Reggie elaborates on his dislike of the Game Boy Micro

Too small, and the wrong time to launch

03 May 2022
by rawmeatcowboy 8
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Earlier today, we shared some notes from Reggie’s new book, and there was a quick excerpt pertaining to the Game Boy Micro. We now have the full section of the book that details how Reggie felt about the Game Boy Micro, and why he was against the product.

“From my perspective, the concept of Game Boy Micro was a nonstarter. 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.

But development of this hardware had continued, and now we were forced to launch the system. ‘We should have talked about this long ago’, I told [fellow NOA executives] Don James and Mike Fukuda. ‘We should have all agreed that this product would be a distraction for us in our market and either not introduce it here or have it terminated as a project globally. By working together we could have had a different outcome’.

My point was not to rebuke them – at the time we were peers. It was to identify that we were operating in silos and this made us ineffective in managing projects coming from NCL [Japan].

The lesson: company leadership needed constant communication on our priorities. As president, my solution was to institute weekly meetings of the executive leadership team to review key priorities and our progress against them.”

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Comments (8)

gybones

2y ago

So weird how badly this system was received yet is so well loved by people today. I felt the same too, that it was unnecessary with the DS out. But now I want one


wholenote

2y ago

Ever since I first saw the GBM at a WalMart game demo station, I wanted one. 15 years later, I finally managed to get my hands on that little piece of hardware. It has since become my main GameBoy. It even eclipses my DS Lite. I love it to death and I'm so glad Reggie didn't kill the project.


hawk

2y ago

I didn't see a point to it at the time, but years later I got one and thought it was pretty neat. I still have it on my nightstand with Wario Ware Twisted in it.


marl0

2y ago

I completely agree with him on this one. The GB Micro is the only GBA model that I never bothered to buy. It seemed like such an obvious downgrade compared to the GBA SP, especially the later SP models with the backlit screen.


koopzilla

2y ago

I bought one the day it came out, and is still my favorite handheld system.


socar

2y ago

What's so bad about it? I mean...did he even see how bad the Dsi branding was?


nekotaku

2y ago

I'm an adult and I have no problems with the controls or the size of the screen. Of course it's way less than optimal but that's the sacrifice and point of it. I love it and still bring it with me sometimes BECAUSE of the size.


ridleysaria

2y ago

I love my GB Micro. It's a neat little system. That said, it made no sense from a business perspective. At the time it was announced I was left scratching my head.