Nintendo

Nintendo Company, Limited 任天堂株式会社
Type	Public (Symbol: NTDOY)
Founded	September 23, 1889; 134 years ago
Headquarters	Kyoto, Japan International: Redmond, Washington Vancouver, British Columbia Frankfurt, Germany Windsor, Berkshire Scoresby, Victoria Suzhou, China (as iQue, Ltd.) Seoul, South Korea
Key people	Shuntaro Furukawa: President Satoru Iwata (deceased): Former President & CEO Doug Bowser: President & COO of NOA Reggie Fils-Aime: Former President & COO of NOA Shigeru Miyamoto: Game Designer Gunpei Yokoi (deceased): Creator of Game Boy, Game & Watch, and Metroid (series) Hiroshi Yamauchi (deceased): Former President & Chairman Minoru Arakawa & Howard Lincoln: Former heads of NOA Satoru Shibata: President of NOE
Industry	Card games (previously) Entertainment media (e.g. Video games, Toys, Theme Parks, etc.)
Products	Color TV Game, Game & Watch, NES, Game Boy line, SNES, Virtual Boy, Nintendo 64, GameCube, Nintendo DS, Wii, Nintendo 3DS, Wii U, Nintendo Switch and various video game titles.
Revenue	4.5 billion USD (2016) Forbes 2000 ranking: 620
Net income	146.1 million USD (2016)
Employees	5,166 (2017)
Website	Nintendo Japan Nintendo of America Nintendo Europe Nintendo Australia

Nintendo Company, Limited (任天堂株式会社, Nintendo Company, Limited) is a Japanese multinational corporation originally founded on September 23, 1889 in Kyoto, Japan by Fusajiro Yamauchi to produce handmade Hanafuda cards. In the mid-twentieth century, the company tried several small niche businesses, such as a Love hotel and a taxi company. Over the years, it became a video game company, growing into one of the most powerful in the industry. Aside from video games, Nintendo is a minor owner of the Seattle Mariners, a Major League Baseball team in Seattle, Washington. As of March 31, 2014, Nintendo has sold over 670.43 million hardware units, and nearly 4.23 billion software units worldwide.

History

Nintendo originally started as a playing card manufacturer in 1889. While Nintendo has made many types of playing cards over the decades, their most successful variety were Hanafuda, which they still occasionally sell to this day. Notable events in this field are Nintendo being the first Japanese company to make their cards out of plastic in 1953 and their deal with Disney to use their characters in 1959. Growing unsatisfied with the inherent limitations of only producing cards and wanting to distance themselves from the stigma of illegal gambling, Nintendo decided to venture into other industries in an effort to secure more revenue. Nintendo changed industries many times throughout the decade, with all attempts quickly failing. From 1963 and 1968 alone, notable examples include a taxi company, a TV network, a food company, and several other things, including a toy remote controlled vacuum cleaner called Chiritory which was later seen as a two-player game in WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$!.

In mounting debt, Nintendo eventually settled on the toy industry but were struggling like all other ventures. This was due to their relatively small scale at this point and the industry being dominated by already well-established companies. Because of the generally short product life cycle of toys, the company always had to come up with a new product. This was the beginning of a major new era for Nintendo.

In 1966, Hiroshi Yamauchi, the third president of Nintendo, was observing a Nintendo hanafuda factory. He noticed an extending arm, which was made by one of their maintenance engineers, Gunpei Yokoi, for his own amusement. Yamauchi was impressed with the ingenuity of Yokoi and ordered it to be developed as a product for the holiday season. The product, officially named Ultra Hand, was a huge success, selling approximately 1.2 million units, causing Yokoi to be moved from maintenance duty to product development. Other successful toys Yokoi invented were the Ten Billion Barrel puzzle, the Ultra Machine, and the Love Tester.

Outside of toys, Nintendo also created the Nintendo Beam Gun, a solar powered light gun, and the Ele-Conga programmable drum machines. These machines would act as precursors to the products Nintendo would be best known for in the coming decades.

Electronic era

Nintendo's logo from 2004 to 2017. This logo would be standardized in 2006.

After their toy venture proved a great success, Nintendo sought other industries to enter for more creative opportunities and profit. They saw the rise of arcades and amusement machines in the early 1970s and saw them as a natural evolution from toys. Their first attempt at these amusement machines was Laser Clay Shooting System in 1973, a shooting gallery where players would use a light gun to shoot images projected onto a wall. The game was a financial success and prompted Nintendo to make more games for arcades like Wild Gunman in 1974, EVR Race in 1975, Sky Hawk and Duck Hunt in 1976, and Block Fever in 1978. Nintendo also noticed the booming home console market around this time and developed relationships with Mitsubishi electronics, who would help design the consoles, and Magnavox, who agreed to license their hardware to Nintendo to create the Color TV-Game line of gaming consoles starting in 1977. Gunpei Yokoi would notice a bored salaryman on the train fiddling with a calculator and came up with the idea to make a game console that can fit in a pocket. This became the Game & Watch line of LCD handheld games. While not the first of their kind, they were by far the most successful at the time and were the first real big break into the video game industry for Nintendo.

However, their arcade division was not doing as well as the rest of the company, with each release seeing diminishing returns. The 1980 release of Radar Scope was seen as a particularly disastrous financial flop and put Nintendo into serious financial trouble. In a desperate effort to course correct, executives assigned relative newcomer Shigeru Miyamoto to make a new game out of the Radar Scope arcade board for a quick and cheap turnaround. The game he made would turn into Donkey Kong, which became an unprecedented success and would change the course of video game history by making Nintendo a household name outside of Japan for the first time.

Left: Nintendo's main headquarters in Kyoto, Japan.
Right: Nintendo of America's headquarters in Redmond, Washington.

By 1983, more successful arcade games released like Donkey Kong Jr., Popeye, and Mario Bros, and the Game & Watch line received new installments on a nearly monthly basis. At this point, Nintendo wanted to expand their home console division with a more powerful machine that can accept cartridges for a theoretically infinite number of games. The final product was the Family Computer system (often shortened to Famicom), which swept Japan on July 15, 1983, as the best-selling video game console at the time, easily overtaking all competition. This success is attributed to the large variety of quality exclusive titles, which includes ports of existing arcade games, original titles like Balloon Fight, Ice Climber, Excitebike, and a clause for third party developers that want to make games for a Nintendo console mandating they only make games for Nintendo consoles. However, Nintendo hesitated to release the system internationally, as the 1983 video game crash was in full effect and the fear of a financial disappointment was present in the company. To prevent this, Nintendo established a branch named Nintendo of America to research the market and find a way to make the console launch a success. This branch eventually came up with the plan of redesigning the console into the “Nintendo Entertainment System” and market it as a toy instead of an electronic system, as well as bundle it with the Zapper, the Robotic Operating Buddy (R.O.B.) and the games Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt. The launch was a great success and is often credited for reversing the video game crash. While it was not dominant in every region of the world, Nintendo more or less had a monopoly on the industry through the 1980s.

Many iconic franchises were born on this console, such as The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, Kid Icarus, Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, Mega Man, and Castlevania. In 1986, Nintendo released the Famicom Disk System, which used writable disks to make new innovations like more processing power and save states. This accessory did not release outside of Japan, so games for the system had to find creative ways to make equivalent experiences for international audiences like passwords and Battery Pak save files.

In 1989, as the Game & Watch line was ramping down, Nintendo developed a successor that combined the design philosophes of that line and the NES, which they named Game Boy. The hardware of the system is very limited with less processing power than an NES and only four colors, though it greatly outpaced the competition due to its economical design, relatively long battery life, and prestige of Nintendo. Aside from popularizing franchises like Tetris and Dr. Mario, a few franchises started on Game Boy, like Kirby, the Wario sub-series and Pokémon.

In 1990, Nintendo created a full successor to the Famicom, titled the Super Famicom, which was released in 1991 as the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Alongside now-legacy franchises getting new installments, many franchises started on this system like F-Zero, Star Fox, the Yoshi sub-series and many RPG franchises by the companies that now make up Square Enix. A few accessories were released for the system like the Super Game Boy and the Japan-exclusive Satelleview online distribution service. Despite the initial success, Sega with their Genesis system and the pack-in game Sonic the Hedgehog briefly overtook Nintendo in market share, with some companies defecting from Nintendo due to the increasingly dated and draconic exclusivity clause. Nintendo did retake their dominance by the end of the generation, but their status as a monopoly was hit and they never fully recovered.

In 1993, Nintendo announced a new system named the Ultra 64 at the time. Though the console did not release until 1996, many events occurred in the interim. Also in 1993, Nintendo was collaborating with Sony to develop a compact disc add-on to the Super Famicom, though the deal fell through when Nintendo believed they were treated unfavorably in the contract. Nintendo then partnered with Philips, and that deal also fell through, though not before several games based on Nintendo properties were made for the Philips CD-i. Sony, burned by the deal falling through, decided to create their own console, which released in 1994 as the PlayStation, which grew to be Nintendo’s greatest rival in the video game industry. In 1995, Nintendo released a system to sate fans when the Ultra 64 was delayed several times. This console was the Virtual Boy, a “portable” console that utilized glasses-free 3D technology. The console was a massive flop due to its unintuitive design, lack of games, and actual health hazards due to the red and black display and said unintuitive design. The Virtual Boy lasted less than a year before being discontinued.

In 1996, the Nintendo 64 finally released. Alongside legacy franchises getting new genre defining entries like Super Mario 64 and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, a few franchises were born on this system like Banjo-Kazooie, Mario Party and Super Smash Bros. Animal Crossing also debuted on the Nintendo 64, albeit only in Japan. However, there was an exodus of third-party developers to competitors like the PlayStation, resulting in a very small game library, especially for a major console. This is often attributed to the exclusivity clause that still exists, the unorthodox proprietary hardware, expensive cartridges with small storage space, and compact discs being the preferred method of distribution. This resulted in significantly lower sales than previous generations, though the system pioneered many innovations like analog stick controls and built-in four player multiplayer that are now industry standard today.

In 1998, Nintendo released an upgrade to the Game Boy titled the Game Boy Color. While there is debate whether it is a simple upgrade or a full successor, all original Game Boy games are backwards compatible alongside several original titles.

In 2001, Nintendo released two consoles at around the same time, one a home console and the other a handheld, both of which were designed to be cross-compatible in several ways. The home console was the Nintendo GameCube. Building off the architecture of the Nintendo 64, the GameCube included drastically improved graphical power and a transition to discs, albeit with proprietary mini optical discs. This unconventional architecture and lack of other features made the GameCube lag behind the PlayStation 2 and newcomer Xbox, making it Nintendo’s worst selling console at the time and continuing their downward trend in console sales. Still, some fan-favorite franchises came from this console like Pikmin, Luigi’s Mansion, and Chibi-Robo!. Animal Crossing also saw a localized release for the first time, built upon the N64 original. The portable console was the Game Boy Advance. The true successor to the Game Boy with significantly increased internal specs, it grew to dominant the handheld scene in its generation due to having no real competition in its prime and kept Nintendo afloat while the GameCube struggled. Famous franchises to debut on this console include WarioWare, Mario & Luigi, Golden Sun, and Rhythm Heaven. Fire Emblem was also localized for the first time on GBA, after debuting on the Famicom.

In 2004, Nintendo released another handheld named the Nintendo DS. What made this console stand out was its use of two screens simultaneously, with the bottom screen having touch support. While initially marketed as an alternative to the Game Boy Advance, the DS quickly outsold it and every other Nintendo console that came before, with it currently being Nintendo’s best-selling console and the second best-selling video game console of all time, only behind the PlayStation 2. Despite competition from the PlayStation Portable and the quickly growing mobile market, the DS continued to sell and put Nintendo back on track in terms of sales. Famous franchises that debuted on this console include New Super Mario Bros., as well as Tomodachi (only in Japan) and Nintendogs, alongside other games branded under the Touch! Generations line (which included properties such as Brain Age, Electroplankton, Art Academy, the Personal Trainer series, Big Brain Academy, and Hotel Dusk: Room 215). Rhythm Heaven was also localized for the first time on DS.

In 2006, Nintendo released the Wii. After the failure of the GameCube, Nintendo decided to shift gears and go after a new demographic. Realizing the industry was leaning heavily into the hardcore gaming audience, the more casual end of the spectrum was being neglected. With the seed already planted with the DS and its growing library of games that were more lifestyle and multipurpose programs, Nintendo built this new home console for those that have never played video games before or those that had not played a game in years, with an emphasis on content meant for families and lighter experiences. While the internal specs of the Wii were not significantly more powerful than the GameCube, the main gimmick was the Wii remote primarily using motion controls, which opened the door for unique and intuitive control schemes for those without the reflexes or dexterity for typical controllers. The Wii went on to be the best-selling console of its generation and was the second-best selling Nintendo console for well over a decade. Famous franchises that debuted on this console include the Mii series starring the titular player created characters, Wii Fit, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, and Xenoblade Chronicles. Punch-Out!! was also revived on the Wii after seeing previous installments in arcades, for the NES/Famicom, and on the SNES. The Wii also saw the introduction of the Wii Shop Channel, Nintendo's first digital storefront, where players can download new and old games through the Internet.

In 2011, Nintendo released the Nintendo 3DS. A full successor to the DS, its selling point was all the features that console and all of its revisions introduced, along with improved performance and graphical fidelity and a screen that can produce glasses-free 3D visuals. Despite the upward swing in both home and handheld console sales before it, the 3DS failed to reach its projected sales figures soon after launch. To combat this, the system received a significant price cut and first party releases were continuously pumped out to regain goodwill from disgruntled customers. The 3DS would recover and go on to outperform all of its competition, though only selling about half the units of its predecessor through its revisions (including a couple that ditched the 3D, aptly titled the Nintendo 2DS and New Nintendo 2DS XL). Famous franchises that debuted on this console include the many StreetPass games, Bravely Default, Yo-Kai Watch, Nintendo Badge Arcade, and BOXBOY!. Kid Icarus also made a comeback on the console, built around the redesign of the series from Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and a Tomodachi game was localized for the first time. It also saw the introduction of a revamped version of the Wii Shop Channel titled the Nintendo eShop.

In 2012, Nintendo released the Wii U, a successor to the Wii. This was the first Nintendo console to support true high-definition visuals, and continued the legacy of the Wii by introducing a GamePad that can act as a second screen for games. Due to brand confusion and the convoluted nature of the console making it difficult for developers to work with, the console’s launch was again disappointing. Unlike the 3DS alongside it, the Wii U never fully recovered from its fumbled launch. The Wii U is currently Nintendo’s worst-selling home console and second worst-selling console of all time, with only the Virtual Boy performing worse. Famous franchises that debuted on this console include NES Remix, Splatoon, and Super Mario Maker.

In 2017, Nintendo released the Nintendo Switch, its currently sold video game console. The main selling point of the console is that it can seamlessly transition between being a home console and a handheld console. It is currently Nintendo’s best-selling home console and its second best-selling console of all time, only trailing behind the Nintendo DS. Famous franchises that debuted on this console include ARMS, Mario + Rabbids, Nintendo Labo, Ring Fit Adventure, and Astral Chain. The Switch also saw a number of old IPs get new entries or remakes for the first time in years, including Pokémon Snap, F-Zero, and Wars.

Nintendo also has ventures in other creative mediums. The company still has a sizeable investment in the toy and merchandise industries, including the hanafuda cards the company began with and amiibo. Nintendo has worked with other companies to make media for theatres and television, in addition to acquiring Dynamo Pictures and renaming them Nintendo Pictures. Nintendo owns and operates several storefronts around the world and has partnered with Universal Studios to make the Super Nintendo World theme park.

In Super Smash Bros.

Nintendo is the publisher of Super Smash Bros. and owns the rights to all content represented in the game. The game began life as a prototype created by Masahiro Sakurai and Satoru Iwata in their spare time titled Dragon King: The Fighting Game, and originally featured no pre-existing Nintendo characters. However, Sakurai hit on the idea of including fighters from different Nintendo franchises in order to provide 'atmosphere' which he felt was necessary for a home console fighting game. The two made a prototype in secret without knowledge or permission from Nintendo, fearing the concept would immediately be shot down. This prototype with Mario, Donkey Kong, Samus and Fox as playable characters on placeholder stages was pitched to Nintendo and approved for HAL Laboratory to enter full development production. The game had a small budget and little promotion, and was originally a Japan-only release, but its huge success saw the game released worldwide. The game was released on January 21, 1999 in Japan and in the Americas on April 26 for Nintendo 64, which Nintendo developed.

In Super Smash Bros. Melee

Nintendo returns as publisher and again owns the rights to all content represented in-game. HAL Laboratory returned as lead developer, with Masahiro Sakurai as the head of the production. The game was one of the first games released on the Nintendo GameCube, which Nintendo developed, and highlighted the advancement in graphics from the Nintendo 64.

The game is notorious for having an extremely short 13 month development cycle to be released as close to the launch of the GameCube as possible. Sakurai would later admit that his lifestyle during that time was "destructive." During development, he took no holidays, weekends were very short, and the average work "day" was around 40 hours.

In Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Nintendo again returns as publisher, though does not own the rights to all content in-game for the first time. Namely, content owned by Konami, and Sega appear for the first time. At the pre-E3 2005 press conference, the president of Nintendo, Satoru Iwata, announced the next installment of Super Smash Bros. was not only already in development for their next gaming console, but would hopefully be a launch title with Wi-Fi compatibility for online play. Shortly after the announcement, Masahiro Sakurai, who prior left HAL Laboratory to form Sora Ltd., was called up and offered a position as the game's director. HAL Laboratory was not a lead developer for the first time, with those responsibilities instead primarily going to Game Arts, Paon and Monolith Soft and Sakurai overseeing as director. The game released for the Wii, which Nintendo developed, in Japan on January 31, 2008, in the Americas on March 9, and in the PAL region on June 27.

In Super Smash Bros. 4

Nintendo again returns as publisher, though third-parties like Sega own the rights to some content in-game alongside newcomers Capcom and Bandai Namco. At the E3 2011 conference, Satoru Iwata announced that a new Super Smash Bros. title was planned for the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, both of which Nintendo developed. Development began after Masahiro Sakurai completed development of Kid Icarus: Uprising. It was revealed that Bandai Namco would be lead developer.

The 3DS version was originally supposed to release in summer of 2014, but was delayed and released in Japan on September 13, 2014, and in Western regions on October 3. The Wii U version was released first in the Americas on November 21, in PAL regions on November 28, and in Japan on December 6. The 3DS and Wii U versions differ in features and stages, but retain the same gameplay, and allow for data transfer of custom characters between both versions and use of the 3DS as a controller for the Wii U version. They are the first video games with amiibo support, and the first Super Smash Bros. games with DLC, which released periodically until February 2016. This content introduced more third parties like Square Enix and PlatinumGames.

In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Nintendo again returns as publisher, with Sora Ltd. and Bandai Namco returning as lead developers. All veteran third parties return with their respective content. The game released on December 8, 2018 for Nintendo Switch, which Nintendo developed. Nintendo was the decision maker on what DLC content would be made. As DLC was being rolled out, more third parties were introduced, including Atlus, Microsoft (through Rare Ltd. and Mojang Studios), SNK, and Disney.

Trivia

• Nintendo is the oldest company to be represented in Smash, beating the second oldest (Disney) by 34 years.
  • This also makes Nintendo the only company represented in Smash to be founded in the 19th century.

External links

Official websites

• Nintendo Japan (Japanese)
• Nintendo of America (English)
• Nintendo Europe (English/Multi-Language)
• Nintendo Australia (also New Zealand) (English)
• Nintendo of Canada (English)
• Nintendo of Korea (Korean)
• The Official Nintendo Magazine (UK) (English)
• Nintendo of America's official channel on YouTube (English)
• Nintendo of Japan's official channel on YouTube (Japanese)
• Nintendo's official channel on Twitch.tv (English)

Official social-media website accounts

• Nintendo of America on Facebook (English)
• Nintendo of Canada on Facebook (English)
• Nintendo of America on Instagram (English)
• Nintendo of America on Tumblr (English)
• Nintendo of America on Twitter (English)
• Nintendo of America on YouTube (English)