A Bronx Tale
Reggie Fils-Aime was Nintendo’s President for fifteen years, helping bring the Nintendo DS, the Wii, the Nintendo 3DS, Wii U and the Nintendo Switch to the global marketplace. As a result, he was named to the International Video Game Hall of Fame and most recently penned an autobiography, Disrupting the Game: From the Bronx to the Top of Nintendo, published in May of this year.
A graduate of Cornell University, Fils-Aime began his career at Procter & Gamble, before joining Nintendo of America Inc. in December 2003 as Executive Vice President of Sales & Marketing. In May 2006, he was promoted to President and COO.
Even though the Bronx-born Fils-Aime is no longer involved in the day-to-day running of the gaming giant, he is still a force to be reckoned with in the video game industry.
Exclusive Interview
This week, Fils-Aime was interviewed by the American media website CNET. In the interview, Fils-Aime was asked about the metaverse, VR and NFTs, as well as the future of Nintendo in this new era of Web3.
As The Metaverse Insider’s key focus is the metaverse, we thought we’d give the highlights of that topic and a sound bite of his opinion of NFTs, too.
On The Metaverse & VR
Reggie Fils-Aime: I find when we’re talking about the metaverse, we really need to be clear what it is that we’re talking about. I’m old enough to remember that people loved to put “.com” on the end of a business, just to try and make it interesting and provocative 30 years ago. And so when I think about the metaverse, for me, it’s an environment where you’ve got a range of different experiences, you’ve got a common currency, the environment is progressive in terms of what you can do and the things that you can participate in.
As I think of the metaverse, there are early examples of it. Whether you look at Roblox, whether you look at the work that Fortnite and Epic Games are doing, it’s going to continue to become more and more immersive. I do believe it’s going to be gaming-led, I don’t believe that it has to have an element of VR. I actually believe that augmented reality is going to progress much further and much faster. I’m a much bigger proponent, in part because I’ve seen great AR experiences brought to the consumer. I haven’t yet seen that wonderful VR experience that I find compelling.
On NFTs
Reggie Fils-Aime: I believe that blockchain as a piece of technology can be interesting, but it has to provide value to the player. It can’t just be a new way of monetizing. There needs to be something inherently positive for the player for this as technology to take off. So I’m not for or against NFTs. I want to see an example that really adds value and I have to say, I haven’t yet seen that example.
After 15 years at Nintendo of America, including a memorable stint as the company’s president, Bronx-born Reggie Fils-Aime is still a force in the video game industry. In addition to his recent autobiography Disrupting the Game, he’s a regular at industry events like the recent PAX West, where we caught up with him for a conversation about the future of gaming.
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