UPDATE: Reuters reports that a spokeswoman for Nintendo has denied Miyamoto's retirement, stating: "This is absolutely not true. There seems to have been a misunderstanding. He has said all along that he wats to train the younger generation. He has no intention of stepping down. Please do not be concerned."
Miyamoto will step down eventually. Surely not now. But eventually.
ORIGINAL: Quick! Get some green mushrooms in here, stat! Miyamoto will live forever! I swear it!
Okay, don't freak out just yet. When Miyamoto said that he would be retiring in a Wired interview, he meant it in a different way, a half-step if you will:
Inside our office, I’ve been recently declaring, ‘I’m going to retire, I’m going to retire'. 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.
In other words, I’m not intending to start from things that require a five-year development time.
Miyamoto, at the age of 59, understands in his omnipotent wisdom that he won't be around forever, and after nurturing all of Nintendo's developers for such a long time, he feels confident that they will carry on the Nintendo name… in due time:
The reason why I’m stressing that is that unless I say that I’m retiring, I cannot nurture the young developers. After all, if I’m there in my position as it is, then there’s always kind of a relationship. And the young guys are always kind of in a situation where they have to listen to my ideas. But I need some people who are growing up much more than today.
Miyamoto plans to create a game on a much smaller scale that will take about a year to make. Perhaps this is a mobile game or a little 3DS title. Whatever it is, I'm glad he isn't gone just yet.
[Source]
