What happens to Nintendo after Miyamoto retires?

[Erik Aston]

Nintendo's success isn't dependant on Miyamoto. See: the 1990's.

Nintendo lost it's way around 1990 with the launch of the SNES. They managed to be market leader during the all-destructive first "console wars" anyways. They declined further with the N64. Miyamoto made one masterpiece after another throughout the 90s, though, mostly in the platform and adventure genres. There's no doubt he was the greatest (most important) game designer of the 90s, just as he was for the 80s, and yet Nintendo declined throughout the whole decade, their saving grace being the non-internal Pokemon.

Right around the time the Gamecube launched, Nintendo found their way again. Iwata taking the helm was the biggest turning point. The Gamecube era became a rebuilding period, but the corporate culture was corrected at the start of this era. And now with DS and Wii, Nintendo is again taking over the world.

What did Miyamoto have to do with all this? He's proven he can make ground-breaking games even within a broken corporate culture and backwards business strategy, but his games don't make those failures disappear and make the company succeed. It was Yamauchi and especially Iwata rethinking the company's culture and strategy that allowed Miyamoto to create breakthrough games like Nintendogs and Wii Sports, but meanwhile Nintendo has also had breakthroughs like Brain Training and Animal Crossing that have little or nothing to do with Miyamoto.

Certainly it was Yokoi and Miyamoto that defined the Nintendo strategy of perpetual disruption in the first place, starting with Game and Watch and Donkey Kong. But only when the business people embrace the strategy does the company flourish. Miyamoto is certainly a valuable asset unlike any other in the gaming industry, but if Nintendo keep their current culture and strategy, they will succeed long after he's gone.