Former Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aimé was once again present at The New York Game Awards and before he presented the Andrew Yoon Legend Award to The Pokemon Company he recalled a story of when he first began working at Nintendo of America. At the time retail was in the midst of the launch of the long-awaited Pokemon Ruby and Pokemon Sapphire. Unfortunately there just wasn’t enough units to keep up with the fevered demand. He said that that experience made him ensure that video game software shortages wouldn’t and shouldn’t happen on his watch at the company.
“I had just joined the company and [was] there for only about a week when I had to work with our retail partners because they literally did not have enough copies of Pokemon Ruby and Pokemon Emerald for the Christmas rush. They were a little upset,” Fils-Aimé says (although he most likely meant Pokemon Sapphire, as Emerald didn’t release until 2004 in Japan, and mid 2005 in the US). He adds, “And believe me, I never let that happen ever again.”
Despite getting off to a somewhat rough start with the franchise, Fils-Aimé continues, “I always enjoyed working with The Pokemon Company, and I love all the games.” He also says the “Pokemon Plus controller with the Mew inside,” is “one of my favorites.”