Don James (video games)

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Don James is an American video game executive with Nintendo of America. As a key member of the team led by Howard Lincoln and Minoru Arakawa, James played a critical role in the reintroduction of video game consoles in North America after the Video Game Crash of 1983, when the Nintendo Entertainment System spawned a late-1980s rebirth of video games.

After the collapse of Atari, Intellivision and Colecovision in 1983-84 industry retailers and press widely agreed that "video game consoles are dead, and the computer game industry is a niche market which mass market retailers should ignore." Arakawa, Lincoln and James coordinated the new console introduction that had to overcome that skepticism, paving the way for Sega, Sony and Microsoft to rebuild a multi-billion dollar industry.

James joined Nintendo of America in August 1981, and his employment with the company has now spanned over 25 years. He has been responsible for manufacturing, product development, and design for both coin-op and home games.

James participated in organizing and creating the IDSA (later renamed the ESA) and was a leader in the creation of the E3 trade show for the video game industry, the largest event of its kind in the world. He still sits on the advisory committee of the ESA.

He also helped to create the ESRB rating system and currently sits on the Advisory Committee for the ESRB. The ratings system was designed in response to concerns from the U.S. Congress about violence and other content in video games that was inappropriate for younger players. James has been a key figure in Nintendo's conservative approach to such mature game content.

James has been a member of the board of directors of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences since the inception of the organization.

[edit] Trivia

Pauline, the damsel in distress in Donkey Kong, is named after Don James' wife Polly. Don was Nintendo's Redmond, Washington, warehouse manager at the time. (Mario was named for Mario Segali, the warehouse landlord.)^[1]