Reggie points to Switch as his “lasting memory” at Nintendo, talks the need for a hit after Wii U’s poor performance
Earlier this week, former Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime participated in a joint interview with Jack Tretton and Robbie Bach, who were previously the leading executives for PlayStation and Xbox.
At one point, Reggie was asked about his defining achievement at Nintendo. He pointed to Switch, which has seen incredible success following the disappointment that was the Wii U.
Reggie said:
“You know, Nintendo has done so many innovations in the space… I think what Nintendo did with the Switch, after the poor performance of Wii U, I think to me and what I was part of, that’s my lasting memory.
People forget, when the Wii U launched, the performance over that life cycle was so poor, I mean it was the worst-selling platform, I think maybe Virtual Boy was a little bit worse, but Wii U underperformed pretty radically in the marketplace.
And when your only business is video games that next had to be successful and the Switch continues to be a dynamic platform – selling exceptionally well. And the ability for the company to come up with the concept, to bring it to life, to bring it to the marketplace, to have not only great first-party content but great third party and independent developer content – that is going to be something I will always be proud of.
Along with so many of the other things I was part of, but the Switch really was a make or break product for the company and luckily it was a hit.”
Wii U only sold 13.56 million units in total. In contrast, Switch is already at over 68.30 million units worldwide.
