What happens when Miyamoto retires/dies?

[Jessi]

If you don't know how Miyamoto is, well, shame on you...

He's the man who created Mario, Zelda, Donkey Kong, etc and he's not exactly a young pup any more.

He created a huge chunk of Nintendo's popular games, so it kind of makes me wonder what will happen with Nintendo when he goes away. Will it be like when Jobs passed and Apple was left without their leading man?

 

[Mr. Blue]

I think Miyamoto built the base of the franchise to where they can handle themselves. People like Iwata have experience and are capable of running Nintendo. Miyamoto is going to retire soon, but I don't think we need to worry about him passing yet. Nintendo will always be a strong gaming company, thanks to Miyamoto.

 

[AurelioLeo]

Japanese companies make sure they have a rank and file system. If nintendo's top guy was to suddenly pass away ,they have someone who is qualify to replace him. An american company like Apple wasn't properly ready for Job's passing and now they are scrambling for real leadership.

 

[toob223]

I think Miyamoto built the base of the franchise to where they can handle themselves. People like Iwata have experience and are capable of running Nintendo. Miyamoto is going to retire soon, but I don't think we need to worry about him passing yet. Nintendo will always be a strong gaming company, thanks to Miyamoto.

Yeah, i agree but i iwata isn't that young as well...

 

[BTCGuru81]

I don't mean to be disrespectful to Miyamoto, but I argue, nothing happens. At this point, Shigeru Miyamoto is more or less a corporate personality, a salesman for the company. Though he does occasionally play a role as producer of certain titles, he is no longer, and has not for some time,had a director credit or acted in a design capicity for games. He will always be respected and remembered for his contribution to the medium, but in terms of direct involvmenet with the software, he's functionally retired.

It's also worth mentioning that Japan has one of the highest life expectancies in the world. Given how gamers tend to spend a little too much time sitting on our butt's in front of the television, I think there's a strong likelihood he's going to out live some of us. :lol:

 

[DrRipley]

I think he has done enough to inspire millions of new gamers and future game designers, so to me, his legacy is already in place. And personally, even though he does bear much similarities to Steve Jobs in terms of success in his chosen industry, I see gaming as a bit different from Steve Jobs' industry which is mostly hardware. It is a lot easier to get into game designing since it is only software and nowadays you can release your own designs digitally and not to mention you can accomplish it all just by yourself or even with just a handful of people, while following in Steve Jobs' footsteps would entail you to speak with investors, engineers and industrial designers. So I think Miyamoto's legacy is definitely already in its rightful place in history and he has already given everyone enough ideas, imagination and creativity to carry on for many generations.

 

[Esperahol]

Nintendo will continue onward. He set up the games, but at this point they don't need him to hold their hands in regard to the growing mythos of the games. More over he's more like a Cool Old Guy at the company then he is the Only One Who Can Save Us. On a different note - this is kind of morbid dude. What's wrong?

 

[ozadin]

It would be a shame, but obviously he already picked out people that will replace him. His death would be known for about 1-2 days and then eventually they will forget.

 

[Damien Lee]

I'm sure Nintendo have a clone of Miyamoto in a secret lab somewhere - gotta have a backup plan!

Seriously, Miyamoto is one legendary game designer that would hurt Nintendo's fortunes when he is no longer around. Perhaps we don't hear so much of him these days but his doing much work behind the scenes which is equally important. I don't doubt that Nintendo has plenty of talented folks working from them, but I'm not sure that they have anyone on the same level as Miyamoto.

I think that's one of the reasons why they've been working so much with Platinum Games lately. Most of Japan's top game development talent is now working in that one company.