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WSJ: Miyamoto Is Immortal, Will Never Retire, Don’t Sell Your Stock
Today, the Wall Street Journal published an interview with Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto, who was the subject of a bit of controversy yesterday. In case you missed it, a preview of an upcoming interview between Miyamoto and Wired seemed to suggest that he would soon retire from his post as the main-game-developer-guy.
After that news broke, Nintendo’s stock tumbled by two percent.
Today’s WSJ post seems to take great pains to illustrate how Mr. Miyamoto is only thinking about retiring—as in, his mind is examining the abstract notion of retirement as a concept—and isn’t going anywhere, investors, so please don’t lose faith in Mairo’s poppa.
“We have to construct the structure so that the organization so that it can make it without me,” Miyamoto is quoted as saying. “I should also admit that it might be better without me; I mean that a different approach and different talent might emerge, though I shouldn’t dwell on this because then the article might indeed say ‘Mr. Miyamoto is thinking about retiring,’ because that is not the case.”
WIRED: SLAMMED.
The article also points out that “he would like to focus more time on small ideas that, he said, could blossom into bigger games as time goes on,” seeming to echo the sentiments expressed in the Wired post, but tweaked slightly so as to assuage the fears of anyone who might be worried about Miyamoto’s status within the company.
From my perspective, this article seems to scream “damage control.” I’m still not entirely convinced that Miyamoto actually believes these things—I contend that after the disastrous effects of the announcement from Wired’s piece, the company set up an interview with WSJ to spin the other piece as a translation error or a misrepresentation. Again, I should note this is all my opinion—the only person who really knows what Miyamoto intends is Miyamoto.
Also, I’ve written the name “Miyamoto” a lot in this article. It’s kind of fun to type: MIYAMOTO. MIYAMOTO. MIYAMOTOOOOOOOO
Based on the three accounts we now have of the situation—the Wired piece, Nintendo’s statement, and the new WSJ piece—what do you think? Is this damage control? Did Wired get things wrong? Or is Miyamoto (MIYAMOTOOOOO) just thinking about running for office, getting ready with his flip-flopping skills now?
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… Welcome to the herd, Inside Gaming.
look at ALL the bronies in here :D
I bet he really is thinking about retiring, but when they saw the stocks go down 2 percent Nintendo said “Shit, we can’t lose money, we need a scapegoat.” So they picked out the translator, and probably gave Miyamoto a “bonus” to keep him from retiring.
Damnit Brian, with the ponies again?
Just want to point out, I have never watched an episode of this show. I just like the bizarro Brony comments.
Well watch it. Its a good show with an awsome community. FOR THE NEW LUNAR REPUBLIC!!1
1
And that’s what he meant about ‘bizarro Brony comments.’ Way to represent.
I wish miyamoto was that adorable.
Now I will be expecting ponies… every time…
Ponies? I am proud.
But anyways, it sounds more like he’s changing roles in Nintendo, but not resigning. I don’t want him to hand over complete control of Zelda just quite yet :) He’s a good man and he’s shaped the gaming industry many times over.
Beware, the Brony infection has now spreaded to the IG newsletter; and I am proud of it.
When i saw WSJ, i thought weekly shonen jump, but wall street jounral makes more sense…