Reggie Fils-Aimé Discusses Nintendo’s Stance On Amiibo, And Whether There Will Be A N64 Classic

During E3, Reggie sat down for an interview with Game Informer, where he discussed Nintendo’s current stance on amiibo, whether we may see other Classic Mini consoles, as well as whether he himself watches the Nintendo Directs.

Here are the highlights:

Game Informer: You mentioned toys to life. This is a market that is starting to shrink. We’ve had a couple of games fall off in recent years. Ubisoft is jumping into this genre, and Nintendo has had announcements surrounding new Smash Bros. characters. Is Nintendo still all in on Amiibos, or are you scaling them back a bit?

Reggie Fils-Aimé, president: “We continue to be all in. Amiibo within the toys-to-life category has always been different. It’s been a message you can use your Amiibo across a range of different content and experiences. When you do use it, it really does add some significant value. To be honest, I traveled to E3 with eight of my Zelda Amiibo so I could continue to get those items as I put more and more hours into [The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.]

We use Amiibo to add value to the experience, versus being a unique game or single idea. It really is leveraging these figures across a range of different experiences.”

Game Informer: NES and SNES Classic have been wildly successful. Will we see a Nintendo 64 Classic next? What’s the future of that line? Will the NES and SNES continue coming back?

Reggie: “We’ve said that, certainly for this year, that we would have the NES and SNES Classic available at retail. The NES Classic comes back this month. That’s our focus right now. In terms of future Classic series, we’ll have to set up a different interview to talk about that. Look, we know that our fans love our legacy content. Being in this business 40 years, we know we have a lot of content we can surprise our consumers with. We’re aware of it, and stay tuned. Right now the focus is lets make sure that we give the consumer that wants NES Classic the chance to pick it up again. I believe we’re also going to have a strong holiday with SNES Classic as well.”

Game Informer: You are in the Nintendo Direct videos. You help produce them. Do you gather together as a company to watch them when they air? Or are you always like “I don’t want to see it again”?

Reggie: “It’s not that I don’t want to see it again, but my role maybe is unique in that I am in the Direct. The scripting, and the positioning, I’m heavily involved in. The approval process I’m heavily involved in. By the time the public sees the Direct, I’ve seen it many, many times. Typically, I’m here on site, getting ready to present to retailers or part of our community. I like to watch it and to see the comments and the reaction. That to me is what is satisfying, and it helps us understand if what we tried to create is achieving its objective.

What’s great about seeing it [at E3] is we had it on the big-screen at the booth. I could hear the gasp coming from a few hundred people here. To get those reactions live is really fulfilling.”

Game Informer: I just have to ask about Zelda. Where are you at in the world? How far along are you in your adventure?

Reggie: “I haven’t looked to see how many hours. I don’t want that to be used as a weapon against me by my wife in terms of how much time I’m spending in the game. But I’ve completed it. I’ve completed it wearing a variety of different outfits. I’ve got about 520 Korok seeds. I’m doing the DLC.”

You can find the rest of the interview here.