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Shigeru Miyamoto still has no plans to retire after Super Mario Wonder & movie

Even so, the longtime Nintendo developer often considers who he's passing things onto, just in case.

TJ Denzer

January 2, 2024 8:40 AM

Image via Nintendo

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Even if you didn’t count the release of Super Mario Bros. Wonder and the Super Mario Bros. Movie among Nintendo’s stellar 2023, Shigeru Miyamoto is highly accomplished, but he’s not planning on hanging up his hat yet. Rather, the legendary developer is more concerned about what should happen if his body should just give upon him someday. Thankfully, Miyamoto also seems to believe his creations have grown beyond him and he just wants to be remembered as they continue to expand.

Miyamoto shared these sentiments in a recent interview with The Guardian. When asked about retirement, Miyamoto said it was something he didn’t really spend that much time considering at the moment. On the flipside, he is highly concerned about what happens if something unfortunate should take him out of commission.

“More so than retiring, I’m thinking about the day I fall over,” Miyamoto explained. “In this day and age you have to think about things in a five-year timespan, so I do think about who I can pass things on to, in case something does happen.

Indeed, Super Mario Bros. Wonder seemed to rely heavily on the ideas of younger talent and the ideas they came up with to refresh the Mario formula. Nintendo most certainly still has its rockstar veterans, but it also seems to be building a large pool of new talent to continue its iconic franchises. To that end, Miyamoto shared that he feels Mario and his other Nintendo creations have grown well beyond his ownership. He simply wants folks to remember the part he played.

“There is a scene in Iron Man where the president goes to his own company and the guard man doesn’t let him in, and he points at the portrait and says: ‘That’s me!’” Miyamoto joked. “But I really hope that the teams I work with, at least, remember me as the creator of these things!”

There’s little doubt that Miyamoto will always be remembered, but it seems the Mario creator also still has quite a bit of ambition left in him. As we come off a wonderful 2023 for Nintendo and head into an exciting 2024, stay tuned for what’s next from the developer!

TJ Denzer

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.