Although Reggie Fils-Aimé is no longer with Nintendo, he still seems to talk about his former employer just about every week.
During an interview with Gamertag Radio yesterday, Reggie was asked if he was at all surprised by the success of the Switch. It seems not – with Reggie explaining how he knew right away the system was solving a “key” consumer complaint by allowing the player to game anywhere.
The hybrid system’s success made his “retirement decision easy” – knowing that the company would be in “great shape” for at least a few years. Here’s his full response (via Nintendo Everything):
“No, it was not a surprise to me. And I say this because the first time I saw the Nintendo DS, the hair on the back of my neck stood up. The team was demoing an early, early prototype of what would become Nintendogs. Immediately I saw the potential. The first time I picked up a Wii Remote and played, again, a rudimentary experience that would become Wii Sports, I knew it was gonna be magical. The day that I sat with Mr. Iwata and held a prototype Switch and we talked about the concept, I knew it was going to be magical.
And I say this because the system was solving for a key player complaint, and that complaint is, I’m having fun, I’m playing my game, and now I need to stop because I got to go to work, or I gotta go to school, and I can’t take my game with me. I can’t continue playing that game. So Switch, with the opportunity to play on that big screen TV, then take it out of the dock and go play in handheld mode, it met a fundamental consumer desire. That was the triggering moment. There were so many other smart things the company did – the support for Unity and Unreal, which allowed all of the great independent content to come. A number of other key decisions.
But no, it’s not a surprise, and candidly, knowing that it was going to be successful is what helped make my retirement decision easy because I knew the company was going to be in great shape for at least a few years.”
During a New York Gaming Awards Twitch stream dating back to last month, Reggie admitted the Switch was a “make or break” product for Nintendo after the poor performance of the Wii U.
Do you miss Reggie at Nintendo? Would the Switch be doing even better if he was still at the company? Share your own thoughts down below.
