The Shigeru Miyamoto situation is a bit more complicated than we initially thought.

Following Shigeru’s unusually personal announcement of his retirement yesterday to Wired’s Game|Life blog, Nintendo issued this official statement:

“Video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto’s role at Nintendo is not changing. He will continue to be a driving force in Nintendo’s development efforts. In discussing his priorities at Nintendo in a media interview, Mr. Miyamoto explained how he is encouraging the younger developers at the company to take more initiative and responsibility for developing software. He attempted to convey his priorities moving forward, inclusive of overseeing all video game development and ensuring the quality of all products. Mr. Miyamoto also discussed his desire to pursue fresh ideas and experiences of the kind that sparked his initial interest in video games.”

This statement was made after Nintendo’s shares dropped by 2% following Miyamoto’s announcement (the Japanese stock market fell about 0.7% on average that day). Because of the timing, this statement seems more like calming nervous investors than clarifying remarks your lead designer made in a media appearance. Christ Kohler, who ran the interview, stated on Twitter that he still stands by his report.

I am standing by Miyamoto here as well. Just on principle, I trust words from the man himself more than those from a company representative who has been watching their stock plunge.

Also, I have been translating Japanese to English as part of my day job for the last two years. It would be pretty hard for me to mistake the words for “retirement” and “stepping down” for anything else, and we can only hope that the translators they are hiring to stick with Miyamoto are more experienced than I am.

I will wait for another announcement from Miyamoto himself before updating this story.