Last night, the internet exploded with news that Shigeru Miyamoto was retiring from his current position at Nintendo. While not leaving the company or the games industry, Miyamoto stated that he wanted to leave the huge franchises like Zelda and Mario to teams of younger developers so that he could go on to work on smaller projects with shorter development times. He even mentioned his love for the guy that created the Rubik’s cube.

The news was interesting, to be sure – Miyamoto clearly wants to work closer to the cutting edge of development, rather than as the guy who steers multi-billion dollar franchises. But I’m guessing Nintendo’s shareholders weren’t too happy with the information, because the company has issued a stern denial:

"This is absolutely not true.  There seems to have been a misunderstanding. He has said all along that he wants to train the younger generation.

"He has no intention of stepping down. Please do not be concerned."

Nintendo is clearly trying to calm investor fears that the man responsible for most of the company’s success would be stepping into a position with less responsibility, despite the fact that the original interview seemed pretty clear about Miyamoto’s intent.

There’s obviously a small chance this whole thing is a translation error, but the odds of that are miniscule. More likely, Miyamoto has been planning this type of move for years and perhaps announced it before Nintendo had time to do the proper legwork with investors.

We’ll just have to see how the story plays out. In the meantime, what would you think of a Zelda or Mario project without Miyamoto’s oversight?

[Giant Bomb]

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