For those of you that have not heard, Doug Bowser is stepping down from his position as president of Nintendo of America. His successor is Devon Pritchard, the current executive vice president of revenue, marketing, and consumer experience. Sheâs been with the company for 19 years.
Iâm sure Doug Bowser is a chill guy in person, but I donât have much positive to say about his tenure at Nintendo. Granted, he had enormous shoes to fillâReggie was literally the perfect guy to help run Nintendo. While most people remember Reggie more as a public figure than a businessman, he was a genius marketer that always struck a balance between profit and public image. This has been talked about to death, but it was his idea to include Wii Sports as a pack-in title for the Wii, a choice that was instrumental to the consoleâs success internationally. Even before working at Nintendo, during his time at MTV he marketed the Concert of New York, a charity event that both fundraised money for 9/11 victims. The concert wasnât Reggieâs idea (that would be Paul McCartney), but by airing the concert live on an MTV station and promoting it like hell, he got the ratings for the channel to go up by 30% and associated the brand with ideas of charity and goodwill.
And yeah, his status as a public figure canât be ignored. Reggie wasnât just another stuffy old guy in a business suit, he wasâŚwell, Reggie! He was the guy that showed up in the directs. He was the âmy body is readyâ guy. He was the guy everyone begged for Mother 3. He was the guy who addressed the Melee players at EVO 2014 with slang specific to the community. Reggie openly embraced the memes associated with him. He was someone who could be honest with consumers and speak to them on their level, which worked because Nintendo wasnât as skeevy of a business back then. He was about kicking ass, taking names, and making games.
Doug Bowser, or at least his persona as a president at Nintendo, isnât anything like that. He showed up in a direct once like six years ago and went âhaha, isnât it funny my nameâs Bowser?â then completely fucking vanished. From then on, he became another guy in a suit. And sure, he didnât need to be a public face for the company the same way Reggie was. Maybe heâs just camera shy. But his business practices havenât done anything to pick up the slack.
I get the vibe that Doug Bowser exploited all the good faith Reggie had built up for Nintendo. Itâs true that the Switch era made more money for Nintendo than the Wii/DS era, but that extra money has come from raising prices across the board and charging gamers on services that used to be free (like online). Heâs a former EA executive that seems to have taken a lot of cues from Disney and it really shows. Back in the day, Nintendo games used to get a permanent discount under the Playerâs Choice/Nintendo Selects brand after surpassing 1 million copies in sales. This is strictly an international thingâthe Japanese equivalents to Playerâs Choice are sparse and not well documented. Starting with the Switch (and after Reggieâs departure), Nintendo has adopted a ârespect the brandâ strategy and openly said that their games will never go on sale.
Now, in my opinion, itâs hard to respect a brand when a brand doesnât respect you. Gone is the candidness Reggie brought to Nintendo; virtually no directs list prices anymore, because they know they kill the hype.
Granted, itâs hard to say which choices were really Doug Bowserâs and which ones come from his superior Shuntaro Furukawa, but heâs sure as hell not contesting them. A lot of people have been unfavorably comparing Switch 2 Welcome Tour, a paid game that screams pack-in title, to Wii Sports, a game that Reggie had to fight like hell to bundle with the Wii. Combined with his lack of public image, Doug Bowser strikes me as either a yes man for Furukawa or just another business major looking to make a buck wherever he can.
A lot of people are honing in on the fact that Pritchard is Nintendoâs first female president (and like, you go girl), but I care more about what she brings to the table as a leader and businesswoman than her gender. I do almost see a light at the end of the tunnel with her, if only because sheâs been with Nintendo for way longer than Doug Bowser had been when he was promoted to president of NoA. She joined the company in 2006, around the same time Reggie did, so sheâs been with Nintendo during the best years of their public image, and as one of the current heads of consumer experience she should definitely be able to tell the difference between then and now. I canât find much else about her online save for this one Tumblr post by @liquidcrystalsky saying she used to work at a nonprofit (if you have a source on that, please let me know!), which is another good sign. As someone whoâs volunteered at many a nonprofit in the past, itâs a thankless job. So I hope she has consumer interests in mind more than corporate interests.
On the extremely, extremely rare chance she or anyone else at Nintendo is reading this, my biggest hope is that Pritchard brings back some of the price drops that were formerly commonplace at Nintendo. Money is the biggest reason Iâm currently boycotting the Switch 2, both because I personally canât afford $70-$80 games and I donât think theyâre ethical to the industry, especially not right now while the United States economy and job market is a hot mess. There is no reason Mario Kart should be closer to a Benjamin than a Grant. At the very least, be upfront about your prices in directs.
