The fact that you can't delay "forever" is a cheap semantic trick. You can delay for so long that you run out of money / investor patience.

There's a vast graveyard of game companies which can attest to it.

I suppose one has to excuse Gabe Newell for not understanding this, because his company has been unsuccessfully trying to go out of business in exactly this fashion for most of its existence. Their failure to go bankrupt during any of their long delays is as notable and impressive as any of the games they've actually shipped.

Valve is an extraordinary company. That quote does not apply to non-extraordinary companies and hence is idiotic to repeat as a general rule.

It is as meaningless as if you quoted Feynman saying "think about a problem long enough and you'll solve it".

The implicit assumption in either case is one of an underlying quality process and that is one helluva an assumption to make.

Exception is Duke Nukem[0].

[0] http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/12/fail_duke_nukem/all/1

Unrelated: http://www.amazon.com/Duke-Nukem-Forever-Pc/dp/B002I0JAJ2