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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!
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 !
What, seriously?
Shigeru Miyamoto is by far the most famous person with the Miyamoto surname. Especially outside of Japan. Don't be ridiculous with the "who else thought of" type posts.
I did. But this is the new Slashdot. I doubt many people here have read The Book of Five Rings or are interested in Japanese culture. Your would have gotten a better response on 4chan.
-Malakai
A Dragon Lives in my Garage
It's sad when you can claim a better understanding of culture and history exists in a cesspit like 4chan, and be correct.
I did. But this is the new Slashdot. I doubt many people here have read The Book of Five Rings or are interested in Japanese culture. Your would have gotten a better response on 4chan.
So let me get this straight. The "new Slashdot" actually respects the old-school and can recognize the names of people responsible for some of the best of what Japanese gaming has to offer (and what saved the US video game market after the crash). And... that's somehow NOT an interest in Japanese culture, even peripherally? And, when given the name of the creator of the Mario and Legend of Zelda series, amongst the most famous video games in the history of the artform, in the context of Nintendo, we were supposed to pull two wholly unrelated names out of our asses?
I... what? It... how does that even... are you high? Like, right now? That has to be one of the most surreal trollings I've seen in ages.
My reward for being a good designer/coder was to oversee a large design/code team. I miss designing/coding.
What's really sad is regarding some crappy Asian pulp movie as a source of culture and history.
Pretty good is actually pretty bad.
"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."
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.