The Lie That Helped Build Nintendo - IGN
The story of a man, a lie, a video game handheld, and a business empire.
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The Lie That Helped Build Nintendo [IGN]
- Thread starter 8bit
- Start date
It's a cracking read, packed full with stuff I'd never heard of before.
He lied through his teeth about the size of his company, schmoozed anyone at Nintendo that he could get his hands on, pioneered the concept of the Nintendo Kid's Club and generally was a hugely influential (but largely unknown to those outside of Scandinavia) figure in Nintendo's overseas businesses. It's a great tale.
He lied through his teeth about the size of his company, schmoozed anyone at Nintendo that he could get his hands on, pioneered the concept of the Nintendo Kid's Club and generally was a hugely influential (but largely unknown to those outside of Scandinavia) figure in Nintendo's overseas businesses. It's a great tale.
Holy shit this story is fantastic!
And pretty unkown.
Im glad that the man helped NoE get a start thanks to everything he did in sweden.
For peole that think is only a read article. Theres a 20 minutes video which i think is mich better. Has lovely game and watch visuals and great photos.
And pretty unkown.
Im glad that the man helped NoE get a start thanks to everything he did in sweden.
For peole that think is only a read article. Theres a 20 minutes video which i think is mich better. Has lovely game and watch visuals and great photos.
The Club Nintendo portion of the story reminds me how I still have a small axe to grind about that period in time circa the Wii - Wii U era when Bergsala closed down Club Nintendo and we got literally none of the cool benefits that US and the rest of Europe got. We still got all those redeemable codes shoved into the game cases that we really couldn't do anything with but throw away or hoard for a UK account that couldn't ship physical goods over to us (there was even a section on their website where they told customers that they should throw the codes out since they can't do anything with them). Felt so left out considering they were trailblazers at one point, but thankfully that's all different now and we're back to the same level as everyone else. (Oddly, when I finished watching this video, My Nintendo sent me a message that my SNES posters shipped. What a cosmic coincidence.)
Anyway, that was a great story. Amazing testament to perseverance, definitely explains why Nintendo's always felt so ingrained in this country, and makes me feel innate pride about it. Visiting Marios Gata for the first time the other month was a pretty fun, surreal experience. It really emphasized how Bergsala weren't just some distributor but actual partners who assimilated the DNA of Nintendo and are proud of making that association known.
Anyway, that was a great story. Amazing testament to perseverance, definitely explains why Nintendo's always felt so ingrained in this country, and makes me feel innate pride about it. Visiting Marios Gata for the first time the other month was a pretty fun, surreal experience. It really emphasized how Bergsala weren't just some distributor but actual partners who assimilated the DNA of Nintendo and are proud of making that association known.
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probably the best thing I read about videogames this year.
Thank you for sharing and thanks Joe Skrebels for writing this amazing story that literally made my day a lot better.
Thank you for sharing and thanks Joe Skrebels for writing this amazing story that literally made my day a lot better.
Great video, highly informative and had no idea about any of this.
(Also, living for the NOM/ONM shoutout towards the end.)
(Also, living for the NOM/ONM shoutout towards the end.)
As a swedish kid that grew up with the NES I've heard parts of this story before but never really with the context of how early Bergsala was for western distribution. Very cool but as NotLiquid mentions they haven't always been the best and nintendo.se right now is just a bunch of nothing, atleast you can order stuff from NoE.
You even got a member card for being in their club! (lol)
You even got a member card for being in their club! (lol)
You even got a member card for being in their club! (lol)
Oh wow, this brings back memories, haven't seen one of these in forever.
Anyway, this is a fantastic read. Been waiting years for someone to tell this story to an international audience, as it has previously only been known among swedish gaming magazine readers.
I feel that most of the situation in Scandinavia is unknown and the narrative of video games in Europe is skewed by the UK and continental Europe. Sweden (and the Nordic countries) has always been Nintendo dominated thanks to Bergsala. Always irks me when the common narrative about Europe in the 80s is that Nintendo was a non-factor, ignoring the Nordic countries.
Anyway, it's pretty wild to imagine what would have happened if Nintendo debuted the NES (or rather the Famicom) in Sweden rather than the US.
Great story, thanks for sharing the article.
Heh, that's exactly how it looked here in Finland too (except in Finnish ofc), such a shame I've lost it.As a swedish kid that grew up with the NES I've heard parts of this story before but never really with the context of how early Bergsala was for western distribution. Very cool but as NotLiquid mentions they haven't always been the best and nintendo.se right now is just a bunch of nothing, atleast you can order stuff from NoE.
You even got a member card for being in their club! (lol)
Love stories like this. The risk he went out on to buy that initial 30,000 units is immense.
Not a chance, like he says with the internet the fact checking would have stopped this cold in its tracks.
Although I have to admit a lot of the business decisions and relationships built with customers are still over dinner and a drink. People wonder why folks still travel for business in a time when we can video chat effortlessly. The bonding over dinner and common interests not even related to what you are trying to sell/buy can make or break deals.
Not a chance, like he says with the internet the fact checking would have stopped this cold in its tracks.
Although I have to admit a lot of the business decisions and relationships built with customers are still over dinner and a drink. People wonder why folks still travel for business in a time when we can video chat effortlessly. The bonding over dinner and common interests not even related to what you are trying to sell/buy can make or break deals.
This brings back memories, even though they looked different in the Netherlands. Oh, and they were effectively useless lolAs a swedish kid that grew up with the NES I've heard parts of this story before but never really with the context of how early Bergsala was for western distribution. Very cool but as NotLiquid mentions they haven't always been the best and nintendo.se right now is just a bunch of nothing, atleast you can order stuff from NoE.
You even got a member card for being in their club! (lol)
They brought solid street cred on the school yard.
Still have my card stashed in a drawer. 😎
That was a nice vid, I've talked to Owe a few years ago and he's very interesting to listen to.
NES truly was a beast in the Nordic countries. It was a phenomenon.
Launch lineup on September 1st 1986
NES truly was a beast in the Nordic countries. It was a phenomenon.
Launch lineup on September 1st 1986
- Excitebike
- Ice Climber
- Mario Bros.
- Pinball
- Popeye
- Tennis
Finished watching the video. Incredible story and stuff. I really enjoy this kind of docs/journalism.
Congrats to everyone involved at IGN. Hopefully they can keep doing more of this!
Congrats to everyone involved at IGN. Hopefully they can keep doing more of this!
Yeah, this is what it looks like:
And here's what it looked like before they redesigned it a few years ago:
This is a great article. I wasn't aware of the story behind Bergsala, or the entire "fan club" origins.
However, the following part:
However, the following part:
Isn't exactly correct, there are other third party Nintendo distributors around the world. A notable example would be Maxsoft in southeast Asia.