Support NeoGAF

[guek]

Gaf's "favorite" female fatale finally returns flourishing a fine feature on former nintendo fat feline, Howard Lincoln. In the days before Reggie, there was a man named Howard who did more than just talk about kicking ass and taking names - he actually did it.

But make no mistake about it. Howard Lincoln was Nintendo’s attack dog. He was much more aggressive behind the scenes than he was in front of a camera or an interview. If you have ever read about Howard Lincoln, and his business relationship with Nintendo of America president Minoru Arakawa, you get the sense of how cutthroat Nintendo of America’s management was back then. Lawyers are super competitive people, and I believe his competitive edge made him one of the most influential Nintendo executives of all time.

It's a pretty good look back on how nintendo used to operate with western 3rd parties before the days of Iwata and how drastically things have changed since Yamauchi left and Reggie took over NoA.

article link

 

[equippedwithtowel]

God damn at the Tetris bit. Lincoln did not fuck around when it came to relations with 3rd parties.

 

[The Hermit]

Reggie is a joke... wait, actually NOA is a joke.

I bough a red XL yesterday and while its WAY better than the 3DS I am kinda disappointed I can't buy it in a more pleasant color for me ( white or black)

 

[Megalosaro]

To be fair, Nintendo had much more clout back then, and western developers had far less clout. It's no secret that 3rd parties hated how restrictive Nintendo was back then. That is why they fled to other consoles when they had the chance.

Nintendo CAN'T be as aggressive as they used to be. If they were, 3rd parties can just say "Fuck you" and move on to Sony and Microsoft.

 

[distantmantra]

And he is currently doing a damn fine job of running the Mariners into the ground.

 

[tnaden]

I enjoyed reading this, Nintendo of old was a badass.

 

[dreamghost]

Great article.

It does feel like Nintendo of America had more leeway back in the day to foster talent & relationships.

 

[evilromero]

During the period of the old Nintendo dream team was truly the best time to be a fan. The last 12 years cannot compare.

Great article.

It does feel like Nintendo of America had more leeway back in the day to foster talent & relationships.

It helped that Yamauchi's son-in-law was in charge of NOA. We'll never get those days back.

 

[EVH]

NOA is a joke right now, but not sure if because Reggie, because strong control from Japan or simply both.

The relationship with western devs should be a must priority for Nintendo of America / Europe.

 

[Oddduck]

"If I was Sony and I were reading the latest TRST retail sales data, I’d throw up." - Howard Lincoln

Goddamn, Lincoln wasn't afraid to attack the competitors.

Very good read. I didn't even know this much about Lincoln.

 

[B.O.O.M]

Great read. He was arrogant as fuck too. Loved the comments he made about Sony and the ps1/2

 

[Gonzo The Great]

Reggie is literally useless. He should be fired asap and be replaced by somebody more competent.

 

[Fried Food]

I'll go through this on the can

 

[BD1]

Howard Lincoln is easily one of the top consume electronic/toy executives in the history of the United States.

 

[NateDrake]

Reggie is literally useless. He should be fired asap and be replaced by somebody more competent.

Reggie does as Nintendo tells him. He doesn't have as much power as people like to think. Sure, he could okay the release of additional 3DS XL colors in North America, but many of NoA's problems are just Nintendo's general means of operation.

 

[Gonzo The Great]

Reggie does as Nintendo tells him. He doesn't have as much power as people like to think. Sure, he could okay the release of additional 3DS XL colors in North America, but many of NoA's problems are just Nintendo's general means of operation.

I haven't seen a single Wii U ad since November, and the one I did see was awful. Is it Iwata's fault that the 3DS is dominating in Japan but failing miserably by comparison everywhere else?

 

[Yawnier]

Good read.

End of the article kind of puts into perspective the (many) bad decisions made once new management was put in charge of NOA about 10 years ago or so.

I mean, looking at all those early 90s - early 00s second party developers for Nintendo, Retro really is the last one standing on Nintendo's side and that actually has some relevance in the industry (partly due to them now being first party, but damn).

 

[BobLoblaw]

Fire Reggie!

Spoiler

Punch him in the face first.

 

[Oddduck]

Reggie does as Nintendo tells him. He doesn't have as much power as people like to think. Sure, he could okay the release of additional 3DS XL colors in North America, but many of NoA's problems are just Nintendo's general means of operation.

I don't understand how Nintendo expects to gain western support if they flat out refuse to give NOA much power.

Yamauchi use to throw money at NOA's management in the 90's and basically say, "Here! Go get some western support.".

 

[BY2K]

Holy Christ at the Tetris part.

I mean goddamn NOA was merciless.

 

[Azure J]

Lincoln shows NO FEAR, Goddamn.

 

[kpjolee]

I miss the days when Nintendo used to be the Nintendo. I wonder where Nintendo would be if Howard Lincoln was still at NOA..

 

[Mpl90]

Times are certainly different for many reasons, and some of these moves can't be executed anymore but DAMN, NoA needs seriously someone like Mr. Lincoln, giving him the right amount of freedom. DAMN.

 

[BD1]

One thing you have to remember about Reggie is that he doesn't have the cover fire of Minoru Arakawa. Lincoln had the Boss's Son in Law; NoA was a different animal.

When Iwata took over, he hired an American to run the whole operation and put him on a much shorter leash.

 

[Celine]

Nice article however most of those relationship going down in the toilet was good for Nintendo.

So what happens after they retire? Everything that Arakawa and Lincoln accomplished between the years of 1994 through 2000 went down the toilet after new management takes control of NCL and NOA.

Rareware gets sold in Microsoft in 2003 Poor Rare
Left Field ditches their second party status by the end of 2002. Buys back Nintendo’s minority stake in the company and goes independent. Nothing of worth was lost
Silicon Knights ditches Nintendo in 2004 Bye bye Silicon Knights
Factor 5 releases “Star Wars: Rebel Strike” in 2003. Last game they make exclusively for Nintendo. Never works with Nintendo again. Poor factor 5
Game Informer claims Rockstar Games was working on GTA3 port for GameCube to be released in fall 2002. The GameCube version gets cancelled. (link) GTA3 not coming on GC had nothing to do with the new management as hinted by the writer. Actually DMA was fucked up by the old Nintendo in the late '90.
As each year passed, NST’s role in the company became smaller and smaller. They eventually became reduced to making random DSiware/eShop casual games instead of making full fledged games. NST software input was always very limited in success and scope.

The transition of new Nintendo management replacing old management ended up killing most of their studio relationships. Some of those relationships, in the case of Rareware, had been going for multiple generations.

During the period of the old Nintendo dream team was truly the best time to be a fan. The last 12 years cannot compare.

I do remember those times, Mindscape couldn't leaves my dreams.

 

[Nibel]

Old Nintendo = merciless Samurai

New Nintendo = awkward Ninja

 

[Pyrrhus]

Sure, go ahead and lionize him, but remember he was also the reason video games were heavily bowdlerized until Sony broke Nintendo's stranglehold, he enaged in price fixing and unfair competition, twisted the arms of retailers and developers alike, threw the entire industry under the bus at a Congressional hearing solely for Nintendo's benefit, and this general hardball, asshole style is one major reason why Nintendo was largely abandoned when a real alternative appeared in the mid-90s. You could make the argument that the WiiU's failures at retail in the present were in part sowed by his slash and burn tactics in the '80s and '90s. In short, the aggressive, deceitful Nintendo of old made a lot of enemies and people have long memories.

 

[Meelow]

NOA needs a restructure, I know Nintendo this year will be going through tons of changes to make sure they can really handle this gen.

They should do something about Reggie, not fire him but put him back as a marketing officer, maybe Bill would be a better CEO and to make sure to fix relationships with third party's, maybe NOJ needs less force and let NOA have more freedom.

 

[guek]

One thing you have to remember about Reggie is that he doesn't have the cover fire of Minoru Arakawa. Lincoln had the Boss's Son in Law; NoA was a different animal.

When Iwata took over, he hired an American to run the whole operation and put him on a much shorter leash.

I think Iwata has good intentions but he seems dead set on turning nintendo into a niche toy company. Evidence seems to suggest that even the wii's success was a complete accident.

I like Iwata, I really do, but a good leader delegates power instead of centralizing all of it.

 

[Mxrz]

Well, that was certainly a a rose-tinted view of the man.

 

[Mpl90]

Sure, go ahead and lionize him, but remember he was also the reason video games were heavily bowdlerized until Sony broke Nintendo's stranglehold, he enaged in price fixing and unfair competition, twisted the arms of retailers and developers alike, threw the entire industry under the bus at a Congressional hearing solely for Nintendo's benefit, and this general hardball, asshole style is one major reason why Nintendo was largely abandoned when a real alternative appeared in the mid-90s. You could make the argument that the WiiU's failures at retail in the present were in part sowed by his slash and burn tactics in the '80s and '90s. In short, the aggressive, deceitful Nintendo of old made a lot of enemies and people have long memories.

Well, yeah, that's true too. But still, NOA needs someone with that energy and that badassness, BUT without the extreme limits Lincoln reached (however, I think no one would reach them anyway since so many things changed in the past years).

 

[Linkhero1]

NCL should definitely give NoA a bit more freedom. It seems that they've only gotten more strict. Reggie doesn't seem like a good fit for being President of NoA anymore. His ass-kicking days are over.

 

[Oddduck]

Nice article however most of those relationship going down in the toilet was good for Nintendo.

Next Level Games or Monster Games don't make the same quality software without Nintendo supervising. Compare the games they made with Nintendo to the games they made without Nintendo. Every studio benefits from working with Nintendo to supervise them.

 

[NintendoGal]

One thing you have to remember about Reggie is that he doesn't have the cover fire of Minoru Arakawa. Lincoln had the Boss's Son in Law; NoA was a different animal.

When Iwata took over, he hired an American to run the whole operation and put him on a much shorter leash.

You are aware of Mr. Kimishima, right? The guy who was in charge of NOA right after Arakawa left...

 

[BD1]

I think Iwata has good intentions but he seems dead set on turning nintendo into a niche toy company. Evidence seems to suggest that even the wii's success was a complete accident.

I like Iwata, I really do, but a good leader delegates power instead of centralizing all of it.

I look at like this:

Yamuchi was the supreme overlord. His sent his son to America, paired him with a ruthless American lawyer and let them run their own territory as they saw fit.

Yamuchi retires, names Iwata as his successor, but also institutes the General Managers (Miaymoto, etc) as equals at NCL.

Lincoln retires, Arakawa becomes Chairman.

Reggie is hired, but now that Nintendo is run by Iwata and the GMs, and not the bloody whip of Yamuchi, they cut the balls off the territories and run things all from Kyoto.

You are aware of Mr. Kimishima, right? The guy who was in charge of NOA right after Arakawa left...

Right, Reggie was first brought on as SVP Sales & Marketing before he became President. Iwata and Kimishima were given their respective roles in 2002, when Yamuchi retired. I'm not sure who was installed first? Was Kimishima a Yamuchi or Iwata hire?

 

[PhantomR]

Before people go around saying "NOA ARE TEH SUXXOOOOOOOOORRRZ", I think you need to really...REALLY understand just how much say and influence NCL has in pretty much every single thing that NOA does. And how it really didn't have that prior.

I'll leave it at that.

 

[deviljho]

I'll leave it at that.

NOA SUCKS.

 

[NintendoGal]

Right, Reggie was first brought on as SVP Sales & Marketing before he became President. Iwata and Kimishima were given their respective roles in 2002, when Yamuchi retired. I'm not sure who was installed first? Was Kimishima a Yamuchi or Iwata hire?

I'm fairly certain he was a Yamauchi appointment, but don't quote me on it. ;p

 

[kuroshiki]

No. Reggie should stay on NOA. Possibly forever.

He is the best friend Sony and MS had on Nintendo. I really like him. Please don't go away, reggie.

 

[Celine]

It must be said that N64 was big in US while it got the scrapes in Japan and especially Europe.
In fact in US it sold almost as good as the SNES.
Too bad that part of what NoA built during that era would end up be gobbled by MS.
For example N64 was the console of reference for FPS...

Next Level Games or Monster Games don't make the same quality software without Nintendo supervising. Compare the games they made with Nintendo to the games they made without Nintendo. Every studio benefits from working with Nintendo to supervise them.

Rare would have been sold with or without Lincoln at the helm of NoA.
Left Field and Silicon Knights were never pivotal despite the good games developed under Nintendo (I refer to Excite and Eternal).
NST always worked on relatively small projects.
Factor 5 were technical wizards that departed from Nintendo when the Revolution wasn't shaping up as strong as the next gen systems by Sony and MS.
DMA ceased relationship with Nintendo in the late '90 when Nintendo left the publishing duties to other publishers for their two N64 games.
During the relationship Nintendo asked to DMA to spice up Body Harvest with more RPG elements (since the system was always lacking in that genre) and in the attempt to complete the project cancelled another title in development.

Also another studio NoA courted during the N64 era was Angel Studios, know today as Rockstar San Diego (Red Dead Revolver).

 

[AntMurda]

NST always worked on relatively small projects.

Not true at all. Blue Storm. 1080 Avalanche. Metroid Prime Hunters were full scale productions.

 

[shadyspace]

I think you need to really...REALLY understand just how much say and influence NCL has in pretty much every single thing that NOA does. And how it really didn't have that prior.

so what changed?

 

[jooey]

For example N64 was the console of reference for FPS...

Goldeneye and Turok 2 were neat, but let's not go crazy.

 

[Oddduck]

NST always worked on relatively small projects.

Not true at all. Blue Storm. 1080 Avalanche. Metroid Prime Hunters were full scale productions.

And they were making Project H.A.M.M.E.R before Nintendo forced them to do casual dsiware and calculators.

 

[Celine]

Not true at all. Blue Storm. 1080 Avalanche. Metroid Prime Hunters were full scale productions.

I'd meant "small" as in small importance.
You are free to disagree though.

 

[Macattk15]

I loathe Howard Lincoln.

 

[lordfroakie]

Nintendo should of kept Rockstar/DMA :x

 

[Pyrrhus]

Not true at all. Blue Storm. 1080 Avalanche. Metroid Prime Hunters were full scale productions.

In every case, they were decent enough but still the derivative, bastard step-cousins of earlier, better games. NST was basically B string Nintendo.

 

[evilromero]

Not true at all. Blue Storm. 1080 Avalanche. Metroid Prime Hunters were full scale productions.

I loved all of those games. And it's such a shame they weren't assigned to rejuvenate an old IP game for the Wii U launch. My vote would go to Stunt Race FX U. I absolutely loved that game. We are sorely lacking Nintendo-made racing games.

In every case, they were decent enough but still the derivative, bastard step-cousins of earlier, better games. NST was basically B string Nintendo.

Say what you will of Prime Hunters, but both WR and 1080 were great games. I thought 1080 was infinitely more accessible than the first title. Plus it had a gimmick with the avalanche chasing the player down the mountain.

 

[Paches]

And he is currently doing a damn fine job of running the Mariners into the ground.

Sigh. It is that time of year again for us, yeah?