Shigeru Miyamoto 'retiring from current position' at Nintendo, working on smaller games [update: Nintendo denies]
Update: A Nintendo spokesperson tells Reuters that the report of Shigeru Miyamoto stepping down to a different position is "absolutely not true." The company asserts the story is a "misunderstanding," and that Miyamoto has "no intention" of stepping down.
Original story: "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," Nintendo head of development and long-time game industry figurehead Shigeru Miyamoto told Wired's Game|Life blog in an interview this week. It appears, after a lengthy career spent creating some of the game industry's most popular and important franchises, Miyamoto is altering his role at the company.
"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," he explained further. Miyamoto isn't quitting development, though. Apparently he's looking to start a new project in 2012, and hopes to show it publicly by year's end.
"In other words, I'm not intending to start from things that require a five-year development time," he added. While he won't be changing roles immediately, the idea behind announcing his retirement is to spur the less veteran devs at Nintendo to step up. "I'm interested in doing a variety of many other things," he teased.
