Super Mario 64, Star Fox programmer says devs weren't historically given free copies of their games, so they had to "wait until supply caught up with demand" if their work sold out

Fox McCloud's designer isn't getting an early screening of The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, though a former Nintendo developer who worked on the likes of Star Fox and Super Mario 64 says that sort of thing has been the norm for a while, as even working on a game doesn't guarantee you a copy of it.

Earlier this week, the character designer for Star Fox, Takaya Imamura, said that – despite creating Fox McCloud – he won't be getting the chance to see his character in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie earlier than the rest of Japan (where the movie is set to release later this month on April 24). In a Tweet (translated by Genki_JPN), Imamura speculated that it was due to a common practice among Japanese companies of drawing a line with people who quit.

Another Star Fox veteran, Giles Goddard – who helped develop the original game alongside his former Argonaut coworkers before going on to work on titles like Stunt Race FX, Super Mario 64, and 1080 Snowboarding – chimed in with his own experience. Responding to Genki, Goddard says, "We weren't given copies of the game back then either." He explains, "Games used to sell out in stores so we'd wait until supply caught up with demand."

Granted, I don't think Imamura is too cut up about things, as when Fox McCloud was revealed for The Super Mario Galaxy Movie – in one of the biggest spoiler marketing moves in a hot minute – he said he was "overwhelmed with emotion," and thanked Shigeru Miyamoto for including the character. And given that Glen Powell's Fox is a lot of people's favorite part of the film, I'm sure he's overjoyed. Maybe they'll invite him along if a Star Fox movie ever gets made.

Miyamoto anticipated "significant resistance" to Fox McCloud in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.