Reggie Fils-Aimé says the success of the Nintendo Switch has made it ‘easy’ for him to retire

Reggie Fils-Aimé says the success of the Nintendo Switch has made it ‘easy’ for him to retire

by
Former Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aimé said he knew instinctively that the Nintendo Switch would be a success, and that his confidence in the hybrid console would make it easier for him to retire. In an extensive interview with Danny Peña, Gamertag Radio, which you can listen to in the tweet below, Fils-Aimé explained why he intuitively knew that the Switch would capture the hearts and minds of players around the world. It was this feeling, Fils-Aimé said, that enabled him to spend his 16-year career at Nintendo, which he has been seriously contemplating since the death of Satoru Iwata in 2015.

“It’s not a surprise,” Fils-Aimé said. “And, frankly, knowing it would be successful made my retirement decision easy, because I knew the company would be in good shape for a few years.”

Nintendo recently revealed that the Switch surpassed the lifetime sales of its 3DS handset, with 79.87 million units sold worldwide. Fils-Aimé discussed why he felt the Nintendo Switch was so popular with gamers that the hybrid system ‘meets a fundamental consumer desire’ that gaming companies have been trying to crack for years.

“The system was resolving a complaint from key players,” said Fils-Aimé. “And the complaint is, ‘I’m having fun, I’m playing my game, and now I have to quit because I have to go to work or school, and I can not take my game with me. I can continue to play that game. So Switch, with the opportunity to play on the big screen TV, then take it out of the dock and go play in the hand condition, has fulfilled a fundamental desire for the consumer.Fils-Aimé described the moment he was offered a prototype by the late Iwata-san, comparing the experience to two other Nintendo projects that made him feel excited about making the Nintendo Switch such a special console be. the future of the company.

“The first time I saw the Nintendo DS, the hair on the back of my neck stood up straight,” he said. “The team was demonstrating an early, early prototype of what Nintendogs would become. Immediately I saw the potential. The first time I picked up a Wii Remote and played a rudimentary experience that would become Wii Sports. “I knew it would be magical. The day I sat down with Mr Iwata and had a prototype Switch and we talked about the concept, I knew it would be magical.”

Fils-Aimé retired as president of Nintendo of America in 2019, leaving a transformative legacy for the company. We talked to him before he received the Andrew Yoon Legend Award from the New York Game Awards about a career in making people smile.

In other Nintendo news, a new 50-minute live offering has been announced for February 17, focusing on upcoming and already released titles.

Tom Power is a freelance writer in the UK. Follow him further Twitter.

Thumbnail Credit: Neilson Barnard / Getty Images

Source