Nintendo: the day Kanye West presented his game to Miyamoto, the story of an unlikely encounter

We would tend to forget it, but in February 2016, as part of an event organized in New York, Kanye West announced Only One, a game whose title takes up that of the song dedicated to his daughter North. What we didn’t know until now is that long before making it official, the singer had pitched the game to Shigeru Miyamoto in person at E3 2015. It’s Zachary Ryan, lead community producer at Twitch and former IGN, who tells this anecdote for the less funny on Twitter.

Traveling to New York to interview Miyamoto-san as part of the release of Star Fox Zero, Zachary Ryan and others present on the spot discuss Kanye West’s new album (The Life of Pablo). This is where Mario’s dad comes in and reveals himself as rarely through his translator. “He told me that Kanye showed up unexpectedly at the Nintendo booth and asked him for an interview immediately.he explains. He said Kanye showed him the prototype of a game in which you play as his dead mother who flies off to heaven, with a soundtrack produced by him. Miyamoto then started shaking his head, not because he thought the play was bad, but because he couldn’t believe Kanye West was pitching a play to him.“

i fucking lost it. i laughed so hard. what an absurd turn of events. not only that it happened but that the story was relayed to me in this VERY SPECIFIC way.

Kanye announced “Only One” like two weeks later.

—Zachary Ryan (@ZachariusD) May 5, 2022

He pursues : “Finally, [Miyamoto] nodded, saying, ‘That was very interesting. There was a long pause, and he added: ‘It was very emotional. He then laughed very hard and said: ‘Kanye West wanted to make a game with Nintendo’, before exclaiming in English: ‘Wow!’, with both thumbs up. I burst out laughing. The turn of events was just absurd, and not just because it happened, but also because the story was told to me in a rather peculiar way.Zachary Ryan points out that two weeks after his interview with Miyamoto in New York, Kanye West announced Only One.

What has happened to the game since? Supposed to be in development at Encyclopedia Pictura, it is missing. Moreover, in 2019, interviewed by The Gamerthe studio has acknowledged that it is no longer involved in the project.

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