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 the former president of Nintendo of America, Kanye spoke to Shigeru Miyamoto, Nintendo’s most prominent figure known for creating series like Mario and The legend of Zelda, at the company’s E3 booth. Eventually, this led to a formal meeting between West and Nintendo, however, nothing happened from that meeting.
According to Fils-Aime, who was planning the meeting, Nintendo had a lot to do at the time, and the prospect of adding a collaboration with Kanye West was simply not viable. As a result, the company had to decline the opportunity and Reggie had to give the bad news to Kanye and his wife Kim Kardashian, who was also present at the meeting.
“Part of that was talking about what he was doing. He was experiencing a piece of video game content; he wanted reactions to him. He came and said, ‘I want to work with Nintendo,” said Fils-Aime.
The former president of Nintendo of America continued:
“We had so many different projects going on at Nintendo that 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. 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.’ “
Reggie concluded by calling the meeting “interesting” and observing Kanye’s passion not only for creating, but also for the video game space. It is not clear whether the two parties discussed a possible collaboration again and it is not clear whether Kanye is still interested in doing whatever he suggested for Nintendo.
That said, as always, feel free to leave a comment or two giving us your opinion, or alternatively contact me on Twitter @Tyler_Fischer_ and let me know there. Was Nintendo foolish to pass up this opportunity?
H / T, Talking Games With Reggie & Harold and Nintendo Everything.