Reggie Fils-Aimé – the famous former President of Nintendo of America – is currently working on promoting his upcoming book, Game Interrupts: From the Bronx to the Top of Nintendo. Last month, Reggie took to the South by Southwest (SXSW) stage in Austin, Texas to discuss his upbringing, his time at Nintendo, and the impact Satoru Iwata’s death had on him. .
You can now watch the entire interview in the video above, but we thought we’d share one of the more interesting tidbits about Iwata’s death. Reggie shared some background information on how the death of the Nintendo CEO affected his decision to leave the company:
So my boss, my mentor, my friend Satoru Iwata passed away in 2015. He and I were just the same age and he passed away from some form of cancer, and you know. , he and I were working together at the time. More than ten years. So when that happens, when that gets close to the bone, it really creates a need for you to step and evaluate – “what am I doing, am I having fun, I’m doing real things.” content” – and I had a lot of fun at Nintendo, but I wanted to do more.
I want to share my knowledge on a broader scale – like this – I want to help young executives go their own way, I want to work serving the board , I want to spend more time with Cornell (University). When you’re running a company – Nintendo of America is Nintendo’s largest division globally, half the sales and profits – when you’re running the company, you can’t do all of that.
Reggie went on to explain that he needed the company on a positive path before he left, along with making sure that good people were ready to steer the company forward.
You should check out the entire interview when possible; Reggie’s view of the Meta (that we mentioned before) is cursed, but he’s brimming with optimism for smaller companies that he believes will drive innovation for the industry in the future.
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Let us know in the comments below what you made of Reggie’s interview at SXSW.
