Miyamoto. The man needs no introduction. He has been a mainstay in the industry almost since it’s inception, and today it has been revealed that he is stepping down from his position as Senior Managing Director and General Manager of Nintendo’s Entertainment Analysis and Development Division.

In an interview with Wired’s Chris Kohler, Miyamoto stated will be passing the torch to younger developers within the company, and working on smaller projects.

“Inside our office, I’ve been recently declaring, I’m going to retire, I’m going to retire. I’m not saying that I’m going to retire from game development altogether. What I mean by retiring is, retiring from my current position.”

“What I really want to do is be in the forefront of game development once again myself. Probably working on a smaller project with even younger developers. Or I might be interested in making something that I can make myself, by myself. Something really small. In other words, I’m not intending to start from things that require a five-year development time”

“I’m saying this because I have a solid reaction from the existing teams. I was able to nurture the developers inside Nintendo who were able to create something like this or something like that. The reason why I’m stressing that is that unless I say that I’m retiring, I cannot nurture the young developers. After all, if I’m there in my position as it is, then there’s always kind of a relationship. And the young guys are always kind of in a situation where they have to listen to my ideas. But I need some people who are growing up much more than today.”

I for one will miss Miyamoto and all the eccentricity he brought to the table. How do you feel? Tell us in the comments.

UPDATE: Nintendo has denied that Miyamoto is stepping down.