After the Nintendo pre-show Tuesday, the Seattle Post performed a quick interview with Howard Lincoln, former Nintendo of America chairman and current chief executive of the Seattle Mariners baseball club.
On the new Nintendo DS portable gaming device: "First of all, I thought they did a marvelous job. It was a great press conference, and Reggie (Fils-Aime), our new marketing executive, I thought did a tremendous job. This Nintendo DS looks spectacular. It has so many functions, and the way it was presented today was very effective in getting all those features out -- the wireless feature, the touchpad feature, the dual-screen feature, one screen in 3D, the other in 2D. So many things that developers can focus on, and so it's not just an add-on product, it's a completely new product, a completely new category."
On Nintendo's future prospects in the video-game console market: "Well, $99 (the current GameCube price) has always been a magic price, and it's going to remain a magic price. And given the kinds of games that are going to be supporting it, particularly Legend of Zelda, Star Fox ... it should do very well."
On the the industry's growth: "It's fun to see the industry expand. When we started, our press conferences could be in a small room. Now there are several thousand people here. That makes you feel good. It's a big industry and a great industry. Reggie made the point, we've been in this business from the very beginning. And [Nintendo President Satoru] Iwata made the point that many of the things that are taken for granted are the things that Nintendo invented. And the Nintendo DS is just the next thing."