Collaborations with musicians aren't uncommon in the video game industry (we still shudder when we're reminded about the likes of Kris Kross: Make My Video and the Aerosmith-heavy Revolution X) and it seems that we very nearly had a similar team-up between Nintendo and good ol' Yeezy himself.
Former Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime has explained that, during an E3 show a few years back, Kanye West visited Nintendo's booth and spent some time chatting with the one and only Shigeru Miyamoto. Following this meeting of minds, West later invited Reggie for a meeting at the office of his fashion business, with his wife Kim Kardashian also in attendance – putting the former Nintendo president in a rather tight spot:
Part of it was talking about what he was up to. He was experimenting with a piece of video game content; he wanted reactions to it. He comes out and says, ‘I want to work with Nintendo.’ We had so many different projects at Nintendo going on, the possibility of doing something with Kanye just wasn’t there, and so I had to find a way to politely decline this opportunity to work with him. I told him, ‘Kanye, you don’t want to work with us because we’re tough, we’re hard. All we do is push for the very best content. We would not be the type of partner you would want to work with.’ And he looks at me and says, ‘Reggie, you’re exactly the type of partner I want because of that reason!’ It’s like, ‘Oh my gosh.'
Kanye has such a passion for the video game space, and he’s a creator.
You can hear the full discussion on the Talking Games With Reggie & Harold Podcast, which is aiming to raise funds for the New York Videogame Critic's Circle nonprofit mentoring work.
[source charity.gofundme.com, via nintendoeverything.com]
Comments 136
Not suprised really. Nintendo comes to you, you can't just hire them to develop a game.
...maybe he should stick to designing ugly clothes?
Stupid move he would have showered them in gold....
I know the man is not doing so well but at least spell his name right
I love Reggie, but that is a super-patronising reason to give someone.
"You don’t want to work with us because we’re tough, we’re hard. All we do is push for the very best content. We would not be the type of partner you would want to work with."
Now I don't care for Kanye's music, but the dude certainly doesn't cut corners himself and seems to put a lot of hard work and focus into his projects.
I guess this is just another example of how out of touch with reality Reggie was. Should have stuck with the pizzas.
Why would the company trying to put a smile on people's face work with the guy who thinks smiling isn't cool?
Kanye is a nutcase in all honesty , if I was Nintendo I'd have just said No Kanye your a nut cherio
Right decision imo. The guy is toxic.
@maulinks He would be much better off if he finally admitted he likes fishsticks.
I don't know if his music would fit many Nintendo games unless they started making sports games like 1080 or Excite Bike again.
@Rhaoulos Hahahaha! South Park Kanye was literally the first thing I envisioned when I read this! And all the while, I had "My Girlfriend Ain't A Hobbit" playing in the back of my head! XD
I go back and forth on Kanye’s music but you can’t deny the man is an extremely talented creator. Although you also can’t deny that he has his demons and is somewhat off the deep end.
@Rhaoulos and especially putting them in his mouth!
@nessisonett i liked his first two albums when he was doing more concious hip hop, once he went over to glam rap starting with his third album i tuned out.
he seems like he would get along better with Sony by helping them make another pretentious movie game
@marioguy20 still better than most of Nintendo franchise.
@Dezzy Especially someone like Kanye who takes himself so bloody seriously.
It's because he's literally tone-deaf. The programmers couldn't tell the computer what note he was trying to sing.
Since you can't get a computer high on drugs, the developers were at a loss to make the cpu 'understand'.
@Guest88 you do you, i want gameplay, not press X to do awesome followed by hours of cutscenes.
Good. That would have eventually devolved into a nightmare for Nintendo. A controversial situation would have no doubt arose due to something Kanye would have said or did and put Nintendo in some scenerio in which they would have had to "distance" themselves from.
Kayne may be a "hard worker", but he is clearly a loose cannon with bizarre behavior and polarizing opinions, as evidenced by his recent "run for president".
@Razer Come on, Caitlyn Jenner’s awful but are you really going to espouse the ‘not normal’ narrative? It’s almost 2021 for Christ’s sake, it’s not like she ‘turned trans’ when she married Kris Jenner.
@damien33ad nope the dude is toxic. Only his fanbase don’t see that.
Let’s not forget that Kanye is a flat-earther who said slavery seemed like a choice, defended both R Kelly and Bill Cosby despite all evidence, and tried to force a guy in a wheelchair to stand up at one of his performances. He should be treated as such. The idea that a family-friendly and progressive game company like Nintendo would work with him is laughable.
I don't even like Kanye West, by even looking at him and knew his reputation.
I don't even like E.T. Katy Perry with Kanye West.
I like E.T. by Katy Perry Solo version without Kanye West.
Kanye might end up being the President one day lol.
@marioguy20 and I don’t want handholding in games, which Nintendo are known for.
@Don I was going to say ‘only if the electorate turn off their brains’ but well, yeah, that doesn’t seem so impossible now 😂
A huge ego, out of touch with what the fan base wants, lazy releases.... not Kayne - Nintendo.
Yet they have the arrogance to say Kayne isn’t a hard worker?!?!? Shake my head.
He may be eccentric but that’s down right disrespectful.
Reggie would have been better telling the truth.”Our big releases are rehashing of old games for the foreseeable and sticking three games on the game and watch so we think doing a project with you might involve actual hard work and we still have wii u games to port”
I say all this and I still bought the game and watch and all the Wii U ports... but Nintendo have got lazy and are actually getting worse - limited time releases etc.
@Guest88 lol yeah cuz Sony is totally known for offering a challenge, Neil "games dont have to be fun" Druckman is totally a gamers gamer and not a pretentious hipster making a glorified interactive movie.
@marioguy20 hahahaha oh man, you got triggered. Why you bring up neil drunkman i have no idea since I didn’t bring up naughty dog. Take a chill pill sis.
Man, I feel the awkwardness for Reggie haha
@nessisonett you should re-read what i said because i wasn't directing my "not normal people" to the males who married into the family, which obviously at one point included Jenner (are you that much of an Sjw that you misunderstand posts to fit your narrative?)
The females in that family are not normal. Are you trying to tell me that Kim Kardashian and her biological family are normal? Lol the year has nothing to do with being a nutcase. You can't SJW crazy ass.
@KillerBOB You certainly tell good jokes.
@marioguy20 Went straight to the point bro!
Good, he's married to a Kardashian, that alone says he's not very intelligent.
@Razer You were using Caitlyn Jenner being trans as an example of the family not being normal. If basic empathy and tolerance of an entire group of people is ‘SJW BS’ then I literally couldn’t care less. If Martin Luther King was around today then people would be calling him an SJW. Absolute bloody nonsense.
@nessisonett no i used the fact that Caitlyn Jenner use to be a man and is now a woman after marring into a family that is not normal.
@nessisonett and if there was any Black people trying to dye their skin white i would agree with you.
But your point about Martin is way off the mark here.
@Guest88 like i said, you do you my guy. I recommend Netflix, its cheaper than spending $60 on a movie plus you dont have to press X every ten minutes to finish it.
@marioguy20 Stay salty sis. At least Netflix doesn’t handhold you to the end and treat the audience like a idiot lol.
Regardless of whether this would've been a good or bad collaboration, I wonder what would've come out of this still, had it actually happened.
@Dezzy For real. Even I could have spun it in a more flattering/positive way.
@Razer, Caitlyn was always a woman. She just needed to come to terms with it herself and come out about it. Marrying into the Kardashian family had absolutely nothing to do with it. You don’t TURN trans, you ARE trans. It’s like being on any other part of the LGBTQIA+ spectrum, it’s a part of who you are from the start.
This makes a lot of sense. Kanye...isn’t really in the best of mindsets right now.
@RandomAfricanGamer Yeah, Nintendo likes to avoid controversy and drama (at least from third parties) and, well...
And nothing of real value was lost.
Nintendo dodged the biggest BULLET BILL
I mean...Kanye is incredibly stupid, so Ninty made the right move
@HeyItsFlapjack FACTS
I think it would have been interesting to see what Kanye West had in mind.
Oh boy did Nintendo dodge a bullet there. If Nintendo ever works with anyone from the music scene I nominate my boy Slash. I'd love to hear his Hendrix bluesy rock style guitar sound in Nintendo games.
Thank god.
Źzzzzzzzzzzzzz
@Razer
Get your close-minded transphobic self out of here, nobody wants you
He wanted to be the final boss in smashbros. 🤣
@Guest88 "doesn't handholding you"
I didn't know being triggered ruins spelling and grammar.
Personally find Kanye and a lot of rap pretty vulgar, but better than uk rap aka grime. What a rubbish name.xx
Missed opportunity!! I’d have paid premium for a Kanye West / Nintendo version of Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan!! Also Kanye could’ve done something super creative by producing a sound kit / tool for the Switch! Omg.. can you imagine Kanye produced soundtracks on some of Nintendo’s biggest franchises?!? DAMN IT NINTENDO MAKE THIS HAPPEN!!
The guy's talented, but a bit of an egomaniac... even before taking into account his... mental issues. If corporations could have a personality, Nintendo's would be the polar opposite of Kanye's. I honestly could not envision a more awkward pairing.
Kanye is an amazingly talented musician who is also stupendously toxic and more than a little off the rails. He gets defensive when anyone says anything less than 100% supportive of him or his projects - and when Kanye gets defensive, it's never pretty.
For some context, the game he was working on was about his mother's journey through the gates of Heaven. It was an intensely personal project for Kanye, and who knows, it might have actually ended up being a neat game. The man is a hard worker and very talented.
But that's speculation. What isn't speculation is that he tried showing off footage of the game in progress in the middle of one of his concerts. And when the crowd - who had come to hear Kanye rap, not to watch rough drafts of video games about his mom - was less than thrilled, he went off on a rant about how hard it was to make a video game and how he should get a standing ovation or something just for trying. This was 2016, you can look it up.
This is not the dude you want to enter a collaboration with. And Reggie was 100% right to dodge that bullet, even if the way he turned Kanye down was kind of awkward.
Thank God! (Qqqqqqqqq)
@Razer Perhaps you should re-read your original comment, it is at best ambiguous about who you are describing as abnormal.
@Razer Rather than getting up in arms and trying to insult @nessisonett, if you are truly not trying to be transphobic in your comment perhaps you should listen to what they and others are saying? Because your statement, and your explanation later, are both transphobic to some degree whether you meant them to be or not.
You say you are commenting on how "not normal" the women of that family are, but the point you choose to highlight and back up this statement is that one of the men who entered the family is now woman. In saying this you are stating that they made their transition not as a decision to become who they truly are and have always been but as a result of being exposed to abnormal behavior. Which in turn is stating that making that transition is an abnormal behavior and by extension that being trans is abnormal. Whether that's what you meant to say or not, that is what you wrote and how it reads. If it truly is not your intent to make such a statement then you may want to adjust your posts, taking on board what people have said. Otherwise there's no reason for us all to not believe you do actually think that way, all the more so if you keep defending it with insults.
@Gwynbleidd
Yes, but no one is talking about his historic 538 electoral win...
Is this the game he wanted to make about his dead mother flying through heaven?
@Razer Actually it's pretty normal. Outside of your own experience, maybe, but that doesn't mean a thing. There are literally millions of people who identify as trans, and more and more people are identifying as non-binary. And amongst younger people the percentages are much, much higher. I'd recommend trying to open your mind to modern concepts of gender. The world is changing, whether you're down with it or not.
It's so tricky when talking about anything Kanye. On one hand, it's obvious that collaborating with someone of such talent is probably alluring and exciting. He obviously brings a lot to the tablin that respect.
On the other hand, maybe it's for the best Nintendo said no. Not just for their sake. But for his as well. His mental health issues are well reported and documented. It's known he doesn't follow taking medication seriously as part of his treatment plan. We've also see, going untreated, how messy things get with him. So as a fellow black man who knows what the stigma of mental illness is like in the black community and has seen first hand people I care about not getting the help they need, my hope is that someday, he decides to put his health first and that others continue to encourage him to do so rather than be "yes people" for their own selfish gains
@Razer The Kardashians maybe opportunist when it come to fame and money, but your whole rant and subsequent doubling down on it is completely absurd and off the rails. The fact that your first thought is that these women have that much power to change these men's lives like that, rather than think maybe these men had a lot of stuff going before joining that family says alot more about you and where your thought process is.
The guy clearly has mental illness, but his closest circle just enables him to continue without any treatment. It's just sad.
@marioguy20 and I didn’t know being salty ruins your comeback.
@Don I'm pretty sure I heard that same joke about Trump 10 years ago. Never underestimate the general public.
@EVIL-C Seeing how he is surrounded by a crazy @ss family, it's definitely no wonder.
@Guest88 you have an account on a nintendo fansite.
That's like saying You hate Playstation but you subscribe to their youtube channel in the same breath.
If you hate nintendo so much, why are you even here lmao
@CalTonTheRobot Who said I hate Nintendo? Being critical isn’t the same as hate. I love Nintendo franchise but i am also critical to Nintendo.
@CalTonTheRobot And where did i say Nintendo franchise are garbage? Sure you don’t mistake me for someone else?
@PBandSmelly oh so now its "Transfobic" to point out when a man has an operation to change themselves into a woman...?
You people have genuinely lost your minds with this "woke" culture.
I have no problem with Trans people but I'm not going to alter my perception of reality to cater to anyones needs.
The person USE to be a man and turned themselves into a woman... I have no problem with the fact that they did that. But they did that. Now how they felt inside isn't my concern and isn't related to my point, biologically though, that person was a male.
I won't convince myself that they didn't do that to fit your twisted narrative of whats acceptable to you.
@Guest88 nevermind, I thought your message response of saying sony movies are better than most nintendo franchises said something else...
Out of curiosity, which nintendo franchises do you have issues with,
And how would you improve it?
@CalTonTheRobot Pokemon and Mario sports games. I would’ve improved Pokemon by focus on stronger post game content like Battle Tower and maybe go back to a old place like they did in Gold, silver and crystal.
As for the Mario sports titles, RPG mode would’ve been ace.
I don’t know what year this was obviously, but I’ve been gaming uninterrupted for 12 years with Nintendo, and I can’t think of a year that this didn’t feel like a missed opportunity.
Would’ve been great buzz for Nintendo ik ye can be bizarre but no doubt the man has a fanbase
@ChaosBadger777 I'm 51 years old and I've been queer all my life. Please keep telling me how marvelous and progressive it was in the Nineties, it's fascinating.
Kanye is a total moron. Good riddance. Nintendo doesn't want to work with a borderline lunatic.
I’m laughing trying to picture the clash of Japanese and American rap culture with the meeting of Shigeru and Kanye.
Poor Shigeru lol
@JasmineDragon good for you. I'm not telling you how marvelous it, I'm saying it wasn't a big deal then and it shouldn't now.
Why are people making such a big deal about gender all of a sudden, who cares about how someone identifies or who they sleep with?
@Razer for what it’s worth, I read your comment the exact same way as @nessisonett and was happy they said something because I was about to. Maybe work on your wording a bit?
Kanye is trash anyway so thank god they did. The man is not normal.
He was turned down because No one man should have all that Nintendo Power.
I think Kanye is one of the few celebrities who is relatable. I always though he was a fool, and in a way he is, but he is a real person, open, trustworthy, vulnerable. He seems like a fool, because the world is mad.
Wuff. Reggie dodged a bullet right there.
There was a small chance the president of the United States would be working with Nintendo? #Kanye2020
@Lordplops yeah, Pokemon alone I worth more than Him, Nintendo is good =
Don’t care what anybody says. One of the smartest decisions that Nintendo has made. I ***** with Kanye’s older music in the 2000’s but recently that dude had been nothing but toxicity. I don’t wanna say anything else tho but he needs to get mental help.
@damien33ad kayne is a nutcase not worth defending him man.
Translation: we don't want to be associated with your fake.a.s.s.s.h.i.t 😄 good one Reggie
@damien33ad yeah i know but i'm not concerned with what others think of my opinion, i'm not here to make friends, just here to give opinions on the topics. but yeah like @ChromaticDracula said, maybe i should have worded it differently to begin with.
Shows you how our of touch with reality Nintendo are.
Turning down collaborating with one of the biggest stars on the planet.
lotta yeezy slander in the comments, what pack are yall smokin
"All we do is push for the very best content. We would not be the type of partner you would want to work with."
They didn't even try to hide the "you suck" in there.
Hooooo boy. Remember how people thought they removed Mike Tyson from Punch-Out because of his scandals, and that still gets referenced here and there to this day? Just try to imagine the eternal PR nightmare Nintendo would have had if THIS psychopath got involved with them and he inevitably crashes and burns.
@Dezzy Right! And he did it in his usual
corporate PR speak way, I’ve never gotten the hype. 🤷🏾♂️
All he wanted was a beige Switch with no buttons.... 😂
@Zebetite I literally thought of Mike Tyson as the truly classic Nintendo partnership....and the PR...great minds think alike... I love Mike Tyson Punch Out!!! Iconic. ❤️
@Guest88 toxic is a millennial buzzword. He's unique & polarizing, not "evil, green ooze"...and I'm not a fan, but he tells lots of truths that the sheep are scared, or unaware, of.
@UmbreonsPapa people always say this like he has skitzophrenia. The man has manic depression (bi polar). So many people have depression & don't do what the masses on social media attribute to craziness. Anxiety & depression are so common, many have it & don't even realize it. Some cases it's more severe, but not taking meds for bipolar disorder only allws you to get really depressed & have manic stages (like if a normal person took an Adderall). That's not "crazy" like y'all portray it, sorry.
@mlj11 what happened to "opposites attract", lol?
@twztid13 in this case the guy is toxic.
” but he tells lots of truths that the sheep are scared, or unaware, of.”
Lol please
@damien33ad
The APA has some articles on what transgenderism is. I’d recommend it if you want to further your understanding in the subject.
Sad to see so many people calling Kanye things like "lunatic", "psychopath", "nutcase", among others. No one should be denigrated for having mental issues.
I'm not really a Kanye fan, but he's never boring. It would be interesting to see what he had in mind.
If he were involved, Zelda BOTW would be totally flat.
Well this comment section sure got off topic quickly, even by NL standards.
@readalie brilliant summary thank you
@Kevember
Exactly. People often dehumanize celebs like they don't have exactly the same emotions as everybody else and also disregard the pressure of always having a camera on you every step you take. However, if you only know Kanye from the media I'm not suprised you think he's an a-hole. If you'd make the effort to get to know him better you'd be a lot milder I think. Anyway, although he may not be a great fit for Nintendo, there's no denying the guy's an artist. I suggest checking out the podcast Dissect if you're interested to learn more about Kanye, his music and how he struggles with mental issues and being a celebrity. Peace.
Ah... The NL comments section, where everything is as usual!
How could they be so heartless!
If Nintendo was to work with an American rapper, it had better be Ice Cube, seeing as they attempted to trademark his line "It's on like Donkey Kong"
@damien33ad
You don't have to chop off any bodyparts to be transgender. I suggest you follow his advice and expand your knowledge of the topic, if you are to hold such forward and vocal opinions about it.
@Lordplops Thank God you don't make decisions for Nintendo
I feel like Kanye is on a desperate crusade to see how much cringe he can induce before people stop throwing money at him. He has done nothing good or worth anyone's time after "Graduation". And I'm being lenient.
@TheFox Ted Bundy was never boring
@durr you can't possibly be so unintelligent. I refuse to believe a literate person would think that. It would be too depressing to bear.
@UmbreonsPapa The issue wayyyyyyy simpler than all of that. Kanye could offer Nintendo nothing of value. He is also a major liability. End of story. No need to even get into how obnoxious he is, or how much his own craft has declined.
But he is a lyrical genius for this generation haha.
Gay fish yall
@damien33ad what are your views on tattoos, piercings and body modifications? Are these classed as "normal" because these all include adding/removing something from the body.
People are dying on some strange hills in this thread.
@k8sMum It looks like everyone took a fistful of crazy pills before commenting on this article. My only previous post was pretty vanilla in my opinion and someone equated it to Ted Bundy (For the sake of non-American readers, Ted Bundy was one of our worst serial killers).
@KillerBOB lol this is one of the few times I’ve seen anyone say bad things about Reggie. I think he was just trying to politely decline Kanye’s request, not trying to state the real reason they couldn’t work with him.
@TheFox This reminds me that I have to watch the movie about him starring Zac Efron.
I read that he was extremely charismatic and convincing that is why he was able to kill so many people.
They declined Kanye but worked with Brie Larson, lol? Sometimes Nintendo is just plain weird.
I'd rather all rappers and hip-hop artists stay away from Nintendo. I would prefer for those type of artist to stay with Sony. I think all other music artists should collaborate with Nintendo such as J-pop artists, K-pop artist, country music artists and rock and roll artists
@damien33ad actually posting transphobic remarks on NL is against the rules.
But yes you are correct you are entitled to your own opinions and you are also entitled to express them. But that entitlement doesn't extend to no consequnce to your words.and it doesn't mean you have a right to go unchallenged in those opinions. In the exact same way as you are challenging the views of others here with your own, they have every right to challenge you back. As you said "it's not a one way street", that applies to you as well. You started by attempting to insult people for their views, trying to pull the whole freedom of speech thing after people then argue back just shows you have a weak argument and nothing but stubbornness to back it up.
@Trajan But... being transgender isn’t a mental illness or disorder? While many trans individuals lead tough lives, which results in a higher propensity towards mental health issues like depression, the DSM-5 specifically states that “gender non-conformity is not in itself a mental disorder” and the APA along with other internationally-recognized authorities on psychiatric care and sciences have unequivocally weighed in on the side of trans rights. Are you a leading expert on mental health, that you can argue against the DSM-5, the allegorical Bible of mental health care and diagnosis?
@readalie that was changed for political reasons. Gender dysmorphia is a mental illness.
@Trajan Body dysmorphia is discussed in the DSM-5, but not gender dysmorphia. Gender dysphoria IS, but it’s not the same as being transgender (although transgender individuals often suffer from gender dysphoria). DSM publications are changed for a number of reasons, primarily new knowledge, but good luck getting the global body of an entire medical field to bend to the whims of one or two political bodies (especially given how many governments still view trans individuals similarly—or even more cruelly—to you).
Still, I suppose it’s clear at this you’re not going to try and take this opportunity to learn something new. Which is a shame, but the only one who can change someone’s mind is that someone themself. I hope you revisit this topic with a much more understanding viewpoint in the future, and open your heart to those who are different from you. Hopefully you’ll have a good, long life full of many good video games during which to do so.
@kerr9000
Ugh.. i hate him and kim ugh... XP
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