Mario Creator Miyamoto Not Working on Nintendo's NX Console

Shigeru Miyamoto, creator of Mario, The Legend of Zelda, and many other iconic Nintendo franchises, has revealed he is not contributing to the development of the company's next gaming console.

Speaking in an interview with Forbes, Miyamoto said he is focusing his efforts on developing games, instead of participating to hardware development, as he has done in the past.

"I've pulled myself back out of some of the hardware section and I'm really focused on some of the software I'm involved in--for example, the new Starfox game," he said.

"Of course, I am observing and looking at the hardware, but I am not actively participating and making decisions."

Nintendo has confirmed its next home console is codenamed the NX, but the company has said it does not plan to fully reveal the hardware until 2016.

According to Forbes, however, Nintendo was discussing the console with third-parties at E3 2015 and insiders say the reception was "positive."

Shinya Takashi, who oversees Nintendo's software planning and development division with Miyamoto, said the duo are now focused on catching "the attention of a large number of players again and [getting] them excited."

"We’re constantly thinking about this idea from the perspective of the players and the needs of the players in terms of what can we can do with our ability and our technology to capture that excitement and passion," he said.

Elsewhere in the interview, Miyamoto reflected on the performance of the Wii U, saying he feels "people never really understood the concept behind the Wii U and what [Nintendo] was trying to do."

'I think the assumption is we were trying to create a game machine and a tablet and really what we were trying to do was create a game system that gave you tablet-like functionality for controlling that system and give you two screens that would allow different people in the living room to play in different ways," he explained.

"Unfortunately, because tablets, at the time, were adding more and more functionality and becoming more and more prominent, this system and this approach didn’t mesh well with the period in which we released it.”

At E3 2015, Nintendo revealed Star Fox Zero, which is being co-developed by Platinum Games, the studio behind Wii U titles Bayonetta 2 and Wonderful 101.