It has felt like an insomniac's dream, those months and years since Reggie's resignation from Nintendo. Months and years that have led to the inevitable failure that is the Nintendo Switch OLED. Reggie, you were the meat on the bones of Nintendo. You were the Jobs to Miyamoto's Wazniak. Can you imagine Apple if it was run by Wazniak, if he had been at the helm? Well, for starters, Wazniak is still alive – so he would still be at the helm – but Apple would lack that pizazz that it has, that special touch. The tech would be a million times better than it is nowadays, but to be honest that is actually more Tim Cook's fault than Jobs'. All-in-all, Jobs was pretty important for Apple. Sorry, I am getting beside myself: this is an article about Nintendo.
Well, not Nintendo. More specifically: Reggie Fils-Aimé, whose real name is legitimately Reginald. Seriously, anyone who's called "Reginald" has to have balls of steel. Reggie stands amongst the greats, amongst those like Shigeru Miyamoto, Aiji Aonuma, Koji Kondo, and the late Satoru Iwata as a master of Nintendo. The final boss, that perfectly designed level. Reggie was, like Miyamoto is for gameplay innovation and creativity, and Kondo is for Nintendo's iconic music, the public face of Nintendo through the 2010s in particular.
Through all of that time, through the disasters of the Wii U, the not-so-fabulousness of Nintendo's late Wii years, and the absolute victory of the Nintendo Switch, Reggie steered Nintendo of America. The thing is, he was a kick-ass guy. Seriously. He admitted to it himself in his opening speech:
"My name is Reggie. I'm about kickin' ass, I'm about takin' names, and we're about makin' games."
The world of video games is more than clicking heads. It's more than, as our good CoD and Battlefield writer Jon Ramuz would say, guns that "slap". It's about heart and soul. Nintendo is, innately, all about heart and soul, and Reggie? Reggie is the personification of that heart and soul. Thus, you can understand why I am tearing up writing this next sentence... The statement I just made, that Reggie is the personification of Nintendo's heart and soul, is now incorrect. He "was" that personification, for he no longer "is". That, my friend, is the true sadness that fills my heart of late.
The thing is, Joni Mitchell really did get it right – You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone – and whilst we're not paving paradise to put up a parking lot, we are bemoaning the untimely demise of Reggie as Nintendo of America's Chief Operating Officer. It was not a demise, per-se, but instead a very understandable decision by Reggie to move on whilst he still loved what he did, and whilst our love affair with him still warmed our hearts with its tender embrace.
This man is a legend...
The thing that made Reggie so successful in his role as COO of Nintendo of America can be summarized in one particularly powerful word... Memes. He was such a meme. I mean, you need look no further than the video above. Jeez-magee, this guy was the king of the meme. From that classic advertisement for the Reggie Fils-aBot, a robot version of this human legend, to his opening remarks, the man never failed to put a smile on our faces. The only meme to even come close to comparing would be when Robin and Zelda Williams featured in those Nintendo Ads back in 2010. They were meme-gold in the same way that Reggie is meme-gold.
He's a living legend, and the fact is that his contribution to Nintendo has ended puts a true sadness in my heart. Now, I do believe that I just heard a question: "but, mate, he left in 2019? Why are you talking about this now?" Well... Here are a few other columns I have written about Nintendo recently...
- I Hate How Much I Love My Switch, It's Very Confusing...
- The Steam Deck is Going to Crush the Switch. Fight me.
Yeah, I haven't been hugely positive, have I? The Nintendo of 2021 confuses the hell out of me. They have to do very few things to keep fans happy, keep us coming back for more. In a lot of ways they have achieved this, a new Metroid game is unbelievably exciting, Breath of the Wild 2 is on its way, a new Pokémon is stumbling to drunkenly to our door (seriously, why does this game look so ugly?), so on and so forth. The problem is that in a lot of ways, Nintendo is floundering. The Nintendo Switch OLED is evidence of this. Painful, distressing evidence.
Reggie has moved on, he's giving lectures, he's making surprise appearances here and there, and he's leading a new life. Probably a bloody good one, for sure! People do have to eventually move on, so we're not going to ask him to come back – though we certainly would be enthused by the concept – but that doesn't mean that their prior companies can't learn from their successes.
Reggie's success was his personality, and the meme-value of his marketing strategies. He could push any product and people would be entertained. For feck's sake, the guy could sell canned tuna and we would be linin' up to put some of that crap in our bodies. He was that good. Seriously. He has even done a freaking lecture on meme-marketing. Check this bollocks out:
The thing is... it wasn't really bollocks, he's completely right when he says:
"I do believe that the memes that I was a part of, that Mr Iwata was apart of, that Mr Miyamoto was apart of, I believe that it creates a relationship. And in the end, having a healthy relationship with the customer drives sales."
That's the thing. It's not that Nintendo are not making record sales, they are. It's not that they are not trying to create a good relationship, in a lot of ways, they are. The thing is that it just feels so stale at the moment. The Nintendo Directs are quirky and cute, but they don't have that charm and charisma that someone like Reggie brought. Honestly, bring back Miyamoto a little bit more. People like this create the good relationship that Reggie is talking about. That relationship is the key to Nintendo's success, and it's faltering.
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Other Columns that you should check out...
Breath of the Wild Was Not the Revolution You Thought It Was
Tencent's Purchase of Sumo Digital is Freedom Under Attack
I'm Utterly Confused About Redfall... Teen-Vampires? Really? Why?