Reggie Fils-Aime retiring from Nintendo

[Gamemoose]

This took me by surprise this morning:

Reggie is retiring from Nintendo after 15 years

 

 

His replacement is the aptly named Bowser...Doug Bowser who says he's worked with and been mentored by Reggie the past four years.

 

I gotta say I'll miss Reggie. While I haven't really followed Nintendo news as much in recent years to see his exploits, his pitch for the Wii at that fateful E3 (2006?) will forever be etched in my mind. His presentation convinced me to get a Wii as the new gaming opportunities seemed limitless, except not many really capitalized on that.

Edited February 22, 2019 by Gamemoose

[Austin]

It's a bummer, for sure. I actually liked Reggie.

[Flojomojo]

I don't usually care about corporate officers, especially for video game companies, but Reggie's goodbye seems very authentic. Class act.

 

https://twitter.com/NintendoAmerica/status/1098666321473024000

[Metal Jesus]

He's only 57, which is pretty young to be stepping down as he probably could have ran the company for another decade or more...

 

...but the launch of the Switch is an undeniable success and set on its path for the next couple years...so maybe now IS the best time for him to step down.

 

I will always respect somebody who wants to just spend more time with friends and family. So good for him!

[Flojomojo]

Internet says he has a net worth of $40 million, which is enough. He's been in that job for 15 years. Better to leave while on top, I think.

 

fjmj is not someone who wants to die at work

[Gentlegamer]

Thanks for the gifs, Reggie

 

 

 

Edited February 22, 2019 by Gentlegamer

[Austin]

Sorry for "liking" all the posts, they make sense. But that last one.. I couldn't help it.

[Atariboy]

He seemed like a decent leader.

 

Outside of perhaps the late days of the Wii before the Wii U appeared, I had few complaints. I thought that was mismanaged by Nintendo of America on the eve of the Wii U. Granted, it wouldn't shock me to learn that many of my nitpicks were the fault of the parent in Japan and weren't the responsibility of senior NOA management. But for a good two years or so, they left me wondering just what the heck they were thinking as the Wii faded before a successor was available.

 

For a brief example since my initial post was longer than I wanted, check out the release date of the Wii Mini and then check out the release dates for the various reissues in the Nintendo Selects line. Nintendo is the only company I know that ever has released a budget console in the midst of what ended up a 5 year or so gap in reissues in their Nintendo Selects budget line of software.

Edited February 22, 2019 by Atariboy

[Tanooki]

I'll be the bad guy here. I'm kind of glad he's gone. I never cared for the dude very much. He seemed to be full of loaded non-answers and double speak. Seemed often to come off as monotone and often just bored even if he wasn't as it's like he nad nearly no personality which isn't much like the rest of his subordinates or the Japanese creators on staff. I detested his interviews as he's just tease or give answers that would repeatedly say nothing. Just say you can't tell or answer, riddle answers are annoying. People used to complain about that stuff enough when it happened, but now it's like their best friend just moved away. I prefer the guy (Bowser) going into the office now as he seems more open, friendly, warm, better for video on directs or other conference videos. I always have and will hate that 'body is ready' crap and the endless fanboyism over that anytime Nintendo puts out some positive press. To me he was like the opposite of, and therefore basically like the anti-Iwata.

[spacecadet]

I guess it's sort of the end of an era, but I didn't feel anything about him one way or another. He was just a guy that did his job, which was to promote Nintendo's products in the US. Sometimes that meant he was trying to polish an obvious turd. Sometimes it meant he was selling something that honestly would have sold itself. But that's what he was there to do, in either case.

 

I think people sometimes gain a reputation based not really on the uniqueness of their own actions, but the company they work for and the products they make. I think that's probably true of him. If he'd been working at, say, Microsoft instead, we probably wouldn't even be talking about him (or people would be a lot more ambivalent).

 

I do think he picked the right time to go out. If he'd retired in the Wii U era, that wouldn't have been a good look for either him or Nintendo.

[digdugnate]

it's been said a billion times before, but I wonder a little bit if the fact that someone with the last name 'Bowser' took over was an intentional move.

[Flojomojo]

They call it an "aptonym," like a marketer for McDonalds named Hambuger. https://www.marketwatch.com/story/doug-bowser-and-other-people-whose-names-perfectly-fit-their-jobs-2019-02-22

[godslabrat]

Im just hoping the new guy doesn't do something stupid, like try to drag Nintendo into the mud-pit of putting ROMs on cell phones.

[Reaperman]

I'm hopeful that things will look up for N and me.

 

I don't know how much sway he really had, but I do know I was a far bigger nintendo fan before he entered his current position, and maybe things will go differently from here on out.

 

While he was in his previous spot, Nintendo moved to consoles with limited variety in some of the most established game genres--both in terms of first party neglect of them, and in failure to attract the wide variety of 3rd parties that made their more 'traditional' systems great in my mind. They opted for gimmicky systems, with odd new gameplay mechanics, and cancelled more standard systems like the 'Nintendo Evolution,' a GBA successor that was in planning at the same time as the 'Revolution' (wii). 15 years ago, would you have believed GBA would have the last F-zero game, even with consoles on the horizon featuring HD/motion-controls/stereoscopic-3d, and that the last F-zero title wouldn't even see a US release? It would have sounded like madness.

 

Again, I'm not sure how much sway he had--if his placement was an effect of changes already happening Nintendo-wide(likely), and/or if he was a big part of them (also likely), but I'm hopeful that his replacement has a little bit of a traditionalist side to him somewhere. Now, I'm not saying nintendo hasn't had some big winners during Reggie, but retiring him could be good news. I am always hopeful, and willing to give Nintendo a shot, as long as they make an attempt to create games that work for me too.

Edited February 23, 2019 by Reaperman

[Tanooki]

As the puppet head of the US office since Japan dictates most policy for the company I think you're giving a bit too much credit there. He would be though entirely responsible for any game that Nintendo themselves would develop or publish for someone else and having the yes or no on skipping on a release, or skipping on a physical release. That would fall into the local realm, not the development of the actual hardware, that's Japan R&D.

 

Like years ago when he was fresh in there, I remember some people getting fairly pissed at the dude wanting Day of Disaster for the Wii, that epic looking disaster film like adventure game Japan had, then the European office picked up and translated next, and he skipped on it for the US release. There were a few games like that which really pissed off some Nintendo fans, and was bait for the haters too. I think and it's harder to say it as Iwata was such a great person, but he's more responsible being the head of the main office board for the crap they went through with the Wii and the WiiU, those were kind of his babies, and the Switch would have been likely in earlier development at that time, but with him dying in 2015 and being in/out for a time around that illness I doubt he had much say in that either.

[Flojomojo]

So he's a puppet when they do things right, but solely responsible when making decisions you don't like?

[Hydro Thunder]

 

Bowser is already up to his trix!

[Reaperman]

As the puppet head of the US office since Japan dictates most policy for the company I think you're giving a bit too much credit there.

 

Yeah, if anything Iwata being gone (RIP) will probably have more direct impact on my Nintendo collection, but with so much Nintendo software coming from America, surely NoA had a fair bit of sway as far as what got made from here, at least. I think choosing Reggie was probably more of an effect of what was happening at Nintendo than him being the cause of any of it, but it doesn't matter if the egg or the chicken came first.

 

Nintendo Software Technology (located inside NOA) brought the ridge racer games to 64/ds, made wave race and 1080 on gamecube, and metroid prime hunters on DS. Since then they've changed gears, and have made six mario vs donkey kong games, the weird 3ds mario maker, and toad's treasure tracker. Things have changed at NoA. Both cofounders were retired in 2006, and that seems to be about when things changed.

 

Anyway, I'm still hoping nintendo's recent changes will end up more positive than negative.

Edited February 24, 2019 by Reaperman

[Tanooki]

So he's a puppet when they do things right, but solely responsible when making decisions you don't like?

Seriously, how did you even read into it in that way? If not here, go back to Racketboy, Digitalpress, or even NintendoAge. I've never said anything glowingly nice about reggie as I never liked the guy. Furthermore, find where I've said something nice about his positive decisions if you can? A puppet is a puppet whether the person pulling the strings is great or not, because he was not in charge outside of domestic stuff as he still was limited by what Japan wanted.

 

 

 

Yeah, if anything Iwata being gone (RIP) will probably have more direct impact on my Nintendo collection, but with so much Nintendo software coming from America, surely NoA had a fair bit of sway as far as what got made from here, at least. I think choosing Reggie was probably more of an effect of what was happening at Nintendo than him being the cause of any of it, but it doesn't matter if the egg or the chicken came first.

 

Nintendo Software Technology (located inside NOA) brought the ridge racer games to 64/ds, made wave race and 1080 on gamecube, and metroid prime hunters on DS. Since then they've changed gears, and have made six mario vs donkey kong games, the weird 3ds mario maker, and toad's treasure tracker. Things have changed at NoA. Both cofounders were retired in 2006, and that seems to be about when things changed.

 

Anyway, I'm still hoping nintendo's recent changes will end up more positive than negative.

I think that probably is the case too. I did like Iwata more than not, but I didn't care much for how he took them down the Wii-road as looking back the Wii I was ok with, the WiiU anything but and it did far more harm than good. With him out of the picture now for some years we're now seeing a new shift with the company in consolidating handheld and console R&D into one, the development and rollout of the Switch, and them intentionally not stretching themselves too thin either. They seem more functional even if they are more lean about it. I think it really didn't matter for your chicken-egg comment. He had a hand in some stuff locally that got shot down, but on the whole all global offices do what Japan wants.

 

NST did some solid work more often than not, even some questionable choices still made some classics return too like with Crystalis. Like you said I'm hoping with totally new people running the helm, and with them seemingly more wanting to do as the Switch has been doing in design and success I hope it is a more positive future for them as they were languishing horribly.

[TheCoolDave]

Im just hoping the new guy doesn't do something stupid, like try to drag Nintendo into the mud-pit of putting ROMs on cell phones.

 

Truth be told, putting classic games into single $1 games would net in billions in sales globally. If he was SMART he would do that. Moving with the modern age. Not everyone in the world has a Switch but, 99% of the people out there in a classic gaming marketplace has a smart phone. Such an untapped market for Nintendo.

 

Anyway about it, I liked Reggie, he seemed fairly down to earth (not the jerky CEO type) but, he never really told much. By the time he had a press outlet, more stuff than he would say was available on other outlets.

 

Smart man to retire, He made enough money to live very conformable and he will enjoy life doing the things he has always wanted to do. It's something I would do if I hit that kind of money. What is the point of life if you don't do anything to really enjoy it..

Edited February 25, 2019 by TheCoolDave

[Tanooki]

For many it is to not be homeless doing a job, and then hopefully cashing in on an inheritance and being smart with is so you don't literally work until death. He did dodge that bullet.