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Nintendo’s Reggie Fils-Aime says Wii U was a “failure forward”
His tenure at Nintendo of America might be over, but Reggie Fils-Aime remains notable and he is keeping busy sharing experiences from his time at Nintendo and in the games industry.
He recently held a talk at Cornell University in New York, and while no transcript is available yet, some of the juiciest tidbits have found their way online. For example, he talked about decision-making at Nintendo in both America and Japan – and called the WiiU a failure, but noting that it was a “failure forward” since it was a stepping stone towards the Switch.
He also revealed that former CEO Satoru Iwata, who passed away in July 2015, was originally against bundling Wii Sports with the Wii in the US. While that sounds a bit short-sighted, Reggie notes that he thought of Iwata as a mentor and he learnt the value of ‘silence’ in business from him. Not that Reggie kept mum: he had good communication with his Japanese colleagues, and their relationship wasn’t just business as usual – they even took to calling him ‘Reggie-san’.
Reggie is at his alma mater as ‘Leader in Residence’
Reggie also talked about the recent furore over Activision Blizzard’s handling of pro-Hong Kong political messages in their competitions, and called the consumer response praiseworthy while saying the executives had screwed this one up. Oh, and he even had time to plead for a Western release of Mother 3, which launched for Game Boy Advance in Japan 13 years ago!
Time For A Quick Daily Quiz?
Who was NOT a Sith Lord in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2?
- Darth Sion
- Darth Caedus
- Darth Traya
- Darth Nihilus
The answer will be revealed at the end of this issue!
News Bits
Panzer Dragoon: Remake getting physical after popular demand
Sega has announced that Panzer Dragoon: Remake will see a physical retail release after all, according to their official Twitter account. The remakes were first shown at E3 this year, and the first one is due later this year, while the second is expected sometime next year.
The first game was released for Sega Saturn in 1995, with the sequel following a year later. Both were ported to PC in 1997, while the first one was slightly enhanced and re-released for PlayStation 2 in 2006 as part of Sega’s Sega Ages 2500 series, which was only available in Japan.
Google Stadia pre-orders arrive on ‘first come, first serve’ basis
Hah, bet you thought you’d be getting your pre-ordered Stadia console on launch day! Turns out there are quite a few pre-orders to fulfil, so Google is taking a first-come, first-serve approach: the consoles will “start arriving” on launch day, and Google is prioritizing “the first gamers who pre-ordered.”
While the Founder’s Edition is all sold out, you can still sign up for a Premiere Edition.
Daily Fact
Batman: Arkham Asylum was born from a failed movie tie-in
Rocksteady Games set the world on fire with Batman: Arkham Asylum, but things could have turned out very different: EA and Pandemic Studios were originally working on a tie-in for Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight. It was supposed to be an open-world action game, but never saw the light of day – costing EA around $100 million and leading to the shuttering of Pandemic.
Arkham Asylum had been in development since 2007, developed by a relatively small team: The project started production with 40 developers, growing to 60 by launch. Somewhat unexpectedly, the game turned into a massive success, proving that comic books could become great games and establishing Rocksteady as a AAA heavyweight. It probably helped that they didn’t have to compete directly with EA, too.
