In the latest interview granted to Geekwire by Reggie Fils-Aimethe former boss of Nintendo of America explained why the Kyoto house was unable (or wanted) to develop its own online infrastructure in a timely manner capable of rivaling that of its direct competitors.
In a long speech entrusted to the microphones of Geekwire, the former president of Nintendo of America wanted to touch this important point of the multiplayer vision carried out by Big N stating that “Nintendo’s corporate philosophy has always been to ‘do things differently’, and this means innovating by always following the strengths and ideas of the company and not focusing on the strengths of others. Speaking of multiplayer, Nintendo’s excellence has always been what we internally called ‘couch game’, as Mario Kart and Wii Sports teach. That was the focus of the company, its multiplayer excellence, and that was where it concentrated its efforts. “.
Continuing the speech, Reggie Fils-Aime argued that Nintendo delays in the building a solid online infrastructure are also due to the fact that “To create that kind of online multiplayer experience, the company really needed to think about what kind of game they could offer to excel in that field as well. And to be honest, Nintendo took some time to create. find something that could do for him and add value to his playful offer. In this new vision comes Smash Bros, a franchise that has done exceptionally well. And then it is time for Splatoon, an atypical IP shooter that has conquered the market”.
According to the former Nintendo of America boss, even the cultural differences between how gaming is interpreted in the East and the West has hindered this “awareness” on the part of Nintendo: “The company didn’t see online for what it was, which was a great opportunity. Nintendo thought that American and European developers constantly wanted to ‘educate’ them on the value of online gaming. I am also referring to the challenge between the three hardware competitors. with Microsoft investing so much in online infrastructure that it turned it into a competitive advantage that it still maintains today, in terms of ‘connected’ gameplay. There has always been this drive by Western developers to encourage Japanese companies to invest in it. field of multiplayer gaming and I’m sure this push continues today “.
