Howard Philips

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This article is about the former employee of Nintendo. For politician, see Howard Phillips.

Howard Phillips (born January 23) was an early employee of Nintendo of America. He was especially known for his red bow tie, red hair and freckles and acted as a spokesman for Nintendo. While working in the original Tukwila warehouse in the mid 80's, he was spotted as a potential corporate spokesman. He was instrumental in the forming of Nintendo Power magazine, as well as being its first editor. He was the official "Game Master" and one of three executives responsible for North American game development. Philips' bow tie became a trademark piece of clothing. He appeared as a bowtie-clad straight man opposite a know-it-all teenager in the "Howard & Nester" comics series, and created the Nester character. He has more or less taken over the identity of Nester. He has said that the Nester character was in fact modeled on himself, and he started the strip. The name Nester is derived from "NES Master". He is sometimes confused with Howard Lincoln, former chairman of Nintendo of America.

In 1991 he was head-hunted away from Nintendo of America to work at JVC, then later at the Lucas Ranch to develop games for the nascent LucasArts. He left that position within six months and moved to THQ, where he played a producing role in several titles.

He then worked for Microsoft Game Studios as a producer.

He's currently founder and head of Howard Phillips Consulting, in his own words, a leading provider of design, analysis, and evaluation services to the consumer software industry.