In an exclusive interview with Wired.com, Shigeru Miyamoto, creator of Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda franchises revealed that he stepping down from his role as Nintendo’s head of game design department.

“Inside our office, I’ve been recently declaring, ‘I’m going to retire, I’m going to retire,’” said Miyamoto. “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.”

According to Miyamoto, he will be focusing his efforts on other, smaller projects within the company.

“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.”

Miyamoto told Wired that he’s making the move in order to show the younger developers at Nintendo that he won’t always be around for them to work alongside with.

[Wired]