Miyamoto Says Nintendo Remakes Pave the Way for 'Future Developments'

Miyamoto Addresses the Elephant in the Room

Shigeru Miyamoto does not typically go out of his way to acknowledge fan criticism. So when the Nintendo legend sits down with Famitsu and opens with “some people might say there are a lot of remakes,” it’s worth paying attention to what comes next.

In comments translated and reported by Nintendo Everything, Miyamoto offered a straightforward defense of the company’s recent approach. “After five years, a lot of people have outgrown games and stop playing them,” he said. “Young people today don’t have the opportunity to play games from 10 years ago, so remaking them to be more playable and releasing them again is a good way to meet the demand.”

That logic is hard to argue with on its face. But it was his next sentence that really got fans talking: “Letting people know the original games also leads to future developments, so we’ve been actively pursuing that recently.”

Future developments. He left it there, which is very Miyamoto of him.

A Busy Year for Nintendo’s Back Catalog

The context here matters. Two of Nintendo’s biggest Switch 2 titles in 2026 are games that longtime fans have already played, in some form, more than once. Star Fox, which launched last month, is according to IGN technically the third reimagining of the N64 original. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, confirmed at last month’s Nintendo Direct after a major leak and considerable fan speculation, will follow various re-releases of that game, including its 3DS port.

Neither of those decisions arrived without online chatter. The Star Fox remake in particular sparked conversation about Nintendo’s willingness to revisit the same wells, especially for a franchise that has not seen a genuinely new mainline entry in years. Ocarina of Time, beloved as it is, carries similar baggage: a now-removed product description has suggested the Switch 2 version will be a faithful remake rather than a reimagining, which landed as both reassuring and a little predictable depending on who you asked.

What ‘Future Developments’ Might Actually Mean

Miyamoto’s comments are deliberately vague, but the surrounding context gives fans a lot to work with. Fox McCloud made an appearance in the Super Mario Galaxy Movie earlier this year, a detail that sent the Star Fox fanbase into its usual cycle of cautious optimism. With a new remake now out in the wild, the thinking goes, Nintendo is re-establishing the franchise with a new generation of players before following up with something original.

The Zelda calculus is somewhat different. A follow-up to Tears of the Kingdom is, as IGN noted, essentially inevitable at this point. Ocarina of Time on Switch 2 serves a different function there, more like a palate cleanser and a way to keep fans occupied while the next big thing takes shape.

Whether Miyamoto’s “future developments” remark was a genuine hint or just corporate optimism dressed in philosophical clothing is genuinely unclear. Nintendo tends to play its long game quietly. What’s notable is that he felt the need to say it at all, which suggests the volume of the remake conversation has been loud enough to warrant a direct response from one of the company’s most prominent voices.

Ocarina of Time is set to launch on Switch 2 sometime later in 2026. The initial teaser confirmed the game’s 3D art style but was otherwise light on specifics. Fans will be watching closely to see whether the finished product offers anything beyond what the title already implies.