
Former Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aimé recently hosted a talk at Cornell College of Business, during which he chose to share his knowledge of business and leadership.
However, some of the most interesting nuggets to come out of the lecture were predictably related to Nintendo; Reggie mentioned, for example, that the late Satoru Iwata was initially against bundling Wii Sports with the Wii console. He also revealed that’s he’s rather happy that he no longer has to field questions about Mother 3 coming to the west.

As promised, edited highlights from the lecture have now been posted on Cornell’s YouTube account, and we’ve got a few more pieces of interesting info.
Reggie was asked by a member of the audience what his favourite game was during his time at Nintendo, and his answer may not come as much of a shock: it’s Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
Reggie was also asked which character he mains as in Super Smash Bros., and revealed that he likes playing as Zelda and Ridley:
If you’d like to watch more of the talk, head over to Cornell’s YouTube page.
Comments 19
Loving the constant influx of Reggie updates. It’s like he never left.
@thesilverbrick He's in all our hearts. He was super memorable while he was at Nintendo.
I thought he likes Donkey Kong games.
But Zelda doesn't float. That's Peach.
@nintendolie Safe to say we all like Donkey Kong games. Doesn't mean we we can't have a different favourite
Insane how his favorite game is Animal Crossing New Leaf On the Nintendo 3DS
"Ridley" so he was spamming Sakurai too?
A big part of what we like about Reggie is this - he's just so human. He actually plays the games, he knows memes, he's just so real.
So many executives and business types always seem like these stiff, no-fun police who only care about making money. But not Reggie. I hope he remains active in the community for a long long time.
"Her ability to float" hmmm... i hope he didn't mistakenly confused Princess Peach with Princess Zelda cause... that would be embarrassing. 😏
@Thundertron55 Well, he’s never claimed to be very good at the game lol...
@Thundertron55
ThEy All fLoaT doWN hErE, GEORGIE
Ridley mains rise up!
Reggie did great job for Nintendo and helped her gain market share in US. Also he's a lucky man. He joined Nintendo in 2003 little before the enormous success of Nintendo DS. He became the president and chief operating officer of Nintendo of America in 2006 few months before Wii release. So he came after "failures" like N64 and GC. And yeah its not his fault that Nintendo Wii U flopped.Also 3ds wasn't as big success as DS but was moderate successful and
also had very tough competition from mobile phones
I can definitely understand wanting to play as a character that can help you stay on the stage. That's why Incineroar is one of my LEAST favorites. As far as I can tell, he's horrible at getting back onto a stage once's he's been knocked off.
I think my own mains are Bowser and Toon Link. I'm a sucker for a good aerial down-smash and a good aerial down-special. Bowser has both and Toon Link has one.
Unfortunately, Smash Ultimate often makes it difficult for me to effectively use those attacks since it doesn't have a For Glory mode where I can fight on a flat, single-platform stage every time. Multiple platforms get in the way.
@dimi You mean the Wii U, right?
@Ghostguy03 yes corrected it, ty
Nintendo should make him an emeritus so he can continue to foster good will.
I still miss the Iwata era when Iwata, Reggie, Miyamoto were all involved in fun shtick, interacting with the fans, part of the fun, and didn't mind making fun of themselves and Nintendo for a good bit of entertainment.
We've gone back to Nintendo as the silent corporate black box since then. Not quite Yamauchi era levels of Nintendo being the Sony of their time, but not too far from it.
I wonder if he actually mixed up Peach and Zelda. Though in fairness he did say that he doesn't play a lot of Smash, so I imagine he probably remembers the characters and could tell them apart but probably just forgot which princess he was playing as. (Nintendo does have a lot of princesses.)
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