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| A screengrab from GTA Trilogy Definitive Edition |
Two decades before GTA VI broke the internet, Nintendo’s legendary designer drew a line in the sand – and his words still echo through the industry today.
It’s easy to forget now, but there was a moment in the early 2000s when the entire video game world seemed to be turning grey. Not literally, of course, but metaphorically. The streets of Liberty City were slick with rain and crime. Tommy Vercetti was cutting deals and leaving bodies in his wake. And CJ? He was riding through Grove Street with a chip on his shoulder and a pistol in his waistband.
Grand Theft Auto had become the undisputed king of cool.
Between 2001 and 2004, Rockstar Games delivered a one-two-three punch that changed everything. Grand Theft Auto III (2001) redefined open-world gaming. GTA: Vice City (2002) painted it neon pink and fed it to Scarface fans. And GTA: San Andreas (2004) turned the whole concept into a sprawling, gangster-rap epic that felt less like a game and more like living inside a crime movie.
Teenagers and twenty-somethings lapped it up. Parents and politicians, not so much. But one man was watching from Kyoto with a very different set of priorities.
That man was Shigeru Miyamoto – the creator of Mario, Zelda, Donkey Kong, and arguably the most influential designer in the history of interactive entertainment. And instead of chasing Rockstar’s success, he decided to run in the exact opposite direction.
The Interview That Stopped Gamers in Their Tracks
Rewind to early 2003. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker was either the most beautiful game ever made or an unforgivable betrayal, depending on who you asked. Miyamoto and his team at Nintendo had unveiled Link with cel-shaded graphics, big cartoon eyes, and a vibrant, almost watercolour world that looked nothing like the gritty realism dominating the market.
Older teenagers – the same demographic flocking to GTA – were furious. Forums lit up with complaints. “Too kiddie,” they sneered. “Nintendo doesn’t get it anymore.”
So Miyamoto sat down with Sweden’s Superplay magazine to set the record straight. And what he said didn’t just defend Wind Waker – it laid out a philosophy that Nintendo has stuck to, more or less unshaken, for over twenty years.
“The games industry is broader than ever, and there are many different ways to produce a game these days. Apparently, many older gamers like Grand Theft Auto, but that doesn’t mean Nintendo will develop similar games. Instead, it’s our task to find new ways to create substitutes. It is our duty to produce alternatives to GTA.”
You can still read the full exchange today, thanks to preservation efforts. The interview is archived right here on the Miyamoto Shrine via the Wayback Machine – a time capsule from an era when the gaming landscape was splitting into two very different directions.
“We Have a Responsibility” – Miyamoto’s Moral Line in the Sand
What makes Miyamoto’s stance so remarkable, looking back, isn’t that he criticised GTA. Plenty of people did. It’s that he didn’t dismiss it. He acknowledged its appeal to older players while calmly explaining why Nintendo would never go there.
He continued, with a level of thoughtfulness that feels almost radical in today’s outrage-driven discourse:
“I have never intended to make games for a specific age group. I want to make games for both kids and adults. I think it’s important that we producers keep things within moral and ethical borders. I actually think that game designers have some responsibility for what we create. Of course, the freedom of art and the right to speak are important, but we should be careful with what we create. Games are interactive entertainment and can affect young people.”
Read that again. Games are interactive and can affect young people.
This was 2003 – before the endless debates about loot boxes, before Fortnite dance emotes, before governments started holding hearings about video game addiction. Miyamoto wasn’t calling for censorship. He wasn’t demanding Rockstar be shut down. He was simply saying: we have a choice about what we make, and that choice matters.
It’s the kind of quiet, principled stance that doesn’t generate screaming headlines. But it might be the most important thing any major game designer has ever said about the industry’s moral compass.
Did Nintendo Ever Break Its Own Rule?
Fast forward to 2025, and it’s fair to ask: has Nintendo stayed true to Miyamoto’s 2003宣言?
Mostly, yes. You still won’t find Nintendo publishing a game where you can hire a prostitute, beat her to get your money back, and then run over a policeman. That’s not who they are. Super Mario Odyssey, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Splatoon 3 – all of them sit firmly within Miyamoto’s “for both kids and adults” sweet spot. They’re challenging, clever, and sometimes even dark in tone (Majora’s Mask fans, you know what I mean), but never gratuitous.
However, Nintendo hasn’t been a complete fortress. The company has quietly allowed Grand Theft Auto onto its platforms over the years:
- GTA: Chinatown Wars (2009) – A critically acclaimed top-down entry developed specifically for the Nintendo DS. It was violent, sure, but it was also clever, stylised, and arguably more about drug-dealing mechanics than shock value.
- GTA Advance (2004) – A Game Boy Advance title that most players have forgotten, but it existed.
- Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition (2021) – Yes, you can now play GTA III, Vice City, and San Andreas on the Nintendo Switch. Rockstar’s crime epic, running on a handheld you can take to a playground. Let that irony sink in.
So while Nintendo has never developed a GTA-style game, it has learned to live alongside Rockstar. The Switch, after all, is a platform for everyone – and “everyone” apparently includes virtual gangsters.
If you’ve somehow never played the original trilogy, or you just want to relive the chaos on modern hardware, you can grab Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition right now.
👉 Buy the Grand Theft Auto Trilogy on Amazon here
What Miyamoto Got Right (And What He Maybe Didn’t See Coming)
Here’s the thing about Miyamoto’s 2003 comments. In some ways, he was absolutely prescient. The games industry did become broader. Grand Theft Auto didn’t kill colourful, inventive, family-friendly games – it just forced them to find their own audiences. Today, you’ve got Baldur’s Gate 3 sitting alongside Kirby and the Forgotten Land on “Game of the Year” lists. There’s room for everyone.
But in other ways, the industry moved past the binary Miyamoto described. The most successful modern games – Fortnite, Roblox, Minecraft, Genshin Impact – aren’t really “edgy” or “wholesome”. They’re services. They’re about battle passes, cosmetics, and keeping you logging in every single day. That’s a different kind of moral question entirely, and one Miyamoto didn’t anticipate.
Meanwhile, Grand Theft Auto V has sold over 200 million copies. GTA VI is coming in 2025, and the internet has already lost its collective mind over a single trailer. Rockstar didn’t just win the argument – they built an empire.
And yet. And yet.
Nintendo has sold over 140 million Switch consoles. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom are masterpieces that don’t need a single swear word or drop of blood to earn their place in gaming history. Miyamoto’s “alternatives to GTA” didn’t just survive – they thrived.
The Bottom Line: Two Visions, One Beautifully Messy Industry
Twenty-two years after that interview with Superplay, Shigeru Miyamoto’s words feel less like a criticism of Grand Theft Auto and more like a statement of creative independence. He wasn’t saying GTA shouldn’t exist. He was saying Nintendo doesn’t have to be that.
And thank goodness for that.
Imagine a world where every game was a grey-brown shooter with morally ambiguous anti-heroes. Imagine no Mario, no Zelda, no Animal Crossing, no Pikmin. That world would be poorer, duller, and infinitely less joyful.
So the next time someone complains that Nintendo games are “for kids,” remember what Miyamoto said: they’re for everyone. And sometimes, the bravest thing a designer can do is refuse to follow the crowd.
What do you think? Should Nintendo have ever dipped its toes into mature territory? Or was Miyamoto right to hold the line? Drop your thoughts in the comments – and while you’re here, go read that original 2003 interview for yourself.
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