Reggie Fils-Aime spent more than a decade as president of Nintendo of America and around 15 years with the company in total. His time at Nintendo saw him become an iconic figure in gaming, but it nearly didn’t happen. Reggie recently revealed during a talk at SXSW 2022. that all of his trusted advisors at the time warned him not to take the job.
“Working for a Japanese parent can be challenging – cultural differences and how to approach business. The other piece of perspective was that Nintendo was under fire from a business perspective from Sony with its PlayStation, from Microsoft. So I was being counseled not to take the role, but I saw something different. I saw opportunity. I saw that the company had a legacy of innovation. All of the things that you take for granted today in gaming systems – joysticks, directional controllers – had all been done first by Nintendo.”
Reggie also spoke about other topics such as how he requested a meeting with the late Satoru Iwata. Reggie retired from Nintendo in 2019.