One of the things that makes Nintendo so special in the gaming world is that they have longevity. They’ve been making video games since the 80s and have dominated many points of the now 4 decades of their gaming existence in America and beyond. But…that also meant that they’ve had lowpoints like the Virtual Boy, the E-Reader, and most infamously, the Wii U. This console was so bad that Nintendo was believed to be “dead”. But Nintendo bounced back with the Nintendo Switch and shocked the world by how great it was. And former Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime had a lot to say on this transition recently.
Reggie Fils-Aime did a joint interview with Jack Tretton and Robbie Bach, who were previously the leading executives for PlayStation and Xbox. Making it a very special talk. But in terms of what happened with Wii U and Switch, Reggie noted this:
“You know, Nintendo has done so many innovations in the space… I think what Nintendo did with the Switch, after the poor performance of Wii U, I think to me and what I was part of, that’s my lasting memory.
People forget, when the Wii U launched, the performance over that life cycle was so poor, I mean it was the worst-selling platform, I think maybe Virtual Boy was a little bit worse, but Wii U underperformed pretty radically in the marketplace.
And when your only business is video games that next had to be successful and the Switch continues to be a dynamic platform – selling exceptionally well. And the ability for the company to come up with the concept, to bring it to life, to bring it to the marketplace, to have not only great first-party content but great third party and independent developer content – that is going to be something I will always be proud of.
Along with so many of the other things I was part of, but the Switch really was a make or break product for the company and luckily it was a hit.”
“Hit” is an understatement because it’s done over 70 million in sales. Well over the 13.6 million the Wii U did. And the Switch’s dominance doesn’t show signs of stopping anytime soon.
