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Born in 1952, Shigeru Miyamoto is the former game developer now in charge of gaming’s most cherished company – Nintendo. Having led the company through its darkest and brightest times, there are various concerns about his health that both shareholders and fans are thinking about.
At a recent shareholder meeting, Miyamoto and co were asked a range of questions ranging from the price of the Nintendo Switch’s successor to the Japanese company’s plans for music and performance, though the one that caught me the most related to what the Executive Fellow and Representative Director plans to do with the company’s leadership.
Courtesy of NStyles on Twitter, a shareholder asked if Miyamoto will continue to take charge in developing video games, especially considering the shareholders interest in creators taking care of themselves. It should be noted that we have used an online translator to read the Japanese answers in English, so expect there to be some slight discrepancies in turn of phrase.
As expected, I am feeling a bit anxious now that I am the oldest here. I am comfortable working at the company. It’s not that I don’t have any experience with game development, but I have the younger generation making the games without myself having to do any actual work, and I’ve been able to hand it over smoothly, but the people I took over from are also getting older, so I would like to hand it over to someone younger. I’m heavily involved with Pikmin Bloom, so I look forward to working with you.
Shigeru Miyamoto
This isn’t something particularly unexpected – it’s no secret that Miyamoto is an older figure now. At 71, he remains one of the most influential figures in gaming, if not the most. With Mario, Donkey Kong, Zelda, Star Fox, and Pikmin in his portfolio, amongst all the others that he has contributed to, there’s no questioning the experience and talent he exerts.
After Satoru Iwata’s unfortunate passing in 2015, Miyamoto took over the company as Interim President, and oversaw the launch of the Nintendo Switch, alongside Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, two of the best selling Nintendo games of all time.
In terms of younger replacements for Miyamoto’s role, other designer figures such as Takashi Tezuka (original SMB, Yoshi’s Island, Link to the Past), Katsuya Eguchi (Star Fox, Animal Crossing) and Eiji Aonuma (Zelda) could easily step up to the role, though if there was someone particularly younger in mind – Hidemaro Fujibayashi should be in the conversation thanks to his directorial efforts on the most recent Zelda titles.
