Shigeru Miyamoto Did Not Say That; Online Investigation Debunks Mythical Quote
It turns out that Shigeru Miyamoto never uttered the famous phrase that is attributed to him. However, the search for the real author is not easy.
- It turns out that Shigeru Miyamoto is not the author of the quote about delayed game releases;
- Most likely we will never know who said the famous phrase first;
- For years it has functioned as a popular saying in the game industry.
Shigeru Miyamoto is known for his many works. This distinguished Japanese developer is responsible, among other things, for creating the Mario, The Legend of Zelda and Donkey Kong series.
This man is also known for a popular quote about postponing the release of games.
"A delayed game is eventually become good, but a rushed game is forever bad."
However, it turns out that this is one big misunderstanding. Miyamoto most likely never said those words. They come from someone else.
Where did the memorable statement come from?
According to the common version of events, Miyamoto was to share the above sentence around the time of the release of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. The game was announced in 1995, but did not make its market debut until three years later.
However, no one is able to say when and where the famous words were first posted. This fact was pointed out by Javed Sterritt, host of the Good Blood channel on YouTube.
The creator stated that he would gladly give $100 to the person who would be able to pinpoint the origin of the quote. He did not have to wait long for the results of his investigation to be shared by Ethan Johnson.
Big misunderstanding?
Johnson is the host of the website and channel The History of How We Play, which deals with documenting the history of the video game industry. So the task of tracing the history of the famous quote was a task made for him.
Quickly he found a very similar sentence in a "GameFan" magazine issues from November 1998. Jason Schreiber from GT Interactive said it in the context of the launch of Unreal.
"A good game is only late until it ships, a bad game is bad forever."
Although it sounds different, the meaning is the same. Moreover, Unreal, like Ocarina of Time, has been announced relatively early, but was not released until 1998.
The story doesn't end there, however. Johnson found the same quote in Next Generation magazine issued from July 1998.
In an article about the aforementioned The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time it was stated that Nintendo operates on just that principle.
The phrase was even said to be have beem posted on a wall in the company's building. However, it was not claimed that someone from Nintendo was its author.
In time, Ethan Johnson found another magazine in which the mysterious quote appeared. Moreover, this one was published even earlier, namely in 1997.
We are talking about the "GamePro" magazine, in which the famous sentence was used in the text about the shooter Blasto from Sony. The article stated that it is a popular saying functioning among employees of the game industry. This is also the last such finding presented by Johnson.
So it looks like we will probably never find out who its original author was. Over time, the memory of him or her has been lost.
What we do know, however, is that it was definitely not Shigeru Miyamoto, as no source survives to prove that the creator ever uttered the words attributed to him.
