don james is an american video game executive and currently serves as the executive vice president of operations for nintendo of americaas a key member of the team led by howard lincoln and minoru arakawa james played a critical role in the reintroduction of home video game consoles in north america after the video game crash of 1983 when the nintendo entertainment system spawned a late1980s rebirth of video games after the collapse of the home video game industry in 198384 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 decadejames 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 coinop and home games such as tin starjames participated in organizing and creating the interactive digital software association later renamed the entertainment software association 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 esahe 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 about violence and other content in video games that was inappropriate for younger players james has been a key figure in nintendos conservative approach to such mature game contentjames has been a member of the board of directors of the academy of interactive arts sciences since the inception of the organization