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One of the most acclaimed developers of all time has announced his intention to ‘retire’ from his current role.
Shigeru Miyamoto, the head of Nintendo development and the creator of famous IPs such as Super Mario and The Legend of Zelda, is stepping down from his role.
But the world’s Nintendo fans can breathe a sigh of relief – Miyamoto remains a Nintendo developer, though in future he intends to devote himself to smaller projects in a more hands-on role.
"Inside our office, I’ve been recently declaring, ‘I’m going to retire, I’m going to retire’," he told Wired. "I’m not saying that I’m going to retire from game development altogether. What I mean by retiring is, retiring from my current position."
"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. I’m not intending to start from things that require a five-year development time. I’m interested in doing a variety of many other things.”
The move comes at a time when smaller titles can once again achieve mainstream success, thanks at least in part to the changes in the market bought about by Apple’s App Store model.
And for the man who created bite-sized hits such as Super Mario Bros and Donkey Kong, it’s easy to understand the allure.
The question is, does the move signal an underlying intention from Nintendo to enter the App Store space? Or at least finally develop a service that can truly rival Apple’s? Or even just some new Nintendo IP would be welcomed.
UPDATE: Nintendo has denied the reports. The statement can be read here.
