We don’t use those quotation marks ironically in the title, that’s really Nintendo’s stance on the situation whether you agree with them or not. You may recall that NoA President Doug Bowser went on record after the recent news broke about the 2020 delay for Animal Crossing: New Horizons, stating that the company was unwilling to “bring a game to the market before it was ready.”
Also notable was the comment that he wanted to ensure Nintendo’s employees maintain a “good work-life balance” instead of running themselves into the ground to get the game released at the originally scheduled time. Nintendo’s senior director of corporate communications, Charlie Scibetta, has also gone on record to elaborate on the president’s statements in an interview with TechCrunch.
Scibetta’s perspective is that it would be a “disservice” to loyal Animal Crossing fans to deliver a rushed project:
“We’re not going to put a game out before we think it’s ready to be enjoyed by fans. In the case of a franchise, like Animal Crossing, that has so many loyal fans, we’d be doing them a disservice if we put out a product that was rushed.”
The date being pushed back means the company’s vision for the game will be met rather than compromised by a condensed timeline, giving the development team “enough time to make it the game we want to make.”
As long time Nintendo fans know, this has been the company’s MO for the longest time (really, “from the beginning”, as it’s been stated), and there’s no sign of this changing anytime soon. Scibetta confirmed that Nintendo is “not going to rush a game out until it’s ready because [they] want to keep that quality bar high.”
Yes, it means a longer wait—but also a better game in the end.
