The future according to Reggie
James Batchelor
Editor-in-Chief
Wednesday 25th May 2022
When he first appeared on stage at Nintendo's E3 2004 press conference, Reggie Fils-Aimé was a rarity as a person of color heading up a major video games business.
Fast forward to 2022 and things have not exactly changed much.
Speaking to Reggie (he doesn't like to be called "Mr Fils-Aimé") on The GamesIndustry.biz Podcast, we asked his thoughts on the ongoing lack of representation in the sector, especially at the executive level.
"It's incredibly disappointing for the industry, and it highlights a broader issue," he tells us. "I do believe the industry's commitment to diversity -- and diversity in its broadest scope, of individuals taking their whole self to work, leveraging the experiences that make each of us unique.
Reggie Fils-Aimé
"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
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