Friend Code: Reggie Fils-Aimé Retires

Hearing that Reggie was retiring made me think right away about that moment in the Game Awards when the big 3 company representatives took the stage. I didn't think too much about it at the time, but now in retrospect I think it's a bigger moment, as who knew that a few months after Reggie would declare that he won't be heading the NoA ship much longer. Thinking on a positive note, hopefully Nintendo's changing of the guard in 2019 will bring new exciting things.

Hi guys. I just wanted to talk about the Masahiro Sakurai topic. Japan's older generations has a serious problem of overwork times. They tend to not discuss their issues and keep working as much as they can. They can easily work 8 hours, but just like South Korea, they also tend to extend their time period with other stuff such as meetings, nomikais and such. I'm with Huber in the idea of giving Smash to a younger director, because in any case, Sakurai wouldn't accept it. Plus, younger generations are tending to respect more their personal time. I'm no japanese, but I'm student of japanese language and I keep updated as much as I can since I'm planning to move on and live there in the future. Great show guys, I love when someone talk about this issues professionally.

Leo S. Luna

Thanks Damiani, the show is progressing with every episode I feel like. You've become a really good moderator, keeping the pace of the talks healthy and enjoyable! Oh and I agree with some Allies above, not every episode has to be centered around "news". You have the most deep knowledge of Nintendo and their history, it would be great to just hear you share some stories, with your collegues reacting to them or something. Hell I could even see you doing friend code on your own, just talking about Nintendo history with some gameplay being shown of the games or events you're talking about. They dont have to be an hour long, but just a 5 to 10 minute episode talking about something "Nintendo" would be really cool too!

I am working on Switch ports and I can attest, that a port can be a hell of a lot of work. If applicable, this could mean: converting the whole game and all of the middleware from 32-bit to 64-bit, write a whole new asset pipeline to convert ALL assets like textures, 3D models, audio, shaders etc., write a new renderer and then make it run at a decent frame rate, while not compromising on visual quality (too much)...at the end, this is still a handheld console, running on 5 Watts or something. And if you want to include any remastering or Switch specific features, that's even more work for even more people. It's a whole lot of fun, but also nothing to sneeze at. No matter how old or small the game is. :)

Clemens Schwarz

I think physical and digital cost the same because Nintendo (as well as Sony and Microsoft) rely on big box retailers to sell their consoles. Yes you can get consoles on amazon, but imagine how much they sell in software on black friday with parents grabbing games for their kids for the holidays. If Walmart, for example, has to sell games for $20 more than they're available for on the e-shop, why even carry the games? Now Nintendo is loosing out on these potential sales. And then how long is it before Walmart doesn't carry the next Nintendo console, period? This is just something I've thought about before regarding an all digital future.

Dylan Blood

With how Sakurai is, he seems like the type who'd rather die than hand the reins over to someone else.

Minamik

Great panel this ep- one thing- Damianis comment about the “creative producer” not having much control as he “doesn’t program,” seems misinformed. Just some insight into development- most creative directors are completely non technical (Kojima, Koizumi, Druckmann, etc.). It is much more common for creative leads to come from the art/writing/planning/production side than the technical. The idea that a “creative producer” might have ‘lofty ideas’ but won’t have as much of an impact on the product than a programmer is misguided... it goes back to the idea of talent discussed in a prior EZA episode- leadership and production talent is likely the most important things to achieving a product vision.

Damiani this way of doing podcast is great. Bi-weekly for the smaller news and Friend Code Specials for bigger news is way more fun. Thanks

Sven Van Lathem

Make Blood Verdict and special segment on this Podcast!

GW Fawkes

Didn't know about the speed up battles thing (don't really care about that feature either) for the modern Final Fantasy ports, because every time I try to research them all anyone talks about is the bugs they never fixed between versions. Great episode, but I get brought down a little every time someone acts like the Wii U era of Nintendo was the dark ages. Sure, it had negative publicity the entire time and was seen as a disappointment from a hardware perspective and sales perspective, but the Wii U era for anyone who actually owned a Wii U was pretty great times. The majority of the games from those years were amazing, exceptions being that abysmal Mario Tennis game that never should've released and arguably Star Fox Zero. The consumer promotional deals for both getting a Wii U and getting games on Wii U were also the strongest Nintendo has ever had, most likely to promote it further while in such a sales slump. They had unique experiments going on like Miiverse that were interesting to dabble around in. Last, as much as everyone hates the Fisher-Price™ looking tablet for the Wii U, second screen experience was one of the best gimmicks Nintendo has ever done. There were a good handful of games the benefits of this really shined in such as Super Mario Maker and Splatoon. It was great playing single screen games on the Gamepad itself if you were someone who's television would also be in frequent use by others. You could also set the Gamepad up to be used as a television remote or video chat through it with friends. The system oozed unique personality and if you ignored the reputation it developed right out the gate from possessing a terrible name and dumb looking design, there was actually lots to love about the Wii U. For me, the dark ages of Nintendo was the Wii. I know there's some cool games for the Wii as well as the bulky log of Virtual Console offerings, but to me it was primarily a system of shovelware based around a less than exemplary gimmick that only caught on at the time as a passing fad. People called it Waggle for a reason. The massive sales success was due to that fad, not due to an abundance of quality in the games for the system at the time. Game developers during the Wii Era even expressed outcry for frustration of having to dumb down the vision of their games to aim for more mass appeal sales success among nongamers, which at the time sounded like the death of serious video games, because all that would matter going forward was mass appeal. Thankfully, much of that seems to have shifted to the mobile space, but it got sketchy for awhile there. Never forget having to hold that dumb remote or figure a place to put it while holding an accessory dangling off it. Never forget having to deal with the dumb sensor bar and aiming the reticle. Never forget constantly changing batteries, because if the Wii Remote was set down somewhere wrong it'd constantly flash until the batteries inside died, whereas the Wii U Gamepad came with a nice charge stand you just set it down on when not in use. Never forget the alien glow light whenever there was an update or new message on the system. I hated my ugly Apple™ white Wii, and I was really happy to stuff it in a drawer forever after I got my Wii U and system transfered everything from the Wii over to it. So I'll never understand when people trash talk the Wii U or that era of Nintendo. It was great for gamers who actually owned one, and how many of the system's offerings are getting ported now to Switch or given outright sequels should be staunch proof of that.

MBUN

My favorite Reggie moment was when he said US consumers didn't want JRPGs and then said Op Rainfall wasn't the reason they decided to bring over Xenoblade.

Phazonmasher

Why not just make episodes that talk about Nintendo history or whatever subject you want? Why does every episode need to be news centered? Damiani is actually a great host. You dont need a news structure to sustain an episode. Be creative. Make episodes based on you top games on Wii. WII U. N64. Or do console centered episodes and each members memories about them. Or do patreon comments episode once a month if there is enough left over comments that you couldn’t fit in to other episodes.

Mewgia

It's a typical Monday episode. Nothing wrong with that.

VGJunky

Mike, about the whole "Every second week, unless there is big news, than an extra episode, but you still get the regular episode. And the extra episode will not be patreon-exclusive" my feedback: It's to complicated. In order to grow and sustain your viewers, you need stability and reliability. Today is Monday. I know there will be a new Jimquisition today. I don't need to look it up. Tomorrow is Tuesday. I know you will stream something on Twitch. Have you considered just doing Friendcode weekly? At least try it for 1-2 months. You might be concerned that there won't be enough news every week. But this is the Switch, not the Wii U. And if there is a week with little news, you will find a topic, answer some questions, discuss something timeless (eg. "This week: Will we get a 3DS successor?") or dig deeper for the smaller stories or interviews. You are the host. You will make it entertaining and interesting. But you gotta make it reliable. L&R Snowcone Guy

Snowcone Guy

It was just a random comment from Huber but a "Developer Roundtable" would be an incredible show idea. Bring in game devs to just talk about their experience with working on game design. Ask them would it be hard to port an N64 game etc.

Cash

That's how YouTube has always worked. Takes time to process before the other resolutions are available.

Kris Fredrick

Am I the only one that only has 360p as a quality option for this video?