“Inside our office, I’ve been recently declaring, ‘I’m going to retire, I’m going to retire,’” Miyamoto said through his interpreter. “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.”
“What I really want to do is be in the forefront of game development once again myself,” Miyamoto said. “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.” full article
Nintendo will never admit it publicly, but they just fired Shigeru Miyamoto.
Nintendo engineered a spectacular comeback with the DS and Wii, and a change in their focus that aimed to bring videogames back to their roots. They have since completely abandoned that approach, and have returned to their old, arrogant ways. Shigeru Miyamoto is only interested in creating games for Shigeru Miyamoto. Same with Ounuma (Zelda) and Sakamoto (Metroid). These self-professed geniuses don't care what the general public wants. If they did care, Nintendo wouldn't have so carelessly abandoned touch-screen and motion control, or the Wii itself, for that matter.
Nintendo creates a dynamic new controller - the Wii Remote - that becomes the biggest videogame smash since Pac-Man Fever. And what do they have to show for it? Two demo games (Wii Sports, Wii Play) and a Miyamoto vanity project (Wii Music). After that? Sorry, we're finished, no more games. On to the next trinket that amuses me!
I still think Miyamoto is probably the best videogame designer of all time, but he has one critical weakness: he cannot accept failure. If a project is a great success - 2D Mario, F-Zero, Sim City, Pilotwings, and Wave Race are excellent examples - then he declares victory and moves on to the next project. If a game, however, is not a success - 3D Mario consistently fails to sell anywhere near the numbers of 2D Mario - he just digs in and tries harder. He's desperate to prove that he is right, and it's the world that's wrong.
I don't know if it's fair to lay all of Nintendo's problems at Miymoto's feet. Letting Apple run away with their Blue Ocean strategy, prematurely abandoning their hardware platforms, the rediculous obsession with 3D everything, the colossal blundering of Wiiware and Virtual Console - heck, when is Nintendo going to notice the internet? This company has made a whole host of strategic and tactical errors, and thery are paying dearly for it. What's worse is that they don't appear to have any clue how to turn things around.
And Miyamoto has lost his touch. I'm sorry to point this out, but the public has spoken. The 3DS is a wreck. The Wii U is a joke. Super Mario 3D Land is warmed-over leftovers, smothered in that damned 3D obsession. And Skyward Sword is a boring, self-indulgent puzzle game. And everything else is just a retread of a rerun of a sequel. Snooze. There are no good ideas left, and the company is bleeding money with no stopgap in sight. Nintendo has to make some radical changes, and that means a shakeup at the top.
I still don't see how Nintendo gets out of this. It would require nothing less than scuttling two systems (3DS, Wii U) and retrenching themselves in a post-iTunes world. Nintendo saw the coming storm in 2004. They preached endlessly about it. And then they just quit. As I said at the start, Nintendo will never admit this publicly. But they are in a world of hurt, and there's no visible way out.
If you think Nintendo is hurting you are severely wrong. Not every year is a banner year for a company. Yet the 3DS has outsold the original DS in their respective first years. The DS is hardly a failure despite its middling sales at the start of its life, and the 3DS will only become more and more popular as well. Ditto for the WiiU when it comes out.
You want a real and true prediction? Nintendo will always win, and that is because of their strong IP's. No matter what they do they will sell consoles, and games, and make a profit in the end because of that singular and simple fact. Mario, LoZ, Metroid, Donkey Kong, Smash Brothers, Mother, Animal Crossing, POKEMON, Dragon Quest, Prof. Layton, and the list goes on, especially if we count defunct yet classic franchises like the new Kid Icarus game coming soon. There are so many people who buy Nintendo consoles just to play their one favorite franchise, like for myself I must have the newest Zelda game or my friends and children around the world all play Pokemon.
Not only that, but despite your doom and gloom many of Nintendo's latest games have been getting rave reviews form critics around the world.
Nintendo had a minor slow down in their otherwise laughable/lauded money printing business, and this can be directly attributed to a slow down in major game releases.
Every Ninty nay-sayer will eat their words and crawl back into their elitest meathead holes as soon as the tried and true IP's start rolling out for the new generation of Nintendo consoles. Also not only will the classic IP's sell consoles and games, but the security given by their infallibility allows Nintendo to create new and awesome IP's and inventive games like Pikmen or No More Heroes. So in short, you are an idiot. Nintendo is not dying, and it would take an inconceivable amount of mismanagement to stop people from buying Mario or Pokemon games. It's possible, but they would have to literally try to do it, and would still probably sell way too many of them.
Also PS. If Nintendo ever effed up beyond belief, and lost all their money, all they would have to do is create a kid-friendly, yet complete and balanced, Pokemon MMO and they would become the richest company in history, and probably destroy the world with their power. Just saying, things like that show how Nintendo could never ever mess up beyond recovery.
Sorry, but I've got to disagree with you here. I feel a need to rebut your arguments, one by one:
First, the 3DS is not unsuccessful. The gaming press has lauded it and sales numbers have reinforced its popularity. It might have suffered initially from limited hardware choices and a high price tag, but many systems have in the past. I remember distinctly that the $300 Sony PS2 had little else than the repetitive Dynasty Warriors for months before the developers really got up to speed.
Second, 3D Mario being outperformed in sales by 2D Mario titles from two decades ago is a spurious argument. In 1988 there were about a dozen popular games to play, two of which were Mario games and there was really only one major system. Today there's literally thousands of choices across dozens of platforms. Apples and Oranges, Daniel. Every 3D Mario platforming title has been a critical and financial success since Mario 64 came out 15 years ago.
Third, Nintendo hasn't ignored the Internet so much as consciously turned away from it. Nintendo, like Apple, is seen as a wholesome, innovative company--more specifically one that caters to a "family" (ie. child) audience. Online gaming, to Nintendo, is seen as a way for them to lose control over the content of their games and dilute the experience that is so carefully constructed in this walled garden. Older gamers like us may decry the limitations of Friend Codes and why there isn't a Pokemon MMO when the reality is that Nintendo has purposely put these limitations into place so that their games are not potential conduits for internet predators or griefers.
Fourth, if Nintendo has abandoned motion controls, it's been at the insistence of a highly volatile gaming public that would rather keep things simple. In any case, I'd hardly call games like Wario Ware: Smooth Moves and Skyward Sword "demos." If anything, Motion Plus has only demonstrated a renewed commitment to motion control.
Finally, I do not believe Miyamoto is being marginalized or given a "window seat." He is nearing retirement age and is regarded as the father of gaming. He has made Nintendo billions of dollars and the properties he's developed continue to sell systems and cartridges. No, my friend, he has not been fired.
I honestly don't know where you're drawing these conclusions from--that Nintendo is hurting, that the 3DS is a wreck, or that the "public has spoken"--but I think you need to take a look at some raw numbers: Yen. Nintendo is a company out to make a profit. While Sony and Microsoft were taking losses on every console sold, Nintendo reaped big money with every Wii, DS Lite, and 3DS sold, along with all the profits from their first-party titles. Don't want to play old properties? Boot up your PC or Xbox and log onto Steam/XBLA. Nintendo is Nintendo, they're not Studio Pixel or Bit Blot. They're not going to put out the next Braid or Limbo or World of Goo. They're going to take Zelda and put a new spin on it. And every five to ten years, we'll have a new property to fall in love with.
PS - Sim City is not one of Miyamoto's properties, nor is it even Nintendo's.
Interesting points all around. What am I basing my opinions on? Nothing more than cold, hard numbers. Nintendo is losing money, and has been for some time. Their stock price, which rocketed with the arrival of Wii in late 2006, has collapsed to those original levels. The 3DS has struggled, is doing better now, but this was achieved by a massive price cut. Not to repeat myself, but Nintendo is losing money on every 3DS handheld sold, and this is a dangerous position for them, as it was their handheld line that kept them afloat during the N64/Gamecube days. That's gone now.
The gaming press (apologies to Chris Kohler) is useless. They're completely bought by the industry. This was always the case, to various degrees, but especially true today, as gaming magazines and websites are completely dependent on advertising to survive. Subscription revenues have collapsed ever since 2001. Stewart Campbell has written a couple excellent essays on the subject (Wings Over Sealand), I highly recommend them.
3D vs 2D Mario: All I am doing is comparing the sales numbers of the 3D Mario titles (64, Sunshine, Galaxy 1 & 2) against New Super Mario Bros DS and Wii. That's all. 3D Mario is moderately successful in the West, but not in Japan.
Ask yourself this question: New Super Mario Bros DS was released in 2006, sold tens of millions of copies, and continues to be a top seller in 2011. Why hasn't Nintendo made another one? What has been holding them back?
Shigeru Miyamoto runs Nintendo. The designated "Game Gods" are in complete control, and there's no one in charge who can tell them what to do. So instead of buidling upon blockbuster successes that a) make the company lots of money, and b) grow the market (combatting the decline of the videogame industry is the reason why Nintendo radically changed course with DS and Wii), we get Aonuma's Puzzle Zelda, Sakamoto's Metroid: Maternal Instincts, and Miyamoto's latest attempt to turn 3D Mario into a 2D Mario blockbuster.
Something is happening behind the scenes at Nintendo. We're not likely to get an honest answer, so we have to read the tea leaves and make our best guess. My own guess is that something happened between Miyamoto and the executives, that internal sales goals for Super Mario 3D Land and Skyward Sword were not met. You don't suddenly take a demotion for no reason. That's not how the business world works. Nintendo's damage control over Wired's article demonstrates this. Something went down, and it's not what they're telling us.
Apple's stocks fell by a huge amount when Jobs died, and guess what, Apple is still making ALOT of money. Stock, gross profit, and net profit are each very different things. The last numbers I saw showed their net profit down 66% for the fiscal year. If a company is making ANY net profit (much less nearly a billion dollars) that company is not losing money. There are a ton of big companies operating at a loss right now, To the best of my knowledge Nintendo is not one of them.
you do realize he's almost 60, right? late 20s when he made donkey kong, the man is not young anymore, and he knows it. he's not even really retiring yet, he just wants to go back to what he did best, make amazing games just happen, and who knows, maybe pass the torch on to newer game developers.
The guy is an artist, and since when do artists have to please the public ? Artists went down the moment they didnt wanna please themselves anymore.
Maybe he hasnt yet reached the pinnacle of what he tried to achieve, and so he keeps on improving.Nothing wrong with that. EA does it with FIFA, too, and Kojima with MGS.
And Ubi with Assassin's Creed.And Garriott with Ultima back then. And so on. You don't buy a Nintendo console to play another clone of Modern Warfare.
Well, that's kind of the problem, isn't it? Miyamoto, the "artist" who doesn't have to please the public? Unfortunately, Nintendo is not an art school, it's a business. And in the Capitalism game, you either turn a profit or you die. Unfair? Perhaps. I still mourn the loss of Atari, SNK and Sega from the hardware market. But it's not the public's fault if the Lynx or Dreamcast failed to sell.
All I am doing is looking at Nintendo's numbers. The company's stock has fallen to it's pre-2006 levels, and the company is losing money. The 3DS is selling better, but this is because Nintendo is now subsidizing the hardware (something they have never done before). They are losing money on every 3DS sold. And this is a very dangerous position to be in, with Apple gobbling up that cherished Expanded Audience that Nintendo once desired.
Video game designers are not "artists" who are free to do whatever the hell they want to do. They don't get to be greedy. Only the game players are allowed that luxury. This obsession with validation is a modern trend; the great game creators from a generation ago - Dan Bunten, Ed Logg, Eugene Jarvis - were never concerned with such truffles. Only insecure children seek validation. The sooner the game industry outgrows this childish phase, the better.
I am not sure if this is trolling or complete lunacy.
Do people really believe this? iOS is fine and all, but Nintendo has their own ridiculously successful handheld line, the gameboy (and all its iterations).
Why would they start making games for their competitors? Also iOS and gameboys are different levels of gaming and fill different niches. iOS is for simple, fun, anytime games. Gameboy can be for that, but its real strength are long arse RPG's and platformers, playable everywhere but not really for 5-10 minute sessions.
For instance: Flash games are fun and simple and everybody loves them, yet nobody fears they will completely kill console or "real" pc game sales, because they are not on the same level! Sometimes you want a snack, sometimes you want a meal! Eating meals for snacks or snacks for meals are not good ideas.
That's like saying Miyazaki should leave Studio Ghibli to work with Pixar / Disney because Studio Ghibli was going through some financial troubles back in the day. Miyamoto will rather retired for good than work with his competitors. He doesn't seem to be the type of person who will leave his colleagues to make a quick buck on the iOS platform.
After this announcement I still see Shigeru Miyamoto working on The super mario bros series of games but I think he will slowly distance himself from the Legend of Zelda.
Good bye Miyamoto on big projects, all the mushrooms, bananas and red hearts to you. Hello Miyamoto on small projects, we await your awesomeness.
According to Nintendo World Report this is all a huge mistranslations. He's switching from being a macroscopic overseer of 20-30 games back to being a director of 1 game at a time. He is much more effective as a director, as when he works on a new game it usually becomes the next big Nintendo IP.
The last couple of games he put his personal touch on were Wii Sports, Nintendogs, and Pikmin. He is essentially getting his old job, you know the one he had when he made hit after hit. This will be good for the company in the long run because it allows more new projects from the teams he's trained as well as new projects from Miyamoto. This is the type of system we can expect new IPs from. It has the position for this.
Boy, I think that we're going to miss him, I love OoT and Majora's Mask. I really hope he reconsiders and goes back to making LoZ games, they seem to have stood the test of the gaming word pretty well.
All I am doing is looking at Nintendo's numbers. The company's stock has fallen to it's pre-2006 levels, and the company is losing money. The 3DS is selling better, but this is because Nintendo is now subsidizing the hardware (something they have never done before). They are losing money on every 3DS sold. And this is a very dangerous position to be in, with Apple gobbling up that cherished Expanded Audience that Nintendo once desired.
Perhaps him and Nintendo finally admits the success of social games, and shifting their focus onto small games with faster turnarounds?
This story needs to be updated to highlight the fact that he is indeed NOT stepping down. There should also be an explanation to the readers why this story was printed. Perhaps Nintendo really did announce his retirement but "changed their minds" after their 2% drop in stock. If so, report it! Or was this a mistranslation on the part of Wired? Either way, to the credibility of its readers, Wired should shed some light on this.
Finally Nintendo will be able to move on. Miyamoto was great in his heyday but he's been dragging Nintendo down. I will always be grateful to him for giving Mario to the world, but it's time.
It seems clear to me that Miyamoto is trying to convey his future emphasis in smaller-scale game development. Not retirement of any sort.
Chris Kohler, on the other hand, should probably consider retirement after shoveling out this piece of godawful misleading journalism.
This is both good and bad news but I wonder what it will be like to follow in his footsteps for whoever gets into the role next since he will still be at the company and his influence on Nintendo and gaming as a whole is so large.
I know that Mizuguchi is at Q! Entertainment and hasn't suggested leaving, but people like that are worth fawning over. Worth the mention since it implies indie talent of another magnitude.
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