Nintendo's Super NES and Game Boy editions were selling well, but for the first time, Sega was pummeling them at retail.
Other representatives attended on behalf of Activision, Konami, Capcom, and Sega of America president Tom Kalinske, perhaps the largest source of Lincoln's bad mood.įour months ago, Acclaim's 'Mortal Monday' campaign had unleashed millions of cartridges containing home versions of Mortal Kombat. There was Larry Probst, CEO of Electronic Arts. Some were friends, some acquaintances, others bitter enemies. Representatives from some of the largest video game studios in the world had squeezed into the room and into chairs.
'This was as the show was closing, and we were sitting around what was, in essence, a large card table,' Holmes adds. The booths where exhibitors like Nintendo and Acclaim showed off their latest software were cramped and sweltering, but the meeting room where Lincoln made his memorable entrance wasn't much better. It was January, and the 1994 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas was winding down. The summit had been months in the making. Holmes had met up with Nintendo of America's general counsel and senior vice president minutes earlier to escort him to the meeting.
