“I grew up in a lower-middle-class environment, usually the lone minority among my classmates.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“Our strategy is gaming for the masses.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“The one point gamers all hate is the point where they have to put the controller down.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“Nintendo is about innovation and bringing new and unique game play to the consumer – both the core gamer as well as new gamers.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“With innovation, there is always risk.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“We have worked with a range of input approaches. We’ve worked with the range of mechanisms to drive immersion into the gaming experience.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“If you just sit on what you’ve created, chances are you’re not going to be around much longer.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“We’ve always been an entertainment company.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“The gaming enthusiast that buys a tremendous amount of games is truly insatiable.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“We love experimentation. That’s where the gold nuggets come from.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“We respect all of our competitors, and when I talk about our competitors, all of our competitors for entertainment time and leisure time.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“If we had not had the Wii U, we would not have the Switch.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“I get asked constantly, what’s Nintendo’s approach to the esports community. And our approach is we want to enable consistent standards. We want to enable an approach to the competition that’s fair, that’s balanced, that enables the players to showcase their skills.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“I would say that ‘Breath of the Wild’ is a dramatic departure from the conventions of a ‘Zelda’ game.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“We are so fortunate that our IP has been so effective out in the marketplace that every time there’s a new iteration, our developers feel a sense of pressure.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“I love playing our content. Except for ‘Smash Brothers.’”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“The 3DS is a fantastic machine with more than 1,000 games. Its key differentiator is the 3D immersive experience without need for glasses. But as good as that machine is, you can’t play a game like ‘Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’ on it.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“In the end, given the way we view the world and the way that we view ourselves as an entertainment company, our biggest challenge is creating content and creating services. Excite people. We were fortunate we were able to do that with the Wii.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“The Wii U is not a tablet. It’s a two-screen experience. And so you have this unique GamePad that gives you a different way to have a gaming experience.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“Both of my parents were college-educated within the curriculum in Haiti. When they came to the United States, both had to learn English. My mother worked in retail and continues to do so today, working as the lead sales representative in a fine-jewelry store. My father became a machinist.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“As a child, I envisioned a career in the hard sciences. In sixth grade, I was buying college chemistry textbooks.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“I was accepted into Cornell in 1979 and went there to follow a finance and business path. I ended up pursuing marketing and sales because I was selected by Procter & Gamble as an undergraduate candidate to go into its brand management program, which is typically available only to M.B.A. candidates.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“When you think about a new platform, what will define it as a long-term success are the ongoing range of games and experiences that come to the platform – not what’s available on Day One.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“For the Nintendo Switch, we were very deliberate in wanting to make sure, from a Nintendo publish standpoint, that we had a steady cadence of great games in addition to strong titles at launch.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“If Wii was about gaming for the masses, then think of DSi as creativity for the masses.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“That’s what DSi is all about: Providing simple, quick-to-master experiences that everybody can pick up and enjoy.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“Our strategy with DSiWare is the same as with WiiWare in that we want to provide new experiences every week.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“One of the things that… I’ve seen Nintendo do so well is provide a user interface that is intuitive, easy to navigate, easy to execute against – and in our view, that’s exactly what we’ve done on DSi.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“The appeal of Wii to nongamers has taken away some of the seasonality of sales we’ve come to expect in the past.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“The competitive landscape for us is very broad. We see ourselves in the entertainment space. We compete with listening to the radio. We compete with watching TV. We compete with social networks.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“We compete with all of the time that consumers spend when they’re not sleeping, they’re not eating, not going to work or going to school. Because everything else is entertainment time.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“We believe that creating a ‘Mario’ game is a special endeavor.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“We believe that either our own teams or teams that we direct are best capable of creating ‘Mario’ games that will live up to the franchise. The same is true for ‘Metroid’ and ‘Zelda’ and all those wonderful properties. For us, we want to control those characters as a key corporate equity.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“In the end, we don’t believe in launching any type of product if it isn’t perfect in our eyes.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“We, as a company, take the most risks in pushing the boundaries on consumer expectations.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“It’s true that Miitomo, at its core, aims to foster social engagement. That’s what it’s all about.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“We want Miitomo to create an atmosphere that’s distinctly Nintendo.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“One of the key components of Miitomo is that you are connecting with your friends. That is a significant measure to ensure that the user experience is consistently pleasant.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“We expect people’s experience with Miitomo to be a rewarding one in its own right. But at the same time, it’s also a way to have them engage – or reengage – with Nintendo.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“The reality is, the way that online experiences have progressed, it’s an expensive proposition. The amount of servers we need to support ‘Smash Brothers’ or ‘Mario Kart’ – these big multiplayer games – is not a small investment.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“There is a reason why, on a DS, you get that little click when you press a button. There is a reason that it was important to have a microphone in the Wii Remote.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“We’ve always anticipated that, as Nintendo would demonstrate business potential with an idea, others would follow. And we believe that based on history – rumble, joystick – things that we invented, if you will, and first put in video games, others quickly latched on to.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“Nintendo looks at every technology. Often times, we look at technology before it really is considered mass-market ready. The original DS had touch screen on a device. First time that a mass market product had touch screen built in.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“We don’t do things the same way everyone else does. We relish being different. We see that difference as an element that makes us more compelling to the consumer.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“We want the consumer who has bought into the Nintendo Switch platform. When there’s a great third party experience, we want them to jump in immediately.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“In particular, in the Americas that I have responsibility for, ‘Zelda’ is a franchise that is very well developed.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“I grew up playing the Super Nintendo.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“My favourite game is ‘The Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past.’”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“I’m passionate about what I do.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“The fact that the Nintendo 3DS business is backwards compatible incentivizes us to get as many new consumers into the core DS platform as possible.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“Nintendo prides itself in being a technology-driven, mass-market, entertainment company.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“For Nintendo Switch, it really is about a big-game experience.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“We want the technology in our devices to enable a social experience.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“We constantly push the edge on technology. But for us, technology needs to be fun.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“We brought augmented reality to the marketplace with Nintendo 3DS. We made it fun; we made it social.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“With risk, sometimes you have tremendous success, sometimes not so much.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“You need to run the company on an even keel, and you need to be thinking about the company long-term and how to drive your next innovation.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“You don’t own a 3DS? What’s wrong with you?”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“October, November, December is a huge selling season globally for Nintendo.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“During my tenure with Nintendo, we’ve pushed back development a number of times on key games – in the end, it’s always worth it – because our focus on quality is so strong.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“We do think deeply about the sequencing of our games, but having said that, Nintendo is well-known that if a game isn’t ready, we will push out the development in order to make sure that it is as strong as possible when the game launches.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“Ours is a company that doesn’t do annualized software, and so when we create a ‘Zelda’ game, when we create a ‘Smash Bros.’ game, or a ‘Pokemon’ experience comes on the platform, it needs to be exceptionally compelling because we plan on selling it for a very long time.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“Nintendo, as a company, prides itself on doing things differently.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“The Wii had sold a hundred million units globally; the Wii U did not have that same level of success.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“We see our mobile initiatives as a way to bring our intellectual properties and our gameplay experiences to a larger population than the tens or hundred million consumers that own a dedicated gaming system.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“For us, we’re clear that, in terms of Nintendo-developed games, we want to bring new experiences from our best franchises to Nintendo Switch, and that’s what you see with ‘Smash Bros.’ and ‘Pokemon.’”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“In the end, what developers want is a healthy ecosystem to create content and launch it into.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“Software drives hardware in this business. We see it time and time again. We saw it with our Wii and DS businesses.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“Our goal is that everything we do blows people away.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“I love ‘Spirit Tracks’ – I’m a ‘Zelda’ fan all my life.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“I still really like ‘WarioWare.’ It’s a great quick hit, especially for air flights.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“At Nintendo, we think deeply about everything.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“For Nintendo, we do believe the GamePad is a critical innovation, and we believe that integrated experience with a second screen is something that brings new propositions to the consumer.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“’First to market’ is simply a demarcation on a calendar. It really doesn’t mean anything.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“I think Nintendo is fortunate, having been in this business for over 30 years, to really understand the dynamics and recognize that it’s software that drives hardware, and it’s new, unique, compelling experiences within software that make it stand out.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“The fact is, there’s no single magic number that defines profitability for a game.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“We believe used games aren’t in the consumer’s best interest.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“We don’t believe used games are in the best interest of the consumer. We have products that consumers want to hold onto. They want to play all of the levels of a ‘Zelda’ game and unlock all of the levels.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“The consumer likes having a brand-new experience and reliving it over and over again. If you create the right type of experience, that also happens in video games.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“We want great third-party titles to achieve mass-market success on Nintendo platforms. We also want the evergreen Nintendo titles to continue to do well.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“Nintendo Switch is a home console you can play anywhere, with anyone. Clear. Compelling.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“’Super Mario Maker’ clearly is going to drive hardware. There are consumers who have always wanted to make their levels of Mario games. So that game will really speak to those consumers.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“’Yoshi’s Woolly World’ for young families and new entrants into the overall video gaming space, I think, is going to be a hardware driver.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“’Star Fox’ is a fan favorite.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“We believe that there are a number of Nintendo titles that could do exceptionally well in the competitive play space.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“When the DS was first announced, our focus really was on communicating to consumers and to developers the innovation that’s in that unit: two screens, a touch screen, voice activation.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“Look at how many times we’ve improved on the Game Boy Advance in terms of the look, the feel, screen changes, and everything else. We believe that type of constant innovation is critical to driving this industry, and certainly if you look at the world wide sales of Game Boy Advance, I don’t think anyone would disagree.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“Nintendo has an enviable position of having the best franchises in this industry in terms of ‘Mario’ and ‘Zelda’ and ‘Metroid’ and ‘Donkey Kong’ and all of those great franchises. Together, those are a library that any developer would kill for.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“’1-2 Switch’ is a party in a box.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“In the end, I don’t mind how you interact with our IP as long as you’re interacting with it every day.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“When we launched the Wii – I mean, again, people look back and say, ‘100 million units, it was easy!’ Believe me, I was there, and it wasn’t easy at all. We had tough conversations, internal debate, like, ‘How are we going to do this? How are we going to bring it to life? What are we going to do?’”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“The marketplace is absolutely mercurial. But what I love about our company is that we create a vision, and then we go all in.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“Whether it’s with a ‘Metroid’ experience or a ‘Donkey Kong’ experience, we’re constantly looking to push the envelope on the IP versus doing sequential small iterations with a particular franchise.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“Our developers are constantly thinking about, ‘How do I bring new and novel experiences to our platforms?’ whether it’s the Switch, 3DS, or even a smart device. So that is just part of the way our developers think.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“One of the things that, on one hand, I love and, on the other hand, that troubles me tremendously about not only our fanbase but about the gaming community at large is that, whenever you share information, the perspective is, ‘Thank you, but I want more.’ ‘Thank you, but give me more.’ I mean, it is insatiable.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“Nintendo, at its heart, is about making us feel younger than we are today.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“There’s no doubt that ‘Breath of the Wild’ is the Switch game I’ve put the most time into.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“That ‘Super Mario’ movie from the 1990s… left a really bad taste in the mouth of our developers.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“I really suck at ‘Smash Brothers.’”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
“I would say the greatest challenge we had with the Wii U was being crystal clear in our communication of what the product was and what the product could do.”
― Reggie Fils-Aime
Leave a Reply