“From the Bronx to the top of Nintendo”: this is the subtitle of the book written by Reggie Fils-Aimé, who led the American branch of the Japanese company for more than twelve years. Entitled Disrupting the gamethis biographical account was published on May 3 by HarperCollins.
Born in 1961 to Haitian parents who had been living in the United States since the early 1950s, the man rose through the ranks to become, in 2006, the first American boss of Nintendo of America. A position he left in 2019 to devote himself to his family. In his book, he recounts his journey, that of a “class defector”to use a well-known expression.
Publishing the right sheets of Disrupting the game, Fast Company has chosen a passage corresponding to the period preceding the worldwide release of the Wii, a seventh-generation console highly anticipated by video game fans. This was the best-selling of its generation, with over 101 million copies sold, far ahead of its competitors at the time, Sony’s PlayStation 3 (87.4 million) and Microsoft’s Xbox 360 (84 million). It remains to this day the seventh best-selling console in history.
The cramped E3
Reggie Fils-Aimé first evokes the choice of name (pronounceable in all languages, homophone of the English “we”, likely to be the subject of jokes linked to the term “wee-wee”, “pee” in VF, but too bad). But he focuses mainly on the 2006 edition of E3 (for “Electronic Entertainment Expo”), one of the largest international exhibitions of video games and interactive entertainment. At that time, he was Nintendo of America’s Vice President of Marketing.
First difficulty: unlike a classic home console, the Wii requires space in order to be used. It is not simply a matter of handling a controller, but of being able to make large movements, of being able to take yourself for a softball player or a tennis player. Consequently, the rooms usually allowing visitors to E3 to test new consoles and new games are not suitable: too cramped. It was necessary to rethink the spaces urgently, which was not easy.
Two games were to be presented: Wii Sportscollection of sports disciplines to practice with its own little character (the famous “Mii”), and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, a highly anticipated game since it was teased at E3 2004. The first was pure innovation, the second was a future classic even before it was released. Two very different games, which turned promotion into a puzzle. Which one to highlight over the other? How to combine the two universes?
Reggie Fils-Aimé and the late Satoru Iwata (president of Nintendo from 2002 until his death in 2015) eventually agreed that the Wii presentation press conference would end with a demonstration of Wii Sportsin which the lucky winner of a contest to be the first official player in the history of the game would participate. Objective: to play on the desire of the general public to discover this console as soon as possible.
On the other hand, the commercial presentation, aimed at retailers, would start with Wii Sports to end with Zelda, which everyone at Nintendo knew would be an absolute hit, and whose immense commercial potential would make sales reps salivate. All this was obviously accompanied by a staging, visual effects and a thousand other details requiring a certain time of preparation and production.
Switch
Except that the press conference worked so well that Mr. Itawa finally decided, only a few hours before the commercial presentation, to modify the course of this one, to conclude it also with Wii Sports. And when the chef demands, we don’t argue. Normally anyway. Not convinced of the validity of such an upheaval, and very worried about the quality of the presentation in question, which risked going wrong due to the lack of preparation and rehearsals, Reggie Fils-Aimé dared to stand up to him.
Faced with the arguments of the American, Satoru Iwata ended up giving in, and accepting that the presentation takes place in accordance with what had been decided at the start. “Eventually he gave in and we stayed on our original plan”writes Reggie Fils-Aimé. “But that time, I felt I had let Mr. Iwata down a bit. I think he was hoping that I would just say yes and honor the request of the international president that he was.”
Challenging the big boss, yes, but on condition of making a hit. For a moment, Reggie Fils-Aimé confides that he was afraid of being ousted from the American direction of Nintendo if the commercial presentation was not an absolute success. Except that it worked flat out. This did not prevent him from continuing to be afraid for some time, and for good reason.
Level up
A few days later, he learned that Satoru Iwata, who had returned briefly to Japan to settle some business, demanded to see him quickly upon his return to the United States. “We had spent the whole week together in Los Angeles, with some private moments and others in groups. What was so new and urgent that he needed to come back so soon?
“Was he really angry about the order of the presentation and the talks we had? Was I going to be fired for standing up for what I believed in? writes Reggie Fils-Aimé. And so it was that on May 19, 2006, exactly one week after the presentation of the Wii at E3, the two men met, one expecting to be sacked by the other.
Quite the opposite happened. Iwata had a paper document prepared, which he sent to Fils-Aimé. He could read the word “Promotion” there, preceding the following text: “I am delighted to offer you the position of President and CEO of Nintendo of America.” The determination of Reggie Fils-Aimé had in fact convinced.