Nintendo has always had a focus on the family-friendly side of gaming. But former Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime recalls a time in which the company was almost shameful for that image. As it turns out, Nintendo was attempting to counter the narrative that it was too childish, and Reggie put a stop to it.
Reggie Fils-Aime has since turned thePresidency over to Doug Bowser, but Reggie says that when he first joined the company, Nintendo of America was in the process of trying to appeal to a wider audience, outside of the young consumers. The team was testing ideas revolving around altering the Nintendo logo, but Reggie said no.
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Reggie wanted Nintendo to broaden the scope and appeal to a wider audience, but in a much more genuine way than simply adding graffiti to the logo. Nintendo ended up sticking with the traditional oval logo with the Nintendo word in the middle. What Nintendo did to appeal to larger audiences was create unique gaming experiences like the DS,Nintendogs,Brain Age, Wii,Wii Sports,Wii Fit,and eventually the Nintendo Switch.
What is interesting about Reggie’s approach in the board room is that it may have countered what he was doing to some degree with the public. When Reggie Fils-Aime first walked onto the E3 stage in 2004, he welcomed himself by saying “My name is Reggie. I’m about kickin' ass, I’m about takin' names, andwe’reabout makin' games”. That quote, in some ways, isn’t very family-friendly. Reggie was making a statement to the hardcore audience that Nintendo was aboutcreating awesome games for the fans. But behind the scenes, Reggie was making sure that Nintendo stayed true to the DNA of the company as well.
Nintendo, of the big three, has seemed to finally settle in as its own unique space within gaming. While it is probably the reason gaming was revolutionized and came out of the video game crash in the mid-’80s, and it was in an epic battle against the likes of Sega in the ’90s, it seemed to struggle some in the early 2000s in terms of power and third-party support. Some even wondered if Nintendo had the staying power to last throughout the decade.
But thanks to the leadership of Reggie Fils-Aime and the late Satoru Iwata, Nintendo is dominating the market again. In fact, theSwitch has now sold over 50 million units, which is more than the Xbox One, a console that has been on the market for four years longer than the Switch. Many of the debates seem to revolve around Xbox vs. PlayStation, and maybe that’s just how Nintendo wants it. The two of them can continue to duke it out while Nintendo sets itself apart seeking new audiences and creating fresh and unique games and experiences.
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