MCA Universal vs Nintendo of America

2min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

Howard Lincoln was the personal lawyer first of the two guys who ran the import distribution business. He sets Nintendo of America up with a great antitrust lawyer to fight off MCA, which is a crazy decision. They discover that universal doesn't actually have the trademark for King Kong because it was public domain. The judge slaps them across the face and he's like, you guys knew you were in the wrong here.

You may think you know the Nintendo story: a plumber named Mario, a princess named Zelda… and didn’t they buy the Seattle Mariners at some point? We thought we knew it too. And then we started researching and were blown away.

The lovable Disney-like Nintendo that we know today is a 130 year-old a playing card company (i.e. gambling), forged in the shadowy world of the Yakuza and shaped by a four-generation cycle of bitter family betrayal. And its unlikely transformation into a global multi-billion dollar media monopoly was led by an iron-fisted patriarch who — amazingly — never played a video game in his life! Get ready for one of our favorite stories Acquired has ever told — we couldn’t make this one up if we tried!

ACQ2 Show: