Oh boy that's a misleading headline, as he is still going to be working at Nintendo.
He's stepping down from major title development (Think mainline Mario, Zelda) and will be downshifting to working on small titles with a small team.
“What I really want to do is be in the forefront of game development once again myself,” Miyamoto said. “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.”
To be fair, Aonuma has been head honcho for the last 4 games or so. It's still a pretty big deal that Miyamoto is leaving, but the transition was smooth.
I agree, that game was one of the best of the series, and that's a pretty strong statement considering Zelda could be considered the best gaming franchise of all time.
But, honestly, I think his shift to smaller games/teams could be for the best. It's hard to guess how much influence he had anymore when "producing" titles. But working on small games might allow his creativity to flourish like it did when he first started.
Indeed, I think he's basically maneuvered himself into an even better position, creatively: he still has all the resources of Nintendo at his disposal, but now will have none of the requirements or expectations to produce huge, sprawling, guaranteed multi-million-dollar-franchise-continuing titles.
He's stepping down from major title development (Think mainline Mario, Zelda) and will be downshifting to working on small titles with a small team.
“What I really want to do is be in the forefront of game development once again myself,” Miyamoto said. “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.”