Read the new interview by gamesindustry biz :
"I see that the games industry has been woefully behind embracing that level of diversity. You don't see it in the executive ranks, you don't see it in the leadership ranks of key developers. It's incredibly difficult to find it in various games. For me as a Black man with my particular skin tone, hair, curls and everything else, it's difficult to make a character look like me, and it shouldn't be."
In conversations around diversity, those who come from backgrounds underrepresented in games often express frustration at being alone in meeting rooms with no one else of their race or gender (or both) on the team. Reggie admits even he had these moments, conscious that he was the first Black American to lead Nintendo of America, the first to be on the Mario maker's executive committee, and the only Black person in senior leadership of industry councils he attended.
But the biggest moment was actually on the day of his E3 debut.
"No one knew who I was, and I went to the side area of Nintendo's stage as the crowd is filling in. Someone mistook me for security, because I happened to be a tall Black man in a suit with a black T-shirt underneath. That's disappointing, and it certainly stuck with me and continues to stick with me.
"But I was at a point where I recognised that I would be the lone Black face in a room, and not only became comfortable in that situation but I would use it as a teachable moment, to reinforce across the spectrum of events and activities that I participated in that we needed more diversity and a broader range of individuals who brought unique experiences to bear, whether it was at Nintendo or an industry event, whatever the case may be."
He adds: "You need to see [diversity] in the levels below president or chief executive in order to see the pipeline of people who could step into that top leadership role at some point in time. So I do fear it's going to take us quite some time because I don't see that level of diversity one, two or three levels down. It isn't there yet, and that's a disappointing statement to make."
"Leaders need to be very thoughtful about the culture they are creating and perpetuating in order for employees to do their very best work. I can say with pride and confidence that as I led Nintendo of America, we shaped the culture in a very positive way. There are unfortunately too many examples of companies that have not created an effective culture. And I don't believe this is unique to the games industry, but I do believe we have too many examples of this type of perpetuation of bad cultures.
"When you get into the specifics of any company, I think what's critically important is understanding exactly what's going on, understanding whether the issue is systemic or whether it is a limited number of issues. And, to be clear, because we're all people and a leader can't be in every room, [that]is why culture is so important. Unfortunately there are always individual employee issues that need to be understood and positively worked through. But the critical question is whether there are systemic issues happening in a particular organisation. It's an issue that leaders need to spend a significant amount of time being thoughtful about."
"For example, what if the narrative magic of a game like The Last Of Us is leveraged with the best in current AI and machine learning, so that the end result was a narrative-driven but completely open-world type of experience where you're blending genres and creating something very, very different? My hope is that's the type of content, as an example, that's pursued.
"Another harebrained idea is how to create something that is, as a game, persistent. As a player you would have a wide range of approaches or adventures you can do in the game, but because it's persistent I'm able to stumble across what you've done in your exploration of the area and that leads me to have a different experience than you had when you were first in that part of the game.
"My hope is that it's some of these types of initiatives that will fuel the ongoing creativity that this industry has had, and enables us to continue having new and unique experiences that you can't have on a smart device."
"So from my perspective, the issues are these: first, you need a really good technical platform to build this one," says Reggie. "Many of these companies have tried or are building their own tech platform to bring these to life and that's incredibly difficult to do. I suspect part of the reason they do that is they don't want to be beholden to someone else's platform or tech when they're trying to build out their vision, but many of these companies go down this path and it's incredibly difficult and financially draining to do. That's the first hurdle.
"The second hurdle is that the gameplay itself needs to be compelling. There needs to be more to the idea than I've stumbled upon someone else's footprints or their ship on an alien planet. From the content I've seen, that's where it falls short -- the core experience is just not up to snuff compared to what great games offer from an experience or storytelling standpoint... I'm optimistic, but it's incredibly hard to do."
"I believe that, first and foremost, you need to be thinking about the content pipeline and what's going to keep players engaged. I do think you have to look at history and what have been some of the historical tactics that have worked to maintain a lifecycle of a particular generation -- and that includes everything from mid-cycle upgrades to thinking about pricing and value. There's a number of different tactics you can play, but fundamentally the content pipeline needs to be there.
"I continue to be very active in this industry, I'm active as an investor and advisor, and I think that being aware of demographic changes and geographic opportunities, about how technology is continuing to evolve, these are all things a company like Nintendo needs to be thinking about in order to launch the system after Switch."
"I see that the games industry has been woefully behind embracing that level of diversity. You don't see it in the executive ranks, you don't see it in the leadership ranks of key developers. It's incredibly difficult to find it in various games. For me as a Black man with my particular skin tone, hair, curls and everything else, it's difficult to make a character look like me, and it shouldn't be."
In conversations around diversity, those who come from backgrounds underrepresented in games often express frustration at being alone in meeting rooms with no one else of their race or gender (or both) on the team. Reggie admits even he had these moments, conscious that he was the first Black American to lead Nintendo of America, the first to be on the Mario maker's executive committee, and the only Black person in senior leadership of industry councils he attended.
But the biggest moment was actually on the day of his E3 debut.
"No one knew who I was, and I went to the side area of Nintendo's stage as the crowd is filling in. Someone mistook me for security, because I happened to be a tall Black man in a suit with a black T-shirt underneath. That's disappointing, and it certainly stuck with me and continues to stick with me.
"But I was at a point where I recognised that I would be the lone Black face in a room, and not only became comfortable in that situation but I would use it as a teachable moment, to reinforce across the spectrum of events and activities that I participated in that we needed more diversity and a broader range of individuals who brought unique experiences to bear, whether it was at Nintendo or an industry event, whatever the case may be."
He adds: "You need to see [diversity] in the levels below president or chief executive in order to see the pipeline of people who could step into that top leadership role at some point in time. So I do fear it's going to take us quite some time because I don't see that level of diversity one, two or three levels down. It isn't there yet, and that's a disappointing statement to make."
"Leaders need to be very thoughtful about the culture they are creating and perpetuating in order for employees to do their very best work. I can say with pride and confidence that as I led Nintendo of America, we shaped the culture in a very positive way. There are unfortunately too many examples of companies that have not created an effective culture. And I don't believe this is unique to the games industry, but I do believe we have too many examples of this type of perpetuation of bad cultures.
"When you get into the specifics of any company, I think what's critically important is understanding exactly what's going on, understanding whether the issue is systemic or whether it is a limited number of issues. And, to be clear, because we're all people and a leader can't be in every room, [that]is why culture is so important. Unfortunately there are always individual employee issues that need to be understood and positively worked through. But the critical question is whether there are systemic issues happening in a particular organisation. It's an issue that leaders need to spend a significant amount of time being thoughtful about."
"For example, what if the narrative magic of a game like The Last Of Us is leveraged with the best in current AI and machine learning, so that the end result was a narrative-driven but completely open-world type of experience where you're blending genres and creating something very, very different? My hope is that's the type of content, as an example, that's pursued.
"Another harebrained idea is how to create something that is, as a game, persistent. As a player you would have a wide range of approaches or adventures you can do in the game, but because it's persistent I'm able to stumble across what you've done in your exploration of the area and that leads me to have a different experience than you had when you were first in that part of the game.
"My hope is that it's some of these types of initiatives that will fuel the ongoing creativity that this industry has had, and enables us to continue having new and unique experiences that you can't have on a smart device."
"So from my perspective, the issues are these: first, you need a really good technical platform to build this one," says Reggie. "Many of these companies have tried or are building their own tech platform to bring these to life and that's incredibly difficult to do. I suspect part of the reason they do that is they don't want to be beholden to someone else's platform or tech when they're trying to build out their vision, but many of these companies go down this path and it's incredibly difficult and financially draining to do. That's the first hurdle.
"The second hurdle is that the gameplay itself needs to be compelling. There needs to be more to the idea than I've stumbled upon someone else's footprints or their ship on an alien planet. From the content I've seen, that's where it falls short -- the core experience is just not up to snuff compared to what great games offer from an experience or storytelling standpoint... I'm optimistic, but it's incredibly hard to do."
"I believe that, first and foremost, you need to be thinking about the content pipeline and what's going to keep players engaged. I do think you have to look at history and what have been some of the historical tactics that have worked to maintain a lifecycle of a particular generation -- and that includes everything from mid-cycle upgrades to thinking about pricing and value. There's a number of different tactics you can play, but fundamentally the content pipeline needs to be there.
"I continue to be very active in this industry, I'm active as an investor and advisor, and I think that being aware of demographic changes and geographic opportunities, about how technology is continuing to evolve, these are all things a company like Nintendo needs to be thinking about in order to launch the system after Switch."
