Reggie Fils-Aime is one of the most well known figures in the video game world thanks to his stint as the president of Nintendo. However, it appears that the many stories and memes surrounding Reggie Fils-Aime thanks to his time at the company wouldn't have happened if he had taken some early career advice.
The former Nintendo chief spent 15 years with the company and the last decade as its president. He was able to see the firm through a period of time when it saw a few struggles but also piloted it as it began its upswing, culminating with the release of the Switch. There are plenty members of the video game community that would say that Reggie and Nintendo are synonymous, but it turns out that almost didn't happen at all.
Speaking at a recent event during SXSW, Reggie revealed that when he was originally offered a position at Nintendo, all of his advisers told him he'd be better off turning down the job. It turns out that at least part of the reason that the advisers didn't want him to move to Nintendo is because they thought it was "under fire" from the likes of Microsoft and Sony when it came to the console wars.
However, the former Nintendo executive said that he decided to go against all of those advisers' advice because he had a different view of the company. While it's possible that more will be revealed about his move to Nintendo and climb through the company in his book, he did say that he felt the company was quite innovative. He also pointed out that all of the things that people take for granted in the gaming world these days such as joysticks and game pads "had all been done first by Nintendo."
While Reggie's run at Nintendo ended in 2019, he also made it clear that while he was with the firm, he wasn't afraid of doing things that some others in the firm would have seen as risky. That included requesting a meeting with the late Satoru Iwata which he described as something that almost cost Reggie the job. However, he felt it was important to have a good relationship with Nintendo legends like Iwata.
Since moving on from Nintendo, Reggie has still been active in the video game community in several ways. That included a rather short stint in 2020 and 2021 with the GameStop board of directors.
Source: Nintendo Everything