In one of the strangest gaming stories that emerged in 2020, former Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime revealed that Kanye West once approached the company about working together on a project.
Fils-Aime shared the story about the meeting with West in his Talking to Reggie and Herold podcast, as noted by a recent post on Nintendo Everything. In the podcast, Fils-Aime said that at a previous E3 convention, the hip-hop artist / producer / fashion designer visited the Nintendo area at the event and spent time with the famous game director Shigeru Miyamoto.
Nintendo
To hear Fils-Aime tell, West then asked to have a meeting with him. According to Fils-Aime, the two met at the West California business office, where the rapper started shooting his photo.
“Part of [the meeting] was talking about what he was doing. He was experiencing a piece of video game content; he wanted reactions to that. He comes in and says, ‘I want to work with Nintendo, “” remembers Fils-Aime. ” We had so many different projects going on at Nintendo, the possibility of doing something with Kanye just didn’t exist, so I had to find a way to politely refuse this opportunity to work with him. “
Fils-Aime said he tried to soften the multi-hyphenate smoothly. “I said to him, ‘Kanye, you don’t want to work with us because we are tough, we are tough. All we do is look for 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 type of partner I want for that reason!’ It’s like, ‘Oh my God.’ “
The former Nintendo of America executive described the meeting as “interesting” and mentioned that Kim Kardashian-West was also present. Of course, the meeting did not result in a collaboration between Nintendo and Kanye West, but it is a curious thing to imagine.
O Talking to Reggie and Harold podcast is a seven-part series that was set up in April to support the New York Videogame Critics Circle, a non-profit organization that aims to raise funds to ensure education, guidance and scholarships for homeless high school students in the city from New York.
You can donate to the cause here and receive bonus content, like this Kanye story, for contributing.
West has made his interest in video game development known in the past. In 2015, West announced a mobile game called Only one, in honor of a single one. He once described the game as saying: “The idea of the game is my mother going through the gates of heaven”.
The game was scheduled to be produced by animation and film studio Encyclopedia Pictura, based in Los Angeles. In 2019, Encyclopedia Pictura said The player who was no longer involved with the project.