Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto is a true legend. He's helped Nintendo create some of it's most treasured characters such as Mario, Luigi, Link and Zelda. His most recent contributions are the Wii and Wii U consoles that were released in 2006 and 2012 respectively.
In an interview that took place on March 6, Miyamoto told GameSpot that it would be strange if he didn't think about his retirement. Miyamoto explained the following:
“This year I’m past 60; I’m going to be turning 61 this year. So for me to not be thinking about retirement would be strange, but in fact, the number of projects I’m involved in and the volume of my work hasn’t changed at all."
With Miyamoto turning 61 this year, he also further explained that he wants to prepare Nintendo's younger staff for the scenario of him no longer being with the company. Miyamoto also explained the following:
“And this actually has nothing to do with any kind of retirement planning or anything of that sort, it’s really more of simply the fact that people have a tendency, certainly when you’re in an organizational structure, they have a tendency to always look to the person that gives them direction, and really, for a long time I’ve been thinking that we need to try to break that structure down so that the individual producers that I’m working with are really taking responsibility for the projects that they’re working on.”
According to Miyamoto, it seems that even though he is 61, he doesn't plan on retiring anytime soon. Yes, he thinks of retiring, but that is much more different than planning it. His main plan is to simply get individual producers to take the lead of future products instead of focusing on himself for help. For example, it's quite possible that he wants future Wii U and 3DS games to be created by the staff without much of his help. Miyamoto further explained this statement:
“And as I like to say, I try to duck out of the way, so that instead of them looking at me, they’re looking at the consumer and trying to develop their games with the consumer in mind rather than me in mind. So it’s really more of looking at this as sort of an opportunity to really try to help develop them and bring them up.”
It's probably very difficult for the younger producers at Nintendo to try and create games by themselves when they have a legend in the same room, but it's extremely possible that this process will help create more legends that strive to become as creative as Miyamoto. He won't be retiring anytime soon, but it's likely that it could happen before he gets too old to work. With the Wii U and 3DS out on shelves right now, Miyamoto has paved the way for every developer to create a unique gaming experience
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