Reggie Fils-Aimé Says Switch Was “Make Or Break” Product For Nintendo After WiiU’s Poor Performance

Earlier this week, Reggie Fils-Aimé, the former president of Nintendo of America, joined fellow former leaders from Microsoft and Sony for a gaming roundtable discussion leading up to the New York Game Awards.

During the discussion, Reggie was asked what he felt was one of the defining moments in his career at Nintendo, specifically when it came to innovation. In response, Reggie pointed to the introducing the Switch after the poor performance of the WiiU as his “lasting memory”, describing the hybrid console as a “make or break product” after the poor performance of its predecessor.

“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.”

With the Switch currently sitting at over 68 million units sold compared to the WiiU’s 13 million lifetime sales, its no wonder Reggie considers the transition one of the biggest highlights of his tenure at Nintendo. If you would like to watch the full roundtable yourself, it is still available on Twitch here (The segment detailed above starts at around 38 minutes in).

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