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In This Edition
Reggie Fils-Aimé on…
- The Switch 2 launch
- Third-party games on Nintendo
- The new generation of industry leaders
- Plus! The future of games, innovation, and the console war
Reggie Fils-Aimé witnessed the Switch 2 launch from an unfamiliar position.
The popular former president and COO of Nintendo of America had spent over 15 years launching Nintendo hardware. But the Switch 2 is the first Nintendo machine since the GameCube he wasn’t involved with.
“I’ve been observing the launch like a fan,” he tells us. “Though, at times, I look at things critically and wonder how they’re thinking about different opportunities.”
He means it when he says “like a fan”. He bought the console himself: “The company did not send me one for free,” he insists. He picked up the Mario Kart World bundle. He hasn’t started Donkey Kong Bananza yet, but has been playing the Switch 2 version of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. He’s looking forward to Metroid Prime 4.
“I’ve enjoyed it, like the vast majority of folks, it seems, based on their [sales] announcement,” he says.
During our chat with Fils-Aimé, we discuss the Switch 2, the end of the console war, the future of the business and the new generation of game leaders.
You can watch the full interview above. Alternatively we’ve picked out some of the key quotes below.
Enjoy!
“Nintendo will never position itself as a direct competitor to PlayStation”
One of the big conversations around Switch 2 is whether it could be a viable platform for AAA third-party games such as Assassin’s Creed and Call of Duty.
Nintendo games sell best on Nintendo hardware. And although there have been third-party hits on Switch, they’re typically things like the LEGO games, Minecraft and Stardew Valley. The AAA big budget experiences that do well on PlayStation, Xbox and PC rarely enjoy much success on Nintendo hardware. And this is a topic Reggie Fils-Aimé has experience with during his time at Nintendo.
But Switch 2 is receiving a number of these games, including Assassin’s Creed, Cyberpunk, Resident Evil, and Final Fantasy. Could things be different this time?
“Whether it’s Resident Evil, whether it’s Assassin’s Creed, as long as those games play well and look good on Switch 2, I believe there’s a fan base that’ll buy it.”
“I absolutely believe it could be,” Fils-Aimé tells us. “But let’s be clear, Nintendo, in my opinion, will never position themselves as a direct competitor to PlayStation. It’s not in their DNA. It’s not how they think about the business opportunity. However, would they welcome some of the latest core gamer-type of content, whether it’s the latest Assassin’s Creed or Call of Duty, onto their platform? Absolutely. Do I think that there’s a player base there for those games? Absolutely. The key, and this is something that the team there thinks about every day, is making sure that third-party developers have the tool sets so that they have the full capability to bring the best of their games onto Switch 2.
“Nintendo, as it thinks about its hardware, it doesn’t think through how I’m going to get the absolute latest graphics chip, the latest processing chip, that’s not how they think about it. But the chip set of Switch 2 can do quite a lot. And so, it’s in the middleware, it’s in the education to the third-party.
“One of the things that always amazed me, Nintendo developers are so efficient with their games. Big games like Tears of the Kingdom, when you look at the size of the game, the actual file size is about half of what another developer would do. And it’s just in the efficiency that Nintendo is able to get out of its systems, and that efficiency is what they need to share with third-party developers so that their best content… maybe not the latest version, but, you know, half a step behind, could make its way onto Switch 2 and be quite successful.”
He continues: “Whether it’s Resident Evil, whether it’s Assassin’s Creed, as long as those games play well and look good on Switch 2, I believe there’s a fan base that’ll buy it.”
“I’m surprised that Xbox has not yet fully embraced the Switch 2”
If there’s one thing that has surprised Fils-Aimé about the third-party support on Switch 2, it’s the absence of Xbox.
Microsoft has vocally supported Switch 2, but outside of a handful of projects (Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 from Activision, and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle from Bethesda), the company has made very few announcements related to Nintendo’s new machine.
“I’m surprised that Xbox has not yet fully embraced Switch 2 from a software perspective,” he says. “Certainly some games could easily be ported over to Switch 2. And I’m surprised that we haven’t seen more of that. I thought there would be much more, especially during this timeframe leading into the Holiday.
“All through the fall, I was fully expecting some dedicated announcement. And I’m surprised it hasn’t happened.”
PlayStation, Nintendo and Xbox are no-longer directly competing
One of Fils-Aimé’s post-Nintendo roles was as a board member of US retailer GameStop, a position he held for about a year.
GameStop made headlines in October by declaring that the console war is over, following the news that Xbox’s next Halo was coming to PlayStation 5.
“It was a good gimmick for them to do,” he says. “I do think that the years of direct competition are done. With a large part of the Xbox business now being publishing, by definition, they’re a big third-party publisher that also makes some hardware. From that standpoint, they are no longer directly competing with the PlayStation business. And in fact, they need support from Sony for Microsoft’s software to reach the largest audience. And as I said earlier, I think it would be in their best interest to find ways for Xbox software, beyond Minecraft, to make its way onto the Nintendo platform. So, from that standpoint, direct warfare is over.
“But, on the other hand, gamers out there have limited budgets. You have to win for every dollar spent; you need to win for every minute spent playing. And so there’s always going to be a war going on. It may be below the surface, but there’s always going to be a battle for attention and mindshare.”
If Fils-Aimé was at Nintendo, he’d be desperate to make sure Switch 1 beats Nintendo DS
One of the things that came out of Nintendo’s latest financials is that the Switch 1 is tantalising close to overtaking the DS as the most successful Nintendo platform of all time. And it’s something that Fils-Aimé would have been desperate to make happen.
“I’m a very competitive person,” he says. “I like to win. If I were still with the company, I would be thinking about, how do we make that happen? Black Friday is a big opportunity for value-oriented programs. During my time with Nintendo, we use Black Friday to sell through remaining inventory of Game Boy Advance, of Nintendo DS, of the original Wii. And so, could they be thinking through how to maximize that selling opportunity to put Nintendo Switch over the top? I don’t know, but I’d be thinking about it.”
He adds: “I would think through the end of this calendar year might be their last opportunity. I don’t know if you noticed, but buried in their announcements, they did say that moving forward all of their development is going be focused on Switch 2. The opportunity to reach that milestone is essentially here.”
“When I saw the Switch 2 line-up, I scratched my head a bit”
Nintendo Switch 2 launched alongside a new Mario Kart game, and you don’t get much bigger than that. But the rest of the 2025 line-up is a little more eclectic.
Donkey Kong Bananza, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment, Kirby’s Air Riders, and cross-gen games such as Metroid Prime 4 and Pokémon Legends: Z-A, are all promising titles, but they’re mostly on the smaller side. The launch year of the original Switch, by comparison, featured Zelda, Mario Kart, Splatoon and Super Mario.
What did Fils-Aimé make of the release slate?
“From a business perspective, when I first saw that line-up, I scratched my head a little bit,” he admits.
“Certainly, what I underestimated was the enhanced Nintendo Switch 1 content, which I think has been compelling. The stuff that you get for free as part of the Nintendo Switch Online subscription, I think that has helped drive some of the momentum. And then certainly, [Donkey Kong] Bananza was a key driver for them.”
Fils-Aimé is concerned for the new generation of industry leaders
The game industry has gone through quite the leadership change in recent years. We’ve seen a number of the old guard retiring, while new leaders have emerged, some of them fast-tracked during the pandemic when new teams, studios and companies were formed (and experienced leaders proved hard to find).
We’ve also seen plenty of AAA game developers launch their own studios and take on that CEO position.
Leadership is very much Fils-Aimé’s speciality. His 2022 book Disrupting The Game is a memoir all about leadership, and he continues to talk on the subject to this day. So, I was interested to hear his take on the leadership situation in video games.
“We are in that phase of leadership turnover,” Fils-Aimé says. “And am I worried that this next generation has the skills and capabilities in order to be successful? Yes, I’m worried about it.
“That said, I do believe someone who in their past has been a great creative director can become the leader of their company, and understand the HR and finance and all of those different issues. It needs to be done thoughtfully. It needs to be done where the executive is open to the things they don’t know, and seeks out help in the things they don’t know, in order for them to be successful.
“I look at my own background. I was someone focused on the commercial space, sales marketing, but I had to learn the finance side. And I had great mentors who helped me understand it. I had to have a better understanding for the development process. Leaders always have capacity to learn and pick up those skills. But they themselves need to want to do that work, and they need to have the right support system around them to help them gain all of those experiences.”
“I do believe someone who in their past has been a great creative director can become the leader of their company”
The key to success in the industry, he feels, is to not get caught up with the inevitable ups and downs of the business.
“Early in my tenure at Nintendo, someone shared a statement attributed to Mr. Yamauchi. And the statement was something like this: ‘in this business, never dwell on the moments that are too high or the moments that are too low. You need to focus on driving the business every day.’ And I think that is fantastic advice for any fast-moving industry where on one day you’re going to be a hero, on the next day something has gone dramatically wrong.
“You have to be even keeled. You have to constantly be thinking about what’s next? How do we move forward in a positive way next? And to be relentless in that. Because if you get stuck in the moment, day-to-day, it can be debilitating whether it is a high or a low.”
He’s worried by a drop in innovative new ideas
Fils-Aimé’s rose to prominence during the mid-2000s, when the video game space was going through one of its most innovative periods.
In the console space, Xbox was pushing online gaming, PlayStation was building cinematic adventures, while Nintendo was getting people moving on Wii. There was the Nintendo DS, iPhone, Guitar Hero, Steam, fitness games… a constant stream of new ideas that broadened gaming out to more and more people.
Today there are fewer big games coming out, and the differences between console generations have become smaller. And this is something that concerns Fils-Aimé.
“I do hope that this industry doesn’t stagnate,” he says. “There are, at times, signs that the innovation isn’t there. The breakthrough new type of content seems to be a little bit further and far between. That concerns me, and I hope that doesn’t stop.”
He points out that, for the last 10 years, a lot of the innovation is coming from the indie and AA space, and he expects that to continue. But when it comes to how people access games, he is keeping a close eye on what Microsoft is up to.
“Their ability to play a game on your mobile device, and then get back home and be able to play it on your dedicated gaming device or your PC, and have that all be seamless… that’s very interesting,” he says. “How does that get pushed out even more aggressively so that truly your game is always with you no matter what device you have? That could be very interesting from a distribution and disruption standpoint.”
If you want more from Reggie Fils-Aimé, including his work with the New York Critics Circle, the next challenge for Switch 2, and what it takes for a business to be truly successful, check out the full interview at the top.
We’ll be back on Thursday with our News and Analysis edition, featuring Arrowhead Games CEO Shams Jorjani. So, please join us back for that. Until then, thank you for reading!
