Reggie not surprised that Switch has become a huge success, made his retirement decision easier

Switch couldn’t be doing much better at the moment. With the device just about to hit its fourth anniversary, it recently outsold the 3DS and is now Nintendo’s fifth best-selling platform of all time. Total sales are at about 80 million units worldwide, and there are no signs of things slowing down anytime soon.

Former Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime, who played a big role in getting Switch off the ground, isn’t surprised by the console’s big success up to this point. In a Gamertag Radio interview, he mentioned how he believed “it was going to be magical” after seeing a prototype version many years ago, and also noted how the ability to take the gaming experience everywhere addresses a player complaint.

Additionally, Reggie said that Switch’s performance made his retirement decision easier since he knew Nintendo “was going to be in great shape for at least a few years.”

Reggie’s full words:

“No, it was not a surprise to me. And I say this because the first time I saw the Nintendo DS, the hair on the back of my neck stood up. The team was demoing an early, early prototype of what would become Nintendogs. Immediately I saw the potential. The first time I picked up a Wii Remote and played, again, a rudimentary experience that would become Wii Sports, I knew it was gonna be magical. The day that I sat with Mr. Iwata and held a prototype Switch and we talked about the concept, I knew it was going to be magical.

And I say this because the system was solving for a key player complaint, and that complaint is, I’m having fun, I’m playing my game, and now I need to stop because I got to go to work, or I gotta go to school, and I can’t take my game with me. I can’t continue playing that game. So Switch, with the opportunity to play on that big screen TV, then take it out of the dock and go play in handheld mode, it met a fundamental consumer desire. That was the triggering moment. There were so many other smart things the company did – the support for Unity and Unreal, which allowed all of the great independent content to come. A number of other key decisions.

But no, it’s not a surprise, and candidly, knowing that it was going to be successful is what helped make my retirement decision easy because I knew the company was going to be in great shape for at least a few years.”

You can watch Gamertag Radio’s full interview with Reggie below.