Every time a video game is delayed in the modern online era, a quote is shared that is attributed to Shigeru Miyamoto. "A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad." The quote is said to stem from Miyamoto's work on The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, announced in 1995 and ultimately released in 1998, but there's just one issue. No one can seem to find evidence that Shigeru Miyamoto actually ever said this. Further, no one really knows where the quote came from.A new discussion surrounding the quotation and whether it's correctly attributed to Miyamoto started on Twitter recently when Javed Sterritt of the Good Blood YouTube channel told his followers he'd give $100 to anyone who could find the quotation's origin. The task was then taken up by Ethan Johnson, independent games researcher and the creator of The History of How We Play. Johnson's research has, so far, found a variety of confusing evidence surrounding the quotation's origin, with no indication so far that it stems from Miyamoto.RELATED: Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto Reveals His Leadership Style and Future PlansThe conversation kicked off with what Johnson initially believed to be the first instance of the quotation's use in a video game publication. In an issue of GameFan magazine published in June 1998, regarding the development of Unreal, GT Interactive producer Jason Schreiber was quoted as saying, "A good game is only late until it ships, a bad game is bad forever." Johnson then showed that this exact quotation was posted on Usenet in November 1998, attributed not to Schreiber, but to Nintendo's (at the time) studio Rare.

Then, things spiraled. Johnson was able to find another magazine quote in Next Generation article about The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time from June 1998 saying Nintendo lives by the mantra, "A late game is only late until it ships. A bad game is bad forever." This quote was described as "posted on the wall at a development house," but not necessarily Nintendo's.

This could be where the confusion stems from, as it's the only example of the quote being tied to the development of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Johnson even provides examples from Usenet where video game fans talk about the article. There's even one that attributes the quote to Nintendo. It could easily have turned into an example of a decades-long game of telephone.

As for where the quote actually comes from, it's still a mystery. Johnson did find an earlier use of the quote, this time from a 1997 issue of GamePro about Sony's shooter Blasto. The article has no provided author and describes the quote, "A late game is only late until it ships. A bad game is bad for the rest of your life," as an "industry catch phrase." All that's clear is that the quote appears to have been in use prior to 1997 and that there's no evidence it originated at Nintendo or from Shigeru Miyamoto.

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