a bit like The Sims except more rural and cartoonish, and it runs on the console's real time clock. There is a fourth game in the works for 3DS.
Shame, and the end of an era. Boy does his stuff look good on MAME! :0)
The purpose of existence is to make money.
If he's not stepping down, I'm kinda sad. I was hoping that this would motivate Nintendo to actually create something new. I'm personally getting a bit sick and tired of every single piece of Nintendo hardware doing little more than showing off some useless gimmick and launching with nothing but rehashes of 20 year old games. Nintendo as a whole is slipping into irrelevance.
The Amarri pray for god, the Caldari pray for profit. the Gallente pray for peace, but the Minmatar pray their ships hol
You nearly gave me a heart attack when, in fact, Miyamoto is not stepping down!
Miyamoto-san is one of those examples of truly lovely people. An Artist, a toymaker, a storyteller, someone who's life's work has been to bring joy and relief into the lives of others. A human being. He's not the only such worthy person on this planet, but he should be recognized more often for his work by people outside the universe of video games -- precisely because his work so affects them as well.
I can think of no one else who I wish more success and happiness to than Shigeru Miyamoto, and he surely deserves to have it.
"Probably working on a smaller project with even younger developers. Or I might be interested in making something that I can make myself, by myself. Something really small."
This coupled with other statements regarding "retirement" to me structure a rather specific narrative. Perhaps "burnt out" is a rather strong statement but all the same he's clearly stating he wants to slow down and play the role of the sage elder/grandpa.
I took it more as evidence that managing huge multi-year projects is not as fun as building something with more immediate turnaround times. Skyward Sword, from what I've heard, is the culmination of a longstanding dream of Miyamoto's to build a Zelda game where you could actually control the sword and shield instead of just mashing thumbs. But it took years to complete, and I bet Miyamoto spent most of that time dealing with management-type work rather than getting into the nitty gritty of creating a game.
He's a gaming kind of guy, and he's been big on new ideas over the course of his career, so if he gets out of managing huge projects and gets back into designing and making smaller games, I predict an increase in the number of interesting ideas that Nintendo can implement. I heard that Nintendo's share price took a dip on this news, but I think that's only because analysts hadn't really digested this -- sure, if Miyamoto left Nintendo, that'd be bad; but if he's getting back into active game design, that can only be a big plus, in my eyes anyway.
Cheers,
"What in the name of Fats Waller is that?"
"A four-foot prune."
'What I really want to do is be in the forefront of game development once again myself. Probably working on a smaller project with even younger developers. Or I might be interested in making something that I can make myself, by myself. Something really small.'"
Let's hope he at least has a sword and full heart containers, then.
-Hentai [in vita non pacem est]
I think what Miyamoto is doing is going to turn out really good for not only Nintendo, but the gaming industry as a whole. One can use their talents not only to create, but also identify who has the potential to create things. As companies and industries grow, they tend to get less flexible, esp. towards those at the "bottom rungs" of the corporate ladder. This is especially true in Japan, where seniority is everything(there are still Japanese companies that don't give out merit based pay raises). Miyamoto is almost 60, he realizes that he doesn't have a huge amount of time left before retirement, and rather than just continue to do what he has done, only to leave a huge void at the top, it looks like he is devoting his last years at Nintendo to giving younger developers the exact same opportunity he was given.
When he first started out, he was an employee at a relatively small company trying to break into a very small industry, and as such there were very few people to push back when he tried to push the boundaries. Now fast forward a few decades and you have this massive industry comprised of massive companies, there is going to be push back when you try to push the boundaries, and massive hurdles to clear if you do, esp. if you want to do so while working for an already established company. By becoming a mentor Miyamoto can use his prestige to help elevate some of the good ideas and people that otherwise might have otherwise been wasted toiling at the bottom rung. It's actually a shame that more visionaries aren't like Miyamoto and spend their last years working as advisors and cultivators of good ideas. While I'm sure his input will be missed at the top levels, he can do the company a lot more good spending his final years trying to identify and help the people that will one day take his place.
Monstar L
He took an arrow to the knee....
Yes, Shiggy stepping down is a good thing and he will be missed. But I feel there is more to the story than this.
The Japanese Video Game Industry has stagnated. All the real development cash cows are here in the United States.
I think it is very important to point out that there is a strong possibility that Miyamoto stepping down is very likely him making an attempt to reinvent himself and, by extension, the JVGI.
I really hope it works out. There hasn't really been an over-the-top, flashy game that was enjoyable to play since Zone of the Enders 2. As good as the games are that are made in the states, we focus too much on "realism". We still just don't have anything that mimics the flashy antics of Japanese design.
Mod me down, I shall become more off-topic than you could possibly imagine.
The guy hasn't done anything truly new in a decade. One can only stomach so many Mario reboots. I hope he gets away from all that crap and does something different.
MMM, it sounds similar to when David Attenborough stepped down as "director of programmes" at the BBC. Being a high level boss allows people to have a bigger impact but it's also highly stressful and takes them away from what they really want to be doing with their life.
note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
Miyamoto stepping down is just the beginning of great things to come from him. He can branch out and be more creative. That's how the industry grows.