Miyamoto trusts Nintendo won't change after he’s gone

One of the biggest legends in the industry among those who are still active -or the biggest?- is without a doubt Shigeru Miyamoto, an irreplaceable part of Nintendo since 1977. His influence, not just on the Japanese company, but on the history of video games in general, has been tremendous, and in fact, we probably won't exaggerate if we say that thanks to him there are still video games. After the 1983 crisis, the NES and above all Super Mario Bros. were such a hit that faith in the industry grew again.

Post-Miyamoto Nintendo

But Miyamoto is not eternal, and one day he will retire. What will happen then? He has spoken about it in an interview, basically stating that he hopes everything stays the same. “ You know, I really feel like it's not going to change”, he begins explaining. “It's probably going to be the same. There's, you know, people on the executive team, creators within the company and also people who create Mario, they all have this sense of what it means to be Nintendo."

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“It's not like there are different opinions going back and forth,” he continues. “Everyone has an understanding, and this kind of shared understanding is what it's like to be Nintendo. And so it's not like there's a lot of different opinions that go back and forth. Everyone has an understanding, this kind of shared understanding, of what it is to be Nintendo. And so even when there's new ideas that come up, there's always the fact that it's a new idea, but also the fact that, is it a new idea that really has the essence of Nintendo or not?“

“And I think that's something that, you know - we have this incredible shared vision, almost a little scary shared vision, about this. So I think there won't - it's not going to change."

Despite already reaching 70 years of age, Miyamoto has been very active in recent years. He has taken part as a producer in The Super Mario Bros. Movie, entering the world of animation at an age closer to retirement than anything else. Talking about the creator’s resume is dizzying, as he is responsible for some of the most influential franchises in the history of Nintendo, and for video games in general, such as Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Starfox, Pikmin or F-Zero. Almost nothing.

Source | NPR