Reggie Fils-Aimé discusses Nintendo union issues: 'This isn’t the Nintendo I left’

During an interview The Washington Post's video game team Launcher conducted with former President and CEO of Nintendo of America Reggie Fils-Aimé, he discussed his opinion on the recent news surrounding Nintendo's alleged union-busting of beleaguered employees. He stated that he doesn't recognize this Nintendo as the company he left.

#ReggieFilsAime #Nintendo

[loweegee]

Mr. Iwata and Reggie were the heart and soul of Nintendo. Things haven’t been the same since Furukawa and Bowser took over

[DissociatedWomenIncorporated]

This is what happens when you let Bowser run Nintendo.

[cameronlapage]

I thought seeing Reggie leave would be one of the saddest things. Then I saw him sad.

[supermahmoud]

This man was a one of a kind for Nintendo, I don't think someone else is or will be like him, I used to read a lot about what he did there, and frankly Reggie, and late Iwata, were the blood of Nintendo for years, fun fact: "Fils-Aimé" means in French "Beloved Son".

[Blaze]

Back when I worked in the Nintendo headquarters, I overlapped a few months with Reggie before he left in April and about 4 months later I left due to moving. It's sad but all my friends after I moved said the place spiraled downhill quick and became so profit oriented to the point where they cut almost all of their customer service staff to move their positions to Mexico, and some of them had been there for 10 years.

[Punisher]

Reggie was a team player at Nintendo, he cared about everyone there and the quality of not only their products but their relationship with their employees and customers. it showed whenever he would go up on stage at E3. i guess it could be said that he learned this from his Mentor and good friend Mr. Iwata. sad to see this happening now that he is gone from Nintendo.

[mitchjames]

I miss Reggie particularly his presentations.

[Larry]

From what I hear, Reggie fought most of Nintendo Japan's BS over his tenure there, he was quite the thorn in their side. So they were probably quite happy when he left and someone they could control more took over.

But as with Sega, The Japanese and US divisions of these companies should have operated independently, (even the European divisions) internal bickering cost them a lot of potential profits.

[ViewtifulBeau]

All I know is Reggie worked hard to get to where he's at, he's got a great family and everytime he got up on stage, he had the biggest smile on his face. You can't fake that.

[GoreTorn]

Back in 2006 through 2010 when I worked at Nintendo, we were working on the game super smash brothers brawl for the Nintendo Wii at the time. We all had the opportunity to meet him in person on one of our lunch breaks and let me tell you, we were all starstruck and didn’t know what to say because we were so humbled by his presence. He is a father first, A kind hearted person second, and an individual who truly cares about the gamers and those who are truly dedicated. It was so great to meet him and I wish I could do it again. Nintendo really could use his help right now.

[TheGloriousLobsterEmperor]

Union busting is disgusting, it's very rare to find a CEO who doesn't annihilate the most crucial aspect of securing workers rights. Good stuff Reggie, and shame on Nintendo!

[ninja_tony]

I'll never understand people's mentalities. 3 years ago, most people absolutely worshipped Reggie, even while at the same time bashing the company as a whole. Most people realized that he was a pretty good human being, and was genuinely passionate about gaming. But now, those very same people are bashing him to shreds and blaming him for things that are going on NOW in a company he left years ago. I'm not naive, I've been in the corporate world long enough to know that some of the issues running through the company now were likely there under his command as well. But if that's true now, it always was, and ultimately, no one knows for certain, people are just jumping to conclusions as always. But the hypocrisy of you all is amazing to me, that's the main thing. You can go from kissing the ground someone walks on to stabbing them in the back at a moment's notice, which I'm not necessarily judging, I'm just baffled by.

[blooperli]

I'm very interested in a lot of the conversations people are currently having about Nintendo before and after Iwata's passing. As much as we romanticize the Iwata era, I think we all agree that it still had a ton of severe problems. Nintendo's anti-consumer practices, cutthroat business strategies, and increasingly irrational fear of imitators managed to heavily persist into Iwata's tenure as Nintendo's head. Heck, many of these problems only BECAME problems during Iwata's time. That said, for as many problems as Nintendo had, those problems always seemed to be offset by their superhuman proficiency as a game developer. Mainline titles in established Nintendo franchises were just outright expected to be flawless upon release, and even in Nintendo's worst moments, they never abandoned that philosophy. Not only that, but during the company's lowest times, Iwata insisted in taking full responsibility for those decisions personally by taking pay cuts and appearing publicly whenever possible. For Nintendo during Iwata's time, long-term stability within the company itself and consumer trust were more valuable than anything else, and prioritizing those things gave Nintendo an immensely loyal fanbase.

When Iwata passed, the company's focus shifted far more towards short-term profits, which is ultimately the goal of almost every operating business. Nintendo's past business model was unique and transitioning to a more-traditional model meant that they would need to walk back a lot of what the company had been about in the past. Reselling Wii U titles for elevated prices was one example, but, to me, a greater sign of Nintendo's transition was how they started to sell their IPs to the highest bidder. Lego Mario, the Mario Movie, Nintendo World, and plenty other examples would never have happened during Iwata's time (not that I necessarily think utilizing their brand like this is a bad idea). The real problem in all this is that by chasing short-term profits, Nintendo has a chance to jeopardize the very foundation of their company: their long-term stability.

Like a lot of people, I don't feel like I have enough information to comment on Nintendo's attempts to union-bust, but I agree with Reggie that this never would have happened in the past. Iwata Era Nintendo wanted happy employees because happy employees create better products. Maybe Reggie's point is that happy employees won't seek to form unions (which isn't necessarily the best argument), but I'd be inclined to believe that even if they DID try to form unions, past Nintendo wouldn't try to stop them, because that would destabilize the company. It's for this reason that I'm kinda concerned about modern-day Nintendo. If they're willing to sacrifice long-term stability for success with the Switch, I'm starting to worry about how their first-party games will fare during the process. Nintendo hasn't launched a major internally-developed game since before COVID. That's a long time, and the delays facing BotW2 (which is supposed to be re-using assets from the original) is doing very little that calm that concern.

I'm hoping that a lot of this is transitional stuff and that a lot of these concerns are unfounded. All that I'll say is this: Nintendo has a lot riding on their first-party lineup come 2023. BotW2, Metroid Prime 4, potentially a new mainline Mario game, and maybe even a new console all have the potential to either restore flagging confidence in their brand or permanently destroy the trust they worked so hard to build with customers since they entered the video game space. Like many of us, I have a long history with Nintendo products that goes far past the normal relationship between a company and a consumer. I want Nintendo to succeed because their products have defined entire gaming generations and have provided me with thousands of hours of entertainment. But, if they don't succeed and instead demonstrate that they are willing to completely destroy consumer trust for the sake of profit, the Switch may be their last console I support for a long time.

[breathstealer]

I miss Reggie at Nintendo he was so expressive and excited every time he came on. I really felt the energy when he ran the America division. I've never even seen this bowser President at all like he hides in a dark castle.

[EthanLandwehr]

Nintendo had a lot more character in my opinion back during the Wii U and 3DS Era, alongside the early Switch Era. Now they just feel like any regular video game company, but being more targeted towards families

[LittleParade_]

I think current day Nintendo has really lost sight of what their original ideals were. If they can find in themselves to recapture those ideals, maybe they can restabilize their image, their games, and their community.

EDIT: who knew the most open-ended comment about wanting Nintendo to do better would spark the most angry, fervent replies.

[warbossspincrusha]

I can only imagine how soul crushing seeing all this can be for somebody like Reggie.

[EmmureMARIO]

As much as I love Nintendo, I do get disappointed with how they’re handling business. “You love the soundtrack from Mario 64? Go play the game again and don’t you dare download mp3 file from it or we are hunting your ass down!”

[roundytoon]

my body never felt ready ever since reggie left

[bubbythebrow]

I worked at nintendo as a tester when he was around although the pay was crap for contractors the company was amazing to work for and would even let you have days off even if you just felt mentally off they would never give you crap. He would walk through from time to time and greet everyone and everyone seemed very happy. The only no no was no falling asleep at the desk. lol Which when your testing the same thing every day can be easy to do lol.