Nintendo and Reggie Fils-Aime had to ‘politely decline’ offer to work with Kanye West on game

Former Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime has revealed he must “politely decline” an offer to work with Kanye west on a video game concept due to the number of other projects currently in development in the company. Nintendo everything, Reggie shared the story on his Chat games with the Reggie & Harold podcast, which raises funds for the The mentoring work of the New York nonprofit Videogame Critics Circle, and he said the meeting took place at an E3 “many years ago”.

Kanye visited the Nintendo booth during this E3 and even got to spend some time with Shigeru Miyamoto. He then requested a meeting with Reggie, and the two ended up meeting at one of Kanye’s offices in Calabasas, California.

“Part of it was about what he was doing,” Reggie explained. “He was experimenting with a piece of video game content; he wanted feedback. He comes out and says, ‘I want to work with Nintendo.’

“We 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 decline this opportunity to work with him. I told him: “Kanye, you don’t want to work with us because we’re tough, we’re tough. All we do is push for the best content. We wouldn’t be the type of partner you want to work with. And he looks at me and says, “Reggie, you’re exactly the type of partner I want because of this reason! It’s like, ‘Oh my God.’ “

Reggie said not only was the reunion “interesting” but Kim Kardashian-West was in attendance as well. Although the project never saw the light of day, both Reggie and Nintendo felt that “Kanye has such a passion for the video game space, and he’s a creator.”

Kanye’s history with the games extends beyond this one reunion, as he revealed he was working on a game called Only One who would have players guiding her mother Donda “to the highest gates of heaven holding her to the light.” Although he announced the project in 2015, little news about it has emerged since.

Image Credit: Rob Kim / Getty Images.

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Adam Bankhurst is a news editor for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Tic.