Shigeru Miyamoto Defends Video Game Remakes Ahead of Ocarina of Time Switch 2 Remake
Shigeru Miyamoto, the mind behind Mario and The Legend of Zelda, has weighed in on one of gaming’s most divisive debates: whether the industry leans too heavily on remakes instead of investing in original titles.
Why Miyamoto Thinks Remakes Still Matter
Speaking to Japanese outlet Famitsu, in comments translated by Nintendo Everything, Miyamoto pushed back against the idea that remakes crowd out new development. His reasoning centers on accessibility — many players simply weren’t around, or weren’t yet gaming, when a classic title first launched. Younger audiences in particular have little practical way to experience a game that came out a decade or more ago unless it’s brought back in a form that fits modern hardware and expectations.
He also pointed to a commercial argument: when a remake sells well, that success can fund the resources and development time needed for entirely new projects down the line. In his view, reintroducing older titles to new audiences isn’t just nostalgia bait — it can directly support future original games, which he said is a strategy Nintendo has leaned into more deliberately in recent years.
It’s a stance that lines up with Nintendo’s own release history. The company has revisited its back catalog repeatedly over the decades, and its next major example is already on the way: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is getting a remake for Switch 2, arriving later this year.
Remakes Are a Bigger Trend Across the Industry
Nintendo is far from alone in banking on nostalgia. One of the most anticipated remakes elsewhere in the industry is Halo: Campaign Evolved, a rebuild of the original 2001 Halo campaign (arriving without competitive multiplayer), which is entering early access on July 23.
The appetite for this kind of content isn’t anecdotal, either. A 2025 industry study found that almost every surveyed gamer had played a remake or remaster within the previous year, and separate reporting pegged total remake and remaster downloads in 2025 at over 138 million. Numbers like that suggest publishers have strong financial incentive to keep mining their libraries, regardless of criticism that the practice slows down original development.
The Ongoing Debate: Innovation vs. Nostalgia
Not everyone in the gaming community is on board. Critics argue that studio resources poured into remakes could instead fund new intellectual property, and that leaning too heavily on familiar titles risks stagnating creative output. Miyamoto’s comments don’t dismiss that concern outright, but they do offer a counterpoint: remakes, done well, can serve as a bridge that introduces classic design and storytelling to players who would otherwise never encounter it — while also bankrolling the next generation of original ideas.
With Ocarina of Time’s Switch 2 remake on the horizon, Nintendo appears set to test that philosophy again on one of its most beloved titles.
