Shigeru Miyamoto is one of the most prolific and important developers in video game history. However, the man behind The Legend of Zelda and Mario franchises may be finally walking away from the worlds he created. In a new interview with French publication Gamekult, Miyamoto hints that he will step away from the Mario franchise soon and leave it in the hands of younger developers so he can focus on other projects.
When asked about his role in future Mario titles, after taking a less hands-on role with the upcoming Super Mario 3D World, Miyamoto revealed that he is moving away from handling Mario titles directly becuase they demand too much energy. But he will have some role to play in their creation, he said.
"Creating a Mario of 3D World's calibre demands enormous energy and there is little chance that I'd be able to take the time necessary to work on the next Mario...Instead, I want to get involved more heavily in the development of new, smaller-scale projects, but that doesn't necessarily mean just modest downloadable titles. It's not impossible that I'll present a new game as principal creator in the future, but even though I'm not directly in charge of a project, I'm always keeping an eye on what the teams are doing in terms of gameplay and I have confidence in them...Don't worry about Mario!"
The 60-year-old game developer has built perhaps the greatest legacy of any video game creator, so it's understandable that he would seek to help smaller titles get off the ground rather than continue to labor on blockbuster Mario titles. After all, when the developer started, games were much smaller than they are now, and he can bring his experience to recreate some of that early magic found on the Super Nintendo to more modern indie-style games.
It will be interesting to see where the Mario franchise will go with Miyamoto moving on. Though the franchise has suffered somewhat due to the many spinoff titles that have come out over the years, each main Mario title has received its fair share of praise, and Super Mario 3D World looks to be no exception.
Super Mario 3D World will be available on the Wii U on Nov. 22, the same day that the Xbox One console is released.