Shigeru Miyamoto, the legendary Nintendo game designer behind classic series like Mario and Zelda, is nearly 60. Which for most people is approaching retirement age. Not Miyamoto!
No, while he recognises that there'll eventually be a time he stops working for Nintendo, he can't envisage a day where he stops making games altogether.
"Well, I am one of the company workers and the company has to retire me some time", he told magazine GamesTM, re-iterating a point he's, well, made before. "So from that perspective, yes I may have to retire from Nintendo some day."
"But when I look around and see how aged cartoonists continue to work on their manga and how movie directors create new movies all the time, I understand that they would never retire. And by the same token, I guess I will still be making games somehow. The only question is whether the younger people will be willing to work with me at that far point in the future."
Can't see why not. Another pivotal figure in Japanese entertainment, film maker Hayao Miyazaki, is still making great movies and he's nearly 70. He seems to have no trouble finding people to work with, and he doesn't have the kind of money Nintendo has.
Shigeru Miyamoto on Mario Galaxy 2, violence in games and the Vitality Sensor [GamesTM]