Planet GameCube gets an exclusive look inside Nintendo of America! Plenty of history, pictures, video, and more!
Now that some of you have read my Xbox
Live Boot Camp article, you probably realized what other company is in
Seattle - or Redmond for that matter. Yes,
Nintendo of America is just minutes away from Microsoft.
Since Microsoft was so gracious to let me stay in Seattle for a couple
extra days so I could crash on the couch at Casa de Rick Powers, I decided it
was a good idea to stop by NOA for a little visit.
Yes, the irony of this whole Microsoft Xbox Live Boot Camp deal was that
Microsoft technically flew me to see Nintendo of America.
As Hannibal always said in the A-Team, “I love it when a plan comes
together.”
I was really excited to finally get into one of
Nintendo’s headquarters. Last
year I made the trek to Kyoto to see NCL’s home office, but never got past the
front gate. This time we were
going to get in.
So, Rick and I packed up our gear and headed to Nintendo of
America’s headquarters. When
going to the main office, you pass by Digipen and NST's buildings. It was very surreal that we were actually going to be inside
the buildings where the magic is created. Just
thinking that NST could be putting the final touches on that Cube Club 1080°
demo gave me goosebumps.
The Entrance to Nintendo of America
I’m not quite sure what I was expecting when we pulled up
to the main office building. I
swear, when we opened the doors to go in, I heard the arch angels singing.
I think most of the reason was we actually got in.
Compared to Microsoft, Nintendo of America had a very different vibe to
it. It seemed like a fun place to
work.
Some of this lobby art may need to be
changed
More beautiful lobby art
My impressions of Nintendo of America Headquarters are a
lot different than I expected them to be. For
some reason, I thought I’d see Oompa Loompas running around, Samus chilling in
her bikini, Tom Nook selling goodies, or Pit hiding in some corner.
That’s the way I felt when we were waiting in the lobby to meet up with
our contacts. We got our visitor
badges and were greeted by Cory – a Team Nintendo member who was going to take
us up stairs to meet the person who would be giving us our tour.
Nintendo of America was rather busy because Cube Clubs were
beginning the following, day and there was an e-Reader event happening in
Chicago. Most of the people I would
have liked to meet with were out or in meetings. We did not play any games and were mainly there to get a feel
for what the Headquarters were like. To
our happy surprise, our long-time friend, Team Nintendo member Thom Leonard, was
the one who would be giving us a tour of the facilities.
Thom Leonard and Billy Berghammer