Kanye West almost made a video game with Nintendo, probably for the Nintendo Switch. Speaking during a podcast, former Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime revealed that Kanye West approached him and Nintendo at E3 a few years ago about making a game together. According to former Nintendo President of the United States, Kanye spoke to Shigeru Miyamoto, Nintendo’s most prominent head, known for creating series such as Mario and The Legend of Zelda, at the company’s E3 stand. Eventually, this led to a formal meeting between West and Nintendo, however, nothing ever came of this meeting.
According to Fils-Aime, who intended the meeting, Nintendo had a lot at its disposal at the time, and the prospect of adding a collaboration with Kanye West was simply not viable. As a result, the company had to turn down the opportunity, and Reggie had to pass on the bad news to both Kanye and his wife, Kim Kardashian, who was also present at the meeting.
“Part of him was talking about what he was doing. He was experimenting with a piece of video game content; he wanted reactions to it. He comes out and says, ‘I want to work with Nintendo,'” Fils-Aime said.
Former Nintendo president of the United States continued:
“I had so many different projects at Nintendo, the opportunity to do something with Kanye just wasn’t there, so I had to find a way to politely turn down this opportunity to work with him. I said, “Kanye, you don’t want to work with us because we’re tough, we’re tough. All we do is make an effort to get the best content. We would not be the type of partner you would like to work with. “And he looks at me and says, ‘Reggie, you’re exactly the kind of partner I want for this reason!’ It’s like, “Lord.”
Reggie ended by calling the meeting “interesting” and noting Kanye’s passion for not only creating, but space for video games. It is unclear whether the two sides have ever discussed a possible collaboration again, and it is unclear whether Kanye is still willing to do whatever it takes on Nintendo.
That being said, as always, feel free to leave a comment or two to tell us what you think or, alternatively, hit me on Twitter @Tyler_Fischer_ and let me know there. Was it stupid for Nintendo to miss this opportunity?
H / T, Talking Games with Reggie and Harold and Nintendo Everything.