RolStoppable said:
It's becoming increasingly obvious that Reggie was never really good in the first place. The DS and Wii were such great products that they sold themselves. Now with the greatness being taken away (in other words, 3DS and Wii U), Reggie has to prove how good of a salesman he is and he is doing a poor job. |
"After receiving his degree, Fils-Aime took a position with Procter & Gamble. Following that, he took a position as Senior Director of National Marketing at Pizza Hut, where he launched the Bigfoot Pizza and The Big New Yorker.
Fils-Aime has served as the Head of Marketing for Guinness in the United States and was responsible for all brands. He also worked as Chief Marketing Officer at Derby Cycle Corporation, directing sales and marketing efforts for eight brands. Fils-Aime served as Managing Director and oversaw Raleigh U.K., Derby's British operations just six months in 1999.
He then joined the world's Chinese food service leader, Panda Management Co., acting as Senior Vice President. Later, he came on board to VH1 as Senior Vice President. He was responsible for a 30% increase in ratings by refocusing the channel's content to appeal to younger viewers." - Wikipedia
Well you can't entirely credit Reggie but during his first fiscal year at Nintendo 2003 ending in 2004. Nintendo's profits were pretty high they sold more GameCube's then ever before. The GameBoy Advance also did fairly well leading into DS. Reggie's marketing was some of the best I have ever seen and I would credit his marketing with a huge part of Wii/DS's success.
He was an amazing spokesman, but you are right DS and Wii were amazing products and could sell themselves. Wait, GameCube, N64 and GBA were all amazing products that should have sold themselves, they had Nintendo's biggest brands behind them. Yet the best game consoles to come out during the 90's and even GameCube which was easily the second most powerful console with the best first party software failed.
Without an amazing ad campaign Nintendo would not have seen the success they did with Wii/DS.
A reason I think Reggie is faultering now is he has been taken out of his element. He is a marketing exec, his specialty is marketing products. But as President Of NOA marketing isn't his main priority, he now has to worry about everything within Nintendo Of America. In fact marketing was outsourced almost entirely.
Reggie is a marketing expert who is no longer marketing, you can't blame him for the horrible marketing currently going on. As for his statement's he is simply spouting off what Iwata wants him too, my bet is he is not even allowed to say everything he wants he has to shape how he runs Nintendo Of America with how Iwata wants it run.
Reggie is amazing but right now Nintendo has him on a leash and they took him from doing what he does best and put him in a position that he is doing the best he can.
P.S- Reggie and Nintendo have turned 3DS around that has to count for something. Face it no matter who was in charge of Nintendo Of America the 3DS couldn't have done much better then it did. Reggie wasn't responsible for the lack of software, he wasn't responsible for the high price. He did the best he could with what he was given and he didn't do a horrible job. In fact 3DS wasn't a huge failure it was selling alright sure no DS but it was doing fairly good considering its high price point and lack of software.
Reggie needs more authority over Nintendo's operations. He needs to be able to speak freely rather then scripted statements from Iwata. he needs to bring marketing back internal and oversee it personally and finally he needs a few studios he himself is in control of. Retro doesn't even take orders from NOA they take their orders from Japan.
If Reggie is to be effective he needs authority and freedom to actually make some decisions free of Iwata. They hired a marketing genius and then they put him on a leash and restricted his ability to actually do his job!
