Honestly, if you grew up hovering over a GameCube or waiting in line for a Wii, the name Reggie Fils-Aimé carries a certain weight. He wasn't just some executive in a suit; he was the guy who told us he was about "kicking ass and taking names." So, when he dropped his book, Disrupting the Game: From the Bronx to the Top of Nintendo, a lot of people expected a 300-page tell-all about why Mother 3 never came West or what the office vibe was like during the Wii U era.
But that’s not really what this is.
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If you go into this expecting a spicy "Nintendo Uncovered," you might walk away a little confused. The book is basically a business memoir. It’s a roadmap of how a kid from the Bronx—the son of Haitian immigrants—maneuvered through corporate giants like Procter & Gamble and Pizza Hut before landing at the big N. It's about grit, sure, but it's also about being the loudest voice in the room when everyone else is playing it safe.
The Bronx, Pizza Hut, and the "Perfect Memo"
Reggie’s story starts way before he ever picked up a Wiimote. He talks about growing up as a minority in Brentwood, Long Island, and how that shaped his "outsider" perspective. It’s kinda fascinating to see how his time at Procter & Gamble actually dictated his leadership style. This is where he learned the art of the "Perfect Memo."
The idea is simple but brutal: get your point across in one page with exactly three supporting points. No fluff. No corporate jargon. Just facts.
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He carries this "disruptor" energy everywhere. At Pizza Hut, he was the guy behind the Big Foot pizza. You remember those? Those massive rectangular pizzas from the 90s? Reggie basically engineered that launch to go head-to-head with Little Caesars. But the real lesson he shares isn't about the success; it's about knowing when to kill your darlings. When the quality started slipping and the reviews got bad, he was the one who argued against his own creation. That takes guts.
Standing Up to Satoru Iwata
The meat of the book—at least for us gamers—is his relationship with the late Satoru Iwata. Most of the time, we saw them as this iconic duo in Nintendo Directs, but the book reveals they didn't always see eye-to-eye.
Take the Wii launch, for example. Reggie explains how he had to fight tooth and nail to bundle Wii Sports with the console in the West. Nintendo of Japan hated the idea. They wanted to sell it as a standalone game to maximize profit. Reggie basically told them that without a "showcase" game in the box, the console would fail in America. He stood his ground against the global president of the company.
He also details a pretty tense moment regarding the "Wii Would Like to Play" ad campaign. Iwata-san was worried the ads were too casual, too "un-Japanese." Reggie had to explain that Western culture is different—that we needed to see people actually having fun in a living room to buy into the motion-control hype. He won that battle, and well, we all know how the Wii turned out. It sold over 100 million units.
The "So What" Strategy
Every chapter ends with a section called "The So What." It's a bit of a quirky formatting choice, but it’s where Reggie drops the corporate mask. He takes a story—like being mistaken for a security guard at E3 because of his size and race—and turns it into a lesson on presence and overcoming bias.
- Self-Belief: Reggie argues that if you don't believe you're the smartest person for the job, nobody else will.
- Relentless Curiosity: He constantly asked questions that made people uncomfortable. That’s how he figured out Nintendo's supply chain issues.
- The Power of "No": Sometimes the best business move is refusing to do things the "old way" just because it’s tradition.
What Most People Get Wrong About the Book
There’s a common complaint that the book feels a bit "self-helpy." And yeah, Reggie loves to pat himself on the back. He’s a salesman, after all. He focuses heavily on the wins—the DS, the Wii, the Switch. If you’re looking for a deep dive into the failure of the Wii U, you're going to be disappointed. He mostly glosses over it, which feels like a missed opportunity for a book about "disruption."
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It’s also surprisingly light on the "gaming" side of things. He mentions he owned over 100 SNES games before he even worked for Nintendo, which proves he was a fan, but the book spends more time on boardroom negotiations than on game design. It’s a book for leaders, not necessarily for level designers.
How to Apply Reggie's "Game Plan" Today
If you’re stuck in a mid-level corporate job or trying to start a side hustle, there are actual takeaways here that aren't just fluff.
- Write the Page: Next time you have an idea, try the P&G "Perfect Memo" style. One page. Three points. If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.
- Request the Meeting: When Reggie was interviewing for the Nintendo job, he famously demanded to speak with the Global President in Japan before signing. People thought he was arrogant. He thought he was being thorough. If you're a high-value candidate, act like it.
- Find Your "Wii Sports": What is the one thing that makes your project or product undeniable? Focus everything on that. Don't let the "accountants" dilute your best idea for the sake of short-term margins.
Reggie’s journey from the Bronx to the boardroom is a reminder that being a "disruptor" isn't about being loud—it’s about being right when everyone else is comfortable being wrong.
Next Steps for You:
- Audit your communication: Look at your last three emails. Are they "Perfect Memos," or are you rambling? Cut the fluff.
- Identify your "So What": Think of a recent failure at work. Write down the one lesson that has absolutely nothing to do with the technical mistake and everything to do with your mindset.
- Read the Audio Version: If you want the full experience, get the audiobook. Reggie narrates it himself, and there's a bonus interview with Geoff Keighley that gets much deeper into the "gaming" stories than the actual text does.