Reggie Fils-Aime to retire from NOA President

[NinjaMonkey]

You know, even though I'm European, I'm still going to miss him. So goodbye, Reggie, thanks for the memories and the memes, and enjoy your retirement.

[Etrurian emperor]

Damn I was I made the amount of money needed to retire at that age. 

Reggie leaving was certainly a surprise. He was pretty charming as far as CEO's go. Part of it could just be some very good pr work but he seemed to be pretty happy with the role of the wacky Nintendo executive. Reggie certainly stood out compared to the boring grey mouses that usually land on that position. 

[Interdimensional Observer]

Farewell Fils-Aime, you shall be missed. His E3 and other such appearances were corporate of course, but there were good attempts to be charming. Wasn't he in that one little clip Nintendo did where Miyamoto and another person were pulled into a 3DS and in a panic running from Bowser over lava?

 

And it sounds like Nintendo knows who to choose a successor, reminds me of how Henry VII of England named his first son Arthur (but sadly he died prematurely and England never had a historical King Arthur). 

So, I'm guessing NoA's Seattle headquarters are getting a remodeling:

Spoiler

 

 

6 hours ago, Water Mage said:

Now that I think about it, Doug Bowser used to work at EA before Nintendo

Don't mean to be a Negatively Nelly here at all or anything, but doesn't EA stand for Electrifying Appendicitis in some parts? I get the impression from afar they don't have good PR. -Let's hope for the best though!

[Rex Glacies]

Well, Reggie certainly did put quite the impression on many fans. He'll be missed, but I'm glad he'll get to spend more time with his family.

[Ertrick36]

36 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Don't mean to be a Negatively Nelly here at all or anything, but doesn't EA stand for Electrifying Appendicitis in some parts? I get the impression from afar they don't have good PR. -Let's hope for the best though!

"Don't have good PR" is the understatement of a decade for that company.

But really though, I'm not gonna judge any one person who came from working there.  Corporations - particularly ones like EA - are a different entity entirely from the people that make them up.  Influenced by the people, sure, but sometimes the synthesis of hundreds of ideas and desires won't yield the best results.  That usually works for Nintendo because there's a whole lot of good, reasonable people at the helm.

Plus, Doug's one of the main guys who was responsible for the Nintendo Switch's great success.  And his current career path with Nintendo strongly mirrors Reggie's own career path (few years of experience as a sales and marketing executive for NoA, held the position during the time of great successes, etc.).  Also, from his tweets, he seems like a fairly nice guy with a good sense of humor.  Into sports quite a bit (probably explains why he'd work for EA in the first place), but also plenty into the games he's representing as a sales and marketing executive (and soon to be president of the western branch of the company).  Loves to show off all his Bowser merch, particularly the plushies.

He also retweeted a video asking for support for fire fighters fighting forest fires near Butte, Montana one time, which strikes a little close to home for me given that's my home state (and I also am the son of a retired fire fighter), and our state is typically invisible to the rest of the country except for when the president mentions us for some odd reason or our one federal representative tackles a journalist (not even kidding, that happened one time).

So I'd say I see him in a more positive light.

[Jedi]

On 2/21/2019 at 11:53 AM, Water Mage said:

Now that I think about it, Doug Bowser used to work at EA before Nintendo

Late but I don't think it's fair to slander someone if the company they worked for was the issue more so than it's workers.

[Etrurian emperor]

I think Nintendo may be one of the rare video game companies where the executives are actually widely liked by the fans. I don't think the outburst of sympathy and mourning over Iwata's death would have happened with any other executive and neither would Reggie's retirement prompting so many commiserations on what a fun guy he was. If anyone from EA, Activision or even less controversial companies like Namco or Squire left I doubt gamers would even pick it up. 

[Water Mage]

23 hours ago, Jedi said:

Late but I don't think it's fair to slander someone if the company they worked for was the issue more so than it's workers.

I wasn’t slandering, just wondering if Doug actually left EA due to a bad work environment. I was thinking more along the lines of he knows what not to do.

[Ertrick36]

9 hours ago, Water Mage said:

I wasn’t slandering, just wondering if Doug actually left EA due to a bad work environment. I was thinking more along the lines of he knows what not to do.

I'm gonna say that it probably would've been tremendously difficult for him to find work if he left on bad terms, and that I'd rather he didn't use EA as a mental punching bag.

He should just focus on the positive aspects of his work.  The focus on the negative is the exact reason I generally disdain the opinions of lots of reviewers and would-be pundits.  There's plenty negativity enough to swallow the world whole, and the last thing the gaming industry needs is bad blood between corporate executives.

Instead, I'll continue to focus on the fact that he headed the Switch's marketing and sales, and that console wound up being the fastest selling console of this generation.  Because that is what makes a good executive, not the internal feuds he may have.