Earlier this month Reggie Fils-Aimeformer president of Nintendo of America, published his book Disrupting the Game: From the Bronx to the Top of Nintendo, so he has been conducting interviews to promote it. In a recent one, she said that there were in America and Europe they tried to educate nintendo on online gamingbut the company did not see a great opportunity in it.
Nintendo has been criticized for years for lagging behind its competition when it comes to online capabilities, so it’s no surprise to learn that the company didn’t have the same interest in online gaming as its competition. In an interview for Geekwire, Reggie Fils-Aimé said that Nintendo’s main interest was gaming “of armchair”, as local multiplayer is called.
In the interview, Reggie Fils-Aimé was asked why Nintendo was approaching online gaming the way it is, to which Reggie said he had two answers for that. First of all, Nintendo’s philosophy has always been to do things differently, to innovate by playing to the strengths of the company and not those of others.
For example, when it comes to multiplayer, Nintendo really excelled at what we internally call “armchair gaming” – sitting next to someone playing Mario Kart, sitting next to someone playing a variety of games like Wii Sports. That in-person multiplayer was something the company excelled at, and that’s where it put tremendous focus.”
As for online play, Fils-Aimé said that Nintendo had to think of a new type of game to try, which took the company time, but he thinks they eventually nailed it with Splatoon. “So that’s the first part of the answer – the company is always thinking about how they are going to enter these markets uniquely, differently and playing to their strengths.”.
The second thing I’d like to highlight – and this is where the cultural differences come in a little bit. Culturally, the company didn’t see a huge opportunity in online gaming. It was an era when America and Europe they were constantly trying to educate the company in Japan about the value of online gaming, investing in the online infrastructure that was needed to make the experience a positive one.”
Reggie Fils-Aimé acknowledges that, of the three main competitors, Microsoft was the one that invested the most and turned online gaming into its competitive advantage, something that continues to date, in his opinion. “It was an area of constant pressure from Western companies encouraging development and investment in infrastructure, and I’m sure that conversation continues today.”.
Source: NintendoEverything.