Don James is an American

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

executive and currently serves as the executive vice president of operations for Nintendo of America. As a key member of the team led by

Howard Lincoln Howard Charles Lincoln (born February 14, 1940) is an American lawyer and businessman, known primarily for being the former Chairman of Nintendo of America and the former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Seattle Mariners baseball tea ...

and

Minoru Arakawa is a Japanese businessman best known as the founder and former president of Nintendo of America, and the co-founder of Tetris Online, Inc. Biography Minoru Arakawa was born on 3 September 1946 in Kyoto, Japan, the second son of Waichiro Arakaw ...

, James played a critical role in the reintroduction of home video game consoles in North America after the

Video Game Crash of 1983 The video game crash of 1983 (known as the Atari shock in Japan) was a large-scale recession in the video game industry that occurred from 1983 to 1985, primarily in the United States. The crash was attributed to several factors, including ma ...

, when the Nintendo Entertainment System spawned a late-1980s rebirth of video games. After the collapse of the home video game industry in 1983-84, 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 introduction of the NES while struggling to overcome that skepticism, and ultimately paved the way for Nintendo (and, to a lesser extent, Sega and Atari) to rebuild the multibillion-dollar industry during the last half of the decade. James joined Nintendo of America in August 1981, and his employment with the company has now spanned over 30 years. He has been responsible for manufacturing, product development, and design for both

coin-op A currency detector or currency validator is a device that determines whether notes or coins are genuine or counterfeit. These devices are used in a wide range of automated machines, such as retail kiosks, supermarket self checkout machines, ...

and home games such as '' Tin Star''. James participated in organizing and creating the Interactive Digital Software Association (later renamed the

Entertainment Software Association The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) is the trade association of the video game industry in the United States. It was formed in April 1994 as the Interactive Digital Software Association (IDSA) and renamed on July 21, 2003. It is based in ...

) and was a leader in the creation of the Electronic Entertainment Expo 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 Entertainment Software Rating Board rating system and currently sits on the Advisory Committee for the ESRB. The ratings system was designed in response to concerns from the

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...

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.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:James, Don Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Nintendo people People from Redmond, Washington Video game businesspeople