In Dec. 2011, a report surface claiming that Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto said he was retiring. Nintendo quickly commented, saying the report was a “misunderstanding” and “absolutely not true.” See, Shigeru Miyamoto is apparently always saying he’s going to retire.
“During one of the interviews he accepted abroad, Mr. Miyamoto commented that he always tells his subordinates that he’s going to retire soon, in order to nurture the young developers,” Nintendo president Satoru Iwata recently said in an analyst meeting. “Mr. Miyamoto’s intention in making these remarks is to change the developers’ mindset because they will continue to believe that ‘this is Mr. Miyamoto’s responsibility, not ours’ unless he encourages them to envision the workplace without him.”
According to Miyamoto, he is giving his staff more freedom to develop as game developers and is trying not to give too much direction as that could hold back their independence and growth.
“I end up using less of my energy and, as a result, I am starting to have time that I can spend for myself,” explained Miyamoto at the same meeting. “Now, I am spending more time than before on finding new ideas for new developments rather than focusing my energy on work in my (development) teams in order to solidify the contents of (existing) franchise titles.”
With Miyamoto overseeing one division and Iwata overseeing another, the work environment at Nintendo sounds like it is undergoing a new (and positive) change with work assigned to new people to see what ideas they come up with and how they handle their tasks. According to Iwata, the initial results are better than expected. Let’s hope this approach not only means new games, but that Miyamoto can stop threatening retirement.
Corporate Management Policy Briefing/Third Quarter Financial Results Briefing [Nintendo]
Vallen Chaos Valiant
Tuesday, January 31, 2012 at 8:59 PMA good employee is irreplaceable for the company.
A GREAT employee however, would make sure to lay grounds and grow talent to ensure that his company would continue to prosper without him.
Seegrey
Tuesday, January 31, 2012 at 9:06 PMA smart employee would ensure the future growth plans couldn’t take off until she wants them to, though – job retention, and such.
Alinos
Wednesday, February 1, 2012 at 12:51 AMNo one is irreplaceable.
The difference is that when you have high profile employee’s like Miyamoto, their loss will instantly have a negative effect on the share price. Which is something that no company wants.
Logic Incarnate
Tuesday, January 31, 2012 at 9:01 PMOr Miyamoto is a robot that occasionally defies it’s programming and says that it will retire…before technicians can reboot it. Wait what am I thinking, Nintendo doesn’t have that sort of technology.
Braaains
Tuesday, January 31, 2012 at 9:23 PMSure they do… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08VrKFl6vJ8
Stephen
Tuesday, January 31, 2012 at 9:27 PMAlways wondered where that smash bros character was from, should of done a google search.
Stephen
Tuesday, January 31, 2012 at 9:14 PMI wonder what it would be like to talk and be interviewed about Mario for 25 years, I’d probably contemplate retirement.
Kid
Wednesday, February 1, 2012 at 12:24 AMNice article Brian. :D
Pylgrim
Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 1:12 PMI wonder if this a japanese “thing”. Hayao Miyazaki of Studio Ghibli’s fame has been threatening to retire from the early 90′s.