Shigeru Miyamoto Announces 'Retirement'

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In a recent interview with Wired, Miyamoto announced that he would be retiring from his long-held position as producer and general director. He says "What I really want to do is be in the forefront of game development once again myself." He would probably be "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."

Miyamoto is known for constantly asserting that he will retire and says that he does this to let the younger developers know that he will not always be there to guide them. Rather, by reducing his participation and presence on certain projects he can instead let his influence nurture by example. "The reason why I'm stressing that is that unless I say that I'm retiring, I cannot nurture the young developers," he said. “After all, if I'm there in my position as it is, then there's always kind of a relationship. And the young guys are always kind of in a situation where they have to listen to my ideas. But I need some people who are growing up much more than today."

Most importantly, Miyamoto said that he does not intend to "start from things that require a five-year development time." He would rather work on things much smaller that he could possibly do on his own.

However, despite these statements Kotaku later relayed an official statement from Nintendo that Miyamoto would not be retiring. "There seems to have been a misunderstanding. He has said all along that he wants to train the younger generation." This seemed pretty clear from the onset.

Anyways, how do you all feel about this? Miyamoto is undeniably the master of the industry. He revitalized it at a time when it could have ended up nothing more than a fad and has continued to revolutionize how we experience games. His influence cannot be overlooked.

It seems to me that taking a step back can only mean greater things from the man that spearheaded Mario, Zelda, Star Fox and Pikmin. He's leaving Nintendo in capable hands.

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Just as long as this 'retirement' isn't because he's sick and going to end up like Steve Jobs in a few months.