Bowser Takes Over Nintendo’s Castle As Reggie Fils-Aime Retires

Written by Brandon Hofer on February 21, 2019

News: After decades of battling against Mario for control of the Mushroom Kingdom, it appears Bowser gets the last laugh.

Nintendo has revealed that Reggie Fils-Aime, the President and COO of Nintendo of America will be retiring in the next couple of months. Reggie’s last day with Nintendo will be on April 15. At that point, Doug Bowser, NOA’s current Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing, will take over as the President of Nintendo of America.

Reggie started at Nintendo of America in 2003 as its Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing and became its President and COO in May 2006. His time with Nintendo began during the Nintendo GameCube and Game Boy Advance era. His leadership of Nintendo’s largest territory expanded the audience for Nintendo products as phenomena like Nintendogs, Brain Age, Wii Sports, and Wii Fit brought millions of new players to the world of video games. Fils-Aime’s management led to record-breaking sales for products like the Nintendo DS, Wii, Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo Switch systems.

“I really appreciate everything Reggie has done for Nintendo,” said Shuntaro Furukawa, President of Nintendo Co., Ltd. “Inside and outside our company, Reggie is known as an exceptional leader. We are grateful that he is leaving the business in good shape with strong momentum. While we will miss him and we wish him the very best in his retirement, we are also pleased to have such an able successor ready to step into that role. Doug Bowser and the rest of the team will ensure a seamless transition and continued momentum for Nintendo.”

“Nintendo owns a part of my heart forever,” Fils-Aime said. “It’s a part that is filled with gratitude – for the incredibly talented people I’ve worked with, for the opportunity to represent such a wonderful brand, and most of all, to feel like a member of the world’s most positive and enduring gamer community. As I look forward to departing in both good health and good humor, this is not ‘game over’ for me, but instead ‘leveling up’ to more time with my wife, family, and friends.”

“It has been my great fortune to work with and be mentored by Reggie for four years at Nintendo of America,” Bowser said. “And rest assured, we will continue to build on his work to evolve and expand our brand, furthering Nintendo’s global mission of creating smiles. There are millions more of those to come.”

During Reggie’s tenure, Nintendo of America has expanded its physical presence in the U.S., having established a key sales and marketing office in Redwood City, California, and built a new NOA headquarters in Redmond, Washington, that has received awards for its environmentally friendly design.

Bowser is an industry veteran who joined NOA in May 2015 as the Vice President of Sales before being promoted to Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing the next year. During his time at NOA, Bowser led the sales and marketing efforts for Nintendo Switch, which became the fastest-selling video game system of this hardware generation through 21 months, according to The NPD Group. Previously, Bowser was an executive with industry powerhouse Electronic Arts, most recently as the company’s Vice President of Global Business Planning. He also worked at Procter & Gamble in various sales leadership roles in Asia, Latin America, and the U.S.

I would personally like to thank Reggie and his team for all of the joy they have brought me over the years as a gamer. I remember briefly meeting him at E3 many years ago and he always seemed like a really great guy. With him now retiring, it is appropriate that Bowser is his successor. Two questions must be asked though. What does Mario think about all of this? Was this Bowser’s plan all along? Check out the Twitter post below from approximately four years ago and tell us what you think.