Hi!
So… Miyamoto trolled you.
Nope. Am I the only one who understands the Wired piece? The author of that piece was Chris Kohler who is the author of a book on Nintendo. I’ve been carefully looking at Nintendo news since making this site (more than half a decade ago), and Kohler is extremely reliable. I doubt he made up the quotes of Miyamoto saying he is going to ‘retire’.
As you get older, you will understand that there are two meanings for retirement. What you think of it is someone leaving the company to sit at a porch all day. The other meaning is for someone to ‘retire’ which means to ‘surrender responsibility’ and do ‘whatever he wants’. These people are often high profile and stay in the company.
When Miyamoto was saying, “I’m going to retire, I’m going to retire,” he is saying, “I don’t have to put up with all this bullshit anymore. I am going to do what I want to do.”
There is also an interesting theory that Miyamoto is being demoted. What I find interesting about this is it begs the question, “If Miyamoto did get demoted, how would Nintendo do it since they have made him out like a god? Gods do not get demoted.” If Nintendo did demote Miyamoto, this would likely be the course they would take.
I don’t think he is being demoted. I also don’t think he has suddenly ‘set up structures for his vision’ or whatever bullshit. The answer is with the smaller projects.
Why would someone like Miyamoto want to do smaller projects?
I’m waiting for your answer, reader.
…
Cat got your tongue? The only reason why someone like Miyamoto would go from big budget games with big teams to small budget games with small teams is because he desires the freedom to do whatever he wants. He’s extremely selfish.
Much of this could do with the shift to the costs of High Definition gaming. But it could also be due to the trainwreck of disasters Miyamoto has been in charge over. What is not in doubt is the REASON why Miyamoto wants to do smaller games: for freedom. This means he doesn’t have the freedom doing what he used to do.
“Why’s that?”
Take your pick at the reason. HD gaming costs, worse economy forcing more sequels, whatever. The point is that Miyamoto doesn’t like it and is changing his job.
These statements are being made to calm investors and certainly have nothing to do with me. The only time I’m sure Miyamoto made any reference to me was saying that there was ‘misinformation’ that Super Mario Brothers was inspired by Alice in Wonderland. Sites like GoNintendo and all plastered that statement as ‘news’. After all, Miyamoto is the god. His words are like gospel. Emails flooded in saying, “Did you hear what Miyamoto said?” I just responded with quoting a business article, written right before the Wii launched, which Miyamoto used a direct quote of saying he was thinking of Alice. So either two things occurred. Either Miyamoto says so much ‘stuff’ that he and Nintendo cannot keep it all straight. Or the guy had some sort of malicious intent. Either way, it shows he is very thin skinned. I suppose after decades of being treated as a ‘god’, suddenly being applied to standards that apply to everyone else would be quite jarring.
The celebrations will continue.