Like the Wii, Hate the Wii. Love Nintendo or despise the company, everyone has to agree that Shigeru Miyamoto is a genius. Even if you stopped playing Nintendo since the SNES days, you more than likely have played many of the classic titles he has created from his own mind. Everyone, including people who don’t play games, should respect the legendary game developer. In my opinion, he is just as great as other figures in entertainment. He is the Spielberg of games.

We all know he has created a abundant amount of classic gaming hits. However, I think a lot of people overlook how many of those games are complete different from each other.

From the adventures of Hyrule with the Legend of Zelda to the kooky land of the Mushroom Kingdom, Miyamoto has proven that he doesn’t need to stick to one genre. If you check out other great minds in the video game industry, most of them stick to a particular type of game.

Will Wright sticks to world simulations, Clifford Bleszinski loves his shooters and Peter Molyneux is known for god games (although he has expanded as of late). I’m not saying these other developers couldn’t reach out to another horizon, they just haven’t and they create games in their comfort zone. They in essence, don’t take the risks like Miyamoto.

Mr. Miyamoto is also one of the few gaming directors who has grown with the industry. He started off creating a simple arcade game like Donkey Kong. He then put his focus on the rebirth of video games consoles and revolutionized the business with Super Mario Bros. On top of that, he could take these same games and transcend them into fully 3D worlds. He even is one of the best today in implementing motion controls, while many other companies have failed trying.

Obviously Shigeru Miyamoto is mortal, even though rumors suggest that he is not. Because of that, he won’t be developing video games forever. So what happens to the video game industry or better yet Nintendo, when he decides to leave. The CEO of the company, Satoru Iwata talked briefly about Miyamoto leaving, in a recent Q&A Session with a Japanese site.

Read what we said after the jump.

“Certainly, when it comes to identifying and verbalizing some of the important major findings, few people can easily succeed him. For example, few people other than Shigeru Miyamoto can declare that weighing yourself everyday must be fun for everyone. However, the fact that Nintendo software is always full of unique and fun ideas attest to the fact that there are many good game creators at Nintendo. Together with Shigeru Miyamoto, all of them have been making what are called Nintendo software. So, I have never thought that we have not fostered game creators at the company.”

I’m not really sure what will happen. Nintendo got lucky with finding him, and he has carried the company on his back through the good times, as well as the bad. Even when Nintendo wasn’t selling many consoles, there was Miyamoto releasing another game that went on to sell millions.

Without him, I’m not sure if Nintendo would even be around or at the very least, we would know about the company. So lets say Miyamoto retired in the next few years. What happens to Nintendo? I’m not too sure, but I’m guessing it wouldn’t be pretty.

Unlike the other two hardware companies, Sony & Microsoft — Nintendo does not rely on third-party software. Since the days of the N64, Nintendo has relied heavily on their own games they created in house, which helped move consoles. Many of these same titles were created or assisted by Miyamoto.

Even today, third-party games, for the most part, sell poorly and/or are not very good. If Nintendo wants to succeed after Miyamoto is done, they might have to change their whole business structure. That is how important the man is to the company.