His body was ready to retire
Reggie Fils-Aimé is legendary. I mean he helped make Bigfoot Pizza a reality!
But really folks … the Bigfoot pizza reigned. But really, Reggie Fils-Aimé is easily more famous for his stint at Nintendo of America, where he brought out a very welcome, larger-than-life persona to give Nintendo the gravitas it needed. According to Reggie, the Switch struck the deal upon his retirement.
As he puts it to Gamertag Radio, “Honestly, knowing it was going to be a success helped make my retirement decision easy because I knew the company would be in good shape for at least a few years.” Reggie talks about Nintendo’s tremendous strength when it comes to portable systems and says it’s “hair on the back [his] neck stood up “when he first saw the Nintendo DS.
Reggie talks about how the Switch worked differently from the Wii U, and commented, “And I’m saying this because the system was a solution to a major player complaint, and that complaint is: I’m having fun, I’m playing my game , and now I have to stop because I have to go to work, or I have to go to school, and I can’t take my game with me. I can’t keep playing that game. So Switch, with the ability to play on that big TV, take it off dock and go play in handheld mode. It fulfilled a fundamental consumer desire. That’s when the company came into existence. There were so many other smart things the company did: support Unity and Unreal, which stood All great independent content. Some other important decisions. “
It was fascinating to hear from Reggie in retirement: you would think that he is actually not even retired at all, given the number of speaking engagements and podcasts he has appeared on. But when he talks, it is very easy to listen. He’s the type of person who always feels like his job is never done, so if the Switch is a hit, he could give the comfort he needed to step back and take some time for himself .
A conversation with Reggie Fils-Aimé [YouTube via Nintendo Life]
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