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Nintendo Prepares for Life After Miyamoto

by Andy Goergen - July 3, 2012, 3:03 pm EDT
Total comments: 32 Source: Nintendo, http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/stock/meeting/1206...

He's not getting any younger.

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 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[s] 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."

Talkback

StrawHousePigJuly 03, 2012

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.

He's not immortal.

Quote from: 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.

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.

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.. 

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

Chozo GhostJuly 03, 2012

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.

TamazoidJuly 03, 2012

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 SaneJuly 03, 2012

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.

pololmejorJuly 03, 2012

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

SPP25July 03, 2012

They could just clone him.  prob not though.

house3136July 03, 2012

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?”

Chozo GhostJuly 03, 2012

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

joshnickersonJuly 03, 2012

Quote from: Chozo

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

This. VERY this.

Quote from: Chozo

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.

Harsh guys. Harsh.

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.

ThePermJuly 03, 2012

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.

Quote from: 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.

Quote from: NWR_insanolord

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

CalibanJuly 03, 2012

Quote from: NWR_DrewMG

He's not immortal.

He does look younger than what his age is.

Quote from: 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.

Luigi DudeJuly 04, 2012

Quote from: MegaByte

Quote from: 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.

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.

Quote from: MegaByte

Quote from: 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.

Quote from: Luigi

Quote from: MegaByte

Quote from: 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.

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_RiderJuly 04, 2012

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 DudeJuly 04, 2012

Quote from: NWR_insanolord

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.

The last one he made, and the only one he made recently, wasn't good, largely because of his philosophical stance on the series. It's perfectly justified to be wary about any future installments he may make. He did, however, after making Fusion, another game criticized for some of the same tendencies, turn around and make Zero Mission, which I could see arguments made for being the best game in the series, so for all we know his next could be amazing.

And then he made Kikitrick, which is crazy-pants bonkers. So we're cool.

ShyGuyJuly 04, 2012

Miyamoto will grab the master sword and become the hero of time, problem solved.

Quote from: 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.

The point is that Nintendo held a Q&A session with their stockholders, and one of the questions a stockholder asked was "what will you do when Miyamoto retires" and this was their answer. 

Infinitys_EndJuly 04, 2012

I love how an article about Miyamoto retiring turns into a Sakamoto bash-fest.  *facepalm*


But kudos to those who defended him.  AFAIC, he doesn't deserve ANY of the immature bullsh!t that people give him.

Chozo GhostJuly 04, 2012

Even if Sakamoto isn't as bad as he's made out to be, he's still not as legendary as Miyamoto. So I still stand by what I said earlier about rather having him retire than Miyamoto. That's not so much bashing Sakamoto as it is acknowledging that Miyamoto is much better. Doesn't everyone agree with that? Is there anyone out there who thinks Sakamoto is better than Miyamoto?

I'm fine with Sakamoto continuing to work at Nintendo and doing his warioware mini games and trivial fluff like that, but I don't want him to ever have the reigns of the Metroid franchise again. I don't hate him, I just would prefer he stick to Warioware and such.

broodwarsJuly 04, 2012

Well, I hope Nintendo's been planning for "life after" their older designers (not just Miyamoto) for quite some time now, because otherwise they're in real trouble.  In any case, I have the utmost respect for Mr. Miyamoto.  He's designed some of the most memorable games I've played in my life, and he's been the spearhead for so many other beloved titles.  At Nintendo's annual press conference, he's consistently the only guy on-stage who appears to actually have a pulse.  I'll gladly look forward to whatever smaller titles he wants to work on until his actual retirement.  But when he leaves, I want whoever takes over from him to not just try to maintain the status quo.  We're getting to the point where the new generation of great Nintendo designers have to come into their own.

Among many other problems, the Japanese game industry (especially) seems to have something metaphorically akin to an inbreeding problem: the old men who started the company train the next generation to make the same games they made.  Then, when the new generation takes over, they continue under the direct approval of a committee run by the old men who trained them, who direct them to continue to make the same kind of games.  I feel there's a lot of passion and creativity that gets lost in that system.  I don't want to see that when we start losing these legendary designers at Nintendo.  I want to see what the passion and inventiveness of a new generation can bring to Nintendo.

Until then, I'm interested to see what Miyamoto can do when he's not under the pressure of keeping an eye on half a dozen decades-old Nintendo properties at once.

Ian SaneJuly 04, 2012

Quote from: broodwars

Among many other problems, the Japanese game industry (especially) seems to have something metaphorically akin to an inbreeding problem: the old men who started the company train the next generation to make the same games they made.  Then, when the new generation takes over, they continue under the direct approval of a committee run by the old men who trained them, who direct them to continue to make the same kind of games.  I feel there's a lot of passion and creativity that gets lost in that system.  I don't want to see that when we start losing these legendary designers at Nintendo.  I want to see what the passion and inventiveness of a new generation can bring to Nintendo.

Yeah, that would suck.  Might be inevitable.  It's weird to think that the games of my childhood were essentially the whole start of the Japanese videogame market and that the creativity seen then was partially because there wasn't a formula yet.  If the old companies died off would new ones take their place or would the whole Japanese gaming market just die?

Of course it all depends what Nintendo is teching their young employees.  Are they teaching them to just make a million Mario games or is it more timeless stuff like how to make gameplay intuitive to the player or lessons on maintaining high quality.  There are some broad practices that are common in Nintendo games that would be good to imprint on the next generation.  One example is that Nintendo games don't usually bog you down with unnecessary items or superflous areas.  They don't put in moves you never use or use five buttons to do something that can be done with two.  Their games are tight, for lack of a better word, like a movie with great pacing.  That sort of thing should be taught to their later generations.  If they just stuck with the existing franchises though, that would be lame.  They should encourage the next gen of designers to carve their own identity while maintaining the Nintendo standard of quality.

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