Suda51 looks back on being a part of Nintendo’s Switch reveal presentation

“I was invited to speak at the Nintendo Switch announcement event and when I made my appearance, I did the (pro wrestler) Keiji Muto pose. I was so stoked about that. Not stoked to do the pose! But for Nintendo to have been so kind as to invite me. It really made me happy. It felt like proof that Nintendo themselves had accepted us as video game creators. I really got kind of choked up over that.

Not just me. Everyone around me was super happy as well. Not just our staff, or our group, but other game creators. Like Inaba from PlatinumGames called up and was like, ‘Suda! That was awesome!’ It was seriously great to have all these people from other companies tell me how much fun it was. I was truly happy about that. I even got a bit excited as I hadn’t really gotten up to speak in front of people like that before so I was super nervous during the event. I was shaking before I got up on stage. I was shaking because I was nervous but also because it was euphoric. All these emotions were mixed in. But somehow, the moment I got up on stage, it was like all the pressure just disappeared. It was really awesome.

I want to think our fans liked it, too. Including our fans, there were so many people watching that conference from all over the world and I saw a few videos of people watching from overseas and cheering when I appeared and that also felt really great to see. Seeing everyone being so happy and excited, it really felt like a huge achievement for us.”