Miyamoto stepping down from current position to focus on smaller games

Im going to retire, Im going to retire, says Miyamoto, but not completely

The creator of Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda and Donkey Kong is stepping down from his current position at Nintendo. He will remain at the company but will now only work on smaller, more personal projects.

Wired.com has the scoop in a new interview and he says that instead of supervising the development of big titles like Skyward Sword and Super Mario 3D Land, he’s going to let younger developers take the reins while he works on smaller, more personal projects.

“Inside our office, I’ve been recently declaring, ‘I’m going to retire, I’m going to retire,’” Miyamoto has stated 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, 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.”

Miyamoto says he is done with taking five years to work on a game and wants to work on something smaller. He plans to start on the project next year and will hopefully have something to show before the year (2012) is out. Miyamoto, who is now 59, also says he’s stepping down so he can nurture younger developers; he won’t be around forever.

Shigeru Miyamoto is first and foremost a game developer and you can tell that’s what he loves doing. It’s going to be very exciting to see a brand new idea come from Miyamoto, and we won’t have to wait too long.