Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata once again touched upon the rumours that emerged of Shigeru Miyamoto’s retirement late last year, during an investor question and answer session held last week.
Comments that Miyamoto had made during an interview had been interpreted to mean that he was taking a step back from current developmental duties. Whereas his intention was to discuss how he was preparing his teams for the eventuality of when he will ultimately have to retire.
The misunderstanding spread across the Internet like wildfire, causing Nintendo and Shigeru Miyamoto to implement damage control through a series of further interviews and statements.
“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”, Iwata explained. “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”.
He continued, “Unfortunately, the article was reported as if Mr. Miyamoto had made his retirement announcement. Follow-up articles were created one after another on the Internet. Before we knew it, articles containing completely different messages from Mr. Miyamoto’s original message were circulated, which once again reminded us how scary the Internet can be”.
Iwata: Miyamoto retirement rumour “reminded us how scary the Internet can be”
