Former Nintendo of America boss Reggie Fils-Aimé has revealed his misgivings on the launch of Game Boy Micro – a project he said his company was “forced” to launch despite its concept being a “nonstarter”.
Writing in his newly-published Disrupting the Game memoir, Fils-Aimé said he was surprised to hear of plans for Game Boy Micro relatively late in its development, and despite Nintendo having moved on to focus on Game Boy Advance’s successor, Nintendo DS.
In a section of the book posted online by VGC, Fils-Aimé also said he disliked the Micro’s form factor. Overall, it was a “distraction”, he concluded – something which he later moved to ensure became a “teachable moment” and not repeated.
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“From my perspective, the concept of Game Boy Micro was a nonstarter,” Fils-Aimé wrote. “The hardware was exceptionally small, not only were the control buttons difficult for any reasonably-sized adult to manipulate, but also the screen was tiny. This ran counter to current consumer electronics trends of making screens larger.