Nintendo’s Strategy to Avoid Layoffs, According to Reggie Fils-Aime

After the “failure” of the Nintendo GameCube, and I only use quotes here because it was lagging behind the PlayStation 2 and Xbox consoles, Nintendo is looking to rotate its strategy. That pivot led to the runaway success of the Nintendo DS handheld and the Nintendo Wii console, according to Reggie Fils-Aime, who recently spoke at New York University.

Both the DS and Wii sold like hotcakes. I was working at GameStop when the first one came out, and every time we got a shipment in, it would sell out within an hour. The latter was a huge success, with almost everyone playing Wii Sports. Your parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, neighbors, and co-workers who don’t play video games; They all caught Wii Sports fever.

That success would eventually fade, and Nintendo struggled during the Wii U. To say the Wii U console was a huge disappointment is an understatement. Times had changed for Nintendo. They were no longer printing money. Instead, people online were wondering if they would ever recover as a company.

One thing they haven’t experienced with those problems, however, is layoffs, and Reggie is a big reason why. Despite all that success, Reggie talked about holding back on pursuing big recruiting plays. It’s something that has helped them avoid layoffs, which have unfortunately plagued the industry over the past few years.

We thought about people from the point of view that we never wanted to lay off or remove many people. It just wasn’t in our DNA.

Reggie even calls out students that if they’re interviewing companies that have had mass layoffs in the past, that’s a big red flag.

Nintendo’s leadership, including Reggie, did not expect the Wii U to fail

Speaking of the Wii U, it was great to hear Reggie speak candidly about Nintendo’s popular console.

He, along with the rest of Nintendo’s leadership, were convinced that the dual-screen Wii U was the next big thing in gaming.

Reggie called it a combination of the “10-foot experience” when playing on a television screen and the “10-inch feeling” when playing on the GamePad for the Wii U. Of course, the problem here was that the GamePad was bulky, the games weren’t, and the name of the console was confusing to many audiences.

Another issue is that the Wii U didn’t launch with something as popular or iconic as Wii Sports. While Nintendoland was fun in small doses, it didn’t attract a mainstream audience or serious, dedicated gamers. Combined with that lack of a solid game release, it was a recipe for disaster.

Of course, you could make the argument that the Wii U was just a good idea with poor execution, especially since the Nintendo Switch is the same concept (play on a big screen TV and a handheld device with one console game). It proves to show, however, that Nintendo’s decision to avoid hiring wingmen helped them to lay off more people in a shorter period of time at the company.

Contrast that with recent comments from developer Monument Valley’s CEO, who said they were very passionate about providing long-term job security to its developers and reducing the size of their team. It’s a night and day difference.