is a Japanese
multinational video game company headquartered in
Kyoto
Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the c ...
, Japan. It develops
video game
Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This feedba ...
s and
video game console
A video game console is an electronic device that outputs a video signal or image to display a video game that can be played with a game controller. These may be home consoles, which are generally placed in a permanent location connected to ...
s.
Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman
Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produced handmade playing cards. After venturing into various lines of business during the 1960s and acquiring a legal status as a
public company
A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) company can be listed on a stock exchange ( ...
, Nintendo distributed its first console, the
Color TV-Game
The is the first video game system ever made by Nintendo. The system was released as a series of five dedicated home video game consoles between 1977 and 1980 in Japan only. Nintendo sold three million units of the first four models: one mil ...
, in 1977. It gained international recognition with the release of ''
Donkey Kong
is a video game franchise created by Shigeru Miyamoto and owned by Nintendo. It follows the adventures of a gorilla named Donkey Kong (character), Donkey Kong and his clan of other Ape, apes and monkeys. The franchise primarily consists of plat ...
'' in 1981 and the
Nintendo Entertainment System
The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit third-generation home video game console produced by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan in 1983 as the commonly known as the The NES, a redesigned version, was released in America ...
and ''
Super Mario Bros.
is a platform game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). The successor to the 1983 arcade game '' Mario Bros.'' and the first game in the ''Super Mario'' series, it was first released in 1985 for ...
'' in 1985.
Since then, Nintendo has produced some of the most successful consoles in the
video game industry
The video game industry encompasses the development, marketing, and monetization of video games. The industry encompasses dozens of job disciplines and thousands of jobs worldwide.
The video game industry has grown from niches to mainstrea ...
, such as the
Game Boy
The is an 8-bit fourth generation handheld game console developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan on April 21, 1989, in North America later the same year, and in Europe in late 1990. It was designed by the same t ...
, the
Super Nintendo Entertainment System
The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), commonly shortened to Super NES or Super Nintendo, is a 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan and South Korea, 1991 in North America, 1992 in Eu ...
, the
Nintendo DS
The is a handheld game console produced by Nintendo, released globally across 2004 and 2005. The DS, an initialism for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld games: two LCD screens working in t ...
, the
Wii
The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America and in December 2006 for most other regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major home game console, ...
, and the
Switch
In electrical engineering, a switch is an electrical component that can disconnect or connect the conducting path in an electrical circuit, interrupting the electric current or diverting it from one conductor to another. The most common type of ...
. It has created numerous major franchises, including ''
Mario
is a character (arts), character created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. He is the title character of the ''Mario (franchise), Mario'' franchise and the mascot of Japanese video game company Nintendo. Mario has appeared in ...
'', ''
Donkey Kong
is a video game franchise created by Shigeru Miyamoto and owned by Nintendo. It follows the adventures of a gorilla named Donkey Kong (character), Donkey Kong and his clan of other Ape, apes and monkeys. The franchise primarily consists of plat ...
'', ''
The Legend of Zelda
''The Legend of Zelda'' is an action-adventure game franchise created by the Japanese game designers Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka. It is primarily developed and published by Nintendo, although some portable installments and re-relea ...
'', ''
Pokémon
(an abbreviation for in Japan) is a Japanese media franchise managed by The Pokémon Company, founded by Nintendo, Game Freak, and Creatures, the owners of the trademark and copyright of the franchise.
In terms of what each of thos ...
'', ''
Kirby'', ''
Metroid
is an action-adventure game franchise created by Nintendo. The player controls the bounty hunter Samus Aran, who protects the galaxy from Space Pirates and other malevolent forces and their attempts to harness the power of the parasitic ...
'', ''
Fire Emblem
is a fantasy tactical role-playing game franchise developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo. First produced and published for the Famicom in 1990, the series currently consists of sixteen core entries and five spinoffs. ...
'', ''
Animal Crossing
is a social simulation video game series developed and published by Nintendo. The series was conceptualized and created by Katsuya Eguchi and Hisashi Nogami. In ''Animal Crossing'', the player character is a human who lives in a village inhab ...
'', ''
Splatoon
is a third-person shooter video game franchise created by Hisashi Nogami, and developed and owned by Nintendo. Set in a post-apocalyptic Earth inhabited by anthropomorphic marine animals, the series centers around fictional cephalopods known ...
'', ''
Star Fox
is an arcade style rail shooter and third person action-adventure video game series created by Shigeru Miyamoto, produced and published by Nintendo. The games follow the Star Fox combat team of anthropomorphic animals, led by chief protagon ...
'', ''
Xenoblade Chronicles
is a series of action role-playing games developed by Monolith Soft and published by Nintendo. It is a part of the '' Xeno'' metaseries created by Tetsuya Takahashi, but was formed after Nintendo's acquisition of Monolith Soft in 2007. The seri ...
'', and ''
Super Smash Bros.'' Nintendo's mascot,
Mario
is a character (arts), character created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. He is the title character of the ''Mario (franchise), Mario'' franchise and the mascot of Japanese video game company Nintendo. Mario has appeared in ...
, is internationally recognized. The company has sold more than 5.4 billion video games and over 800 million
hardware units globally as of 2022.
Nintendo has multiple subsidiaries in Japan and abroad, in addition to business partners such as
the Pokémon Company
The Pokémon Company (株式会社ポケモン, '' Kabushiki gaisha Pokemon'') is a Japanese company responsible for brand management, production, publishing, marketing, and licensing of the ''Pokémon'' franchise, which consists of video ga ...
and
HAL Laboratory
formerly shortened as HALKEN (derived from its native name), is a Japanese video game developer founded on 21 February 1980. While independent, it has been closely tied with Nintendo throughout its history, and is often referred to as a seco ...
. Nintendo and its staff have received awards including
Emmy Awards for Technology & Engineering,
Game Awards,
Game Developers Choice Awards
The Game Developers Choice Awards are awards annually presented at the Game Developers Conference for outstanding game developers and games.
Introduced in 2001, the Game Developers Choice Awards were preceded by the Spotlight Awards, which were ...
, and
British Academy Games Awards. It is one of the wealthiest and most valuable companies in the Japanese market.
History
1889–1972: Early history
1889–1929: Origin as a card company
Nintendo was founded as on 23 September 1889 by craftsman
Fusajiro Yamauchi in
Shimogyō-ku, Kyoto
is one of the eleven wards in the city of Kyoto, in Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. First established in 1879, it has been merged and split, and took on its present boundaries in 1955, with the establishment of a separate Minami-ku.
Kyoto Tower an ...
, Japan, to produce and distribute ,
a type of traditional Japanese
playing card
A playing card is a piece of specially prepared card stock, heavy paper, thin cardboard, plastic-coated paper, cotton-paper blend, or thin plastic that is marked with distinguishing motifs. Often the front (face) and back of each card has a f ...
. The name "Nintendo" is commonly assumed to mean "leave luck to heaven",
but the assumption lacks historical validation; it can alternatively be translated as "the temple of free ".
Hanafuda cards had become popular after Japan banned most forms of gambling in 1882, though tolerated hanafuda. Sales of hanafuda cards were popular with the
yakuza
, also known as , are members of transnational organized crime syndicates originating in Japan. The Japanese police and media, by request of the police, call them , while the ''yakuza'' call themselves . The English equivalent for the ter ...
-ran gaming parlors in Kyoto. Other card manufacturers had opted to leave the market not wanting to be associated with criminal ties, but Yamauchi persisted without such fears to become the primary producer of hanafuda within a few years.
With the increase of the cards' popularity, Yamauchi hired assistants to
mass-produce
Mass production, also known as flow production or continuous production, is the production of substantial amounts of standardized products in a constant flow, including and especially on assembly lines. Together with job production and batch ...
to satisfy the demand.
Even with a favorable start, the company faced financial struggle due to operating in a
niche market
A niche market is the subset of the market on which a specific product is focused. The market niche defines the product features aimed at satisfying specific market needs, as well as the price range, production quality and the demographics that i ...
, the slow and expensive manufacturing process, high product price, alongside long durability of the cards, which impacted sales due to the low replacement rate. As a solution, Nintendo produced a cheaper and lower-quality line of playing cards, , while also conducting product offerings in other cities such as
Osaka
is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of ...
, where card game profits were high. In addition, local merchants were interested in the prospect of a continuous renewal of decks, thus avoiding the suspicions that reusing cards would generate.
According to data from Nintendo, the company's first western-style card deck was put on the market in 1902,
although other documents postpone the date to 1907, shortly after the
Russo-Japanese War
The Russo-Japanese War ( ja, 日露戦争, Nichiro sensō, Japanese-Russian War; russian: Ру́сско-япóнская войнá, Rússko-yapónskaya voyná) was fought between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire during 1904 and 1 ...
. The war created considerable difficulties for companies in the leisure sector, which were subject to new levies such as the ("playing cards tax"). Nintendo subsisted and, in 1907, entered into an agreement with Nihon Senbai—later known as the
Japan Tobacco
Hepburn: ''Nippon Senbai Kōsha''
, type = 1985-: Public (''kabushiki gaisha'') 1949-1985: Statutory corporation
, traded_as =
, industry = FoodTobacco
, foundation = 1898 (as Imperial Japanese Tobacco Company)1 June 1949 (as Japan Tobacco ...
—to market its cards to various cigarette stores throughout the country. A promotional calendar distributed by Nintendo from the
Taishō era
The was a period in the history of Japan dating from 30 July 1912 to 25 December 1926, coinciding with the reign of Emperor Taishō. The new emperor was a sickly man, which prompted the shift in political power from the old oligarchic group of ...
dated to 1915 was found, indicating that the company was named Yamauchi Nintendo, and used the Marufuku Nintendo Co. brand for its playing cards.
Japanese culture
The culture of Japan has changed greatly over the millennia, from the country's prehistoric Jōmon period, to its contemporary modern culture, which absorbs influences from Asia and other regions of the world.
Historical overview
The ances ...
stipulated that for Nintendo Koppai to continue as a family business after Yamauchi's retirement, Yamauchi had to adopt his son-in-law so that he could take over the business. As a result,
Sekiryo Kaneda adopted the Yamauchi surname in 1907 and became the second president of Nintendo Koppai in 1929. By that time, Nintendo Koppai was the largest card game company in Japan.
1929–1968: Expansion and diversification
In 1933, Sekiryo Kaneda established the company as a
general partnership
A general partnership, the basic form of partnership under common law, is in most countries an association of persons or an unincorporated company with the following major features:
*Must be created by agreement, proof of existence and estoppel. ...
titled Yamauchi Nintendo & Co., Ltd.,
investing in the construction of a new corporate headquarters located next to the original building, near the
Toba-kaidō train station. Because Sekiryo's marriage to Yamauchi's daughter produced no male heirs, he planned to adopt his son-in-law Shikanojo Inaba, an artist in the company's employ and the father of his grandson
Hiroshi, born in 1927. However, Inaba abandoned his family and the company, so Hiroshi was made Sekiryo's eventual successor.
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
negatively impacted the company as Japanese authorities prohibited the diffusion of foreign card games, and as the priorities of Japanese society shifted, its interest in recreational activities waned. During this time, Nintendo was partly supported by a financial injection from Hiroshi's wife Michiko Inaba, who came from a wealthy family. In 1947, Sekiryo founded the distribution company Marufuku Co. Ltd.
In 1950, due to Sekiryo's deteriorating health, Hiroshi assumed the presidency of Nintendo. His first actions involved several important changes in the operation of the company: in 1951, he changed the company name to Nintendo Playing Card Co., Ltd.,
and the Marufuku Company adopted the name Nintendo Karuta Co., Ltd.
In 1952, he centralized the production of cards in the Kyoto factories,
which led to the expansion of the offices. The company's new line of plastic cards enjoyed considerable success in Japan.
Some of the company's employees, accustomed to a more cautious and conservative leadership, viewed the new measures with concern, and the rising tension led to a call for a
strike. However, the measure had no major impact, as Hiroshi resorted to the dismissal of several dissatisfied workers.
In 1959, Nintendo contracted with
Walt Disney
Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...
to incorporate his company's animated characters into the cards.
Nintendo also developed a distribution system that allowed it to offer its products in toy stores. By 1961, the company had sold more than 1.5 million card packs and held a high
market share
Market share is the percentage of the total revenue or sales in a market that a company's business makes up. For example, if there are 50,000 units sold per year in a given industry, a company whose sales were 5,000 of those units would have a ...
, for which it relied on televised advertising campaigns. The need for
diversification
Diversification may refer to:
Biology and agriculture
* Genetic divergence, emergence of subpopulations that have accumulated independent genetic changes
* Agricultural diversification involves the re-allocation of some of a farm's resources to n ...
led the company to list stock on the second section of the Osaka and Kyoto
stock exchange
A stock exchange, securities exchange, or bourse is an exchange where stockbrokers and traders can buy and sell securities, such as shares of stock, bonds and other financial instruments. Stock exchanges may also provide facilities for t ...
s, in addition to becoming a
public company
A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) company can be listed on a stock exchange ( ...
and changing its name to Nintendo Co., Ltd. in 1963.
In 1964, Nintendo earned .
Although the company was experiencing a period of economic prosperity, the Disney cards and derived products made it dependent on the children's market. The situation was exacerbated by the falling sales of its adult-oriented cards caused by Japanese society gravitating toward other hobbies such as
pachinko
is a mechanical game originating in Japan that is used as an arcade game, and much more frequently for gambling. Pachinko fills a niche in Japanese gambling comparable to that of the slot machine in the West as a form of low-stakes, low-st ...
,
bowling
Bowling is a target sport and recreational activity in which a player rolls a ball toward pins (in pin bowling) or another target (in target bowling). The term ''bowling'' usually refers to pin bowling (most commonly ten-pin bowling), though ...
, and nightly outings. When Disney card sales began to decline, Nintendo realized that it had no real alternative to alleviate the situation. After the 1964
Tokyo Olympics, Nintendo's stock price plummeted to its lowest recorded level of .
1969–1972: Classic and electronic toys
Yamauchi's experience with the previous initiatives led him to increase Nintendo's investment in a research and development department directed by Hiroshi Imanishi, an employee with a long history in other areas of the company. In 1969,
Gunpei Yokoi
, sometimes transliterated Gumpei Yokoi, was a Japanese video game designer. He was a long-time Nintendo employee, best known as creator of the Game & Watch handheld system, inventor of the cross-shaped Control Pad, the original designer of the ...
joined the department and was responsible for coordinating various projects. Yokoi's experience in manufacturing electronic devices led Yamauchi to put him in charge of the company's games department, and his products would be mass-produced.
During this period, Nintendo built a new production plant in
Uji City, just outside of
Kyoto
Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the c ...
,
and distributed classic
tabletop game
Tabletop games or tabletops are games that are normally played on a table or other flat surface, such as board games, card games, dice games, miniature wargames, or tile-based games.
Classification according to equipment used
Tabletop ga ...
s such as
chess
Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to dist ...
,
shogi
, also known as Japanese chess, is a strategy board game for two players. It is one of the most popular board games in Japan and is in the same family of games as Western chess, '' chaturanga, Xiangqi'', Indian chess, and ''janggi''. ''Shōgi ...
,
go, and
mahjong
Mahjong or mah-jongg (English pronunciation: ) is a tile-based game that was developed in the 19th century in China and has spread throughout the world since the early 20th century. It is commonly played by four players (with some three-pla ...
, and other foreign games under the Nippon Game brand. The company's restructuring preserved a couple of areas dedicated to card manufacturing.
The early 1970s represented a watershed moment in Nintendo's history as it released Japan's first electronic toy—the Nintendo Beam Gun, an
optoelectronic
Optoelectronics (or optronics) is the study and application of electronic devices and systems that find, detect and control light, usually considered a sub-field of photonics. In this context, ''light'' often includes invisible forms of radiat ...
pistol designed by
Masayuki Uemura.
In total, more than a million units were sold. Nintendo partnered with
Magnavox
Magnavox (Latin for "great voice", stylized as MAGNAVOX) is an American electronics company that since 1974 has been a subsidiary of the Dutch electronics corporation Philips.
The predecessor to Magnavox was founded in 1911 by Edwin Pridham and ...
to provide a
light gun
A light gun is a pointing device for computers and a control device for arcade and video games, typically shaped to resemble a pistol.
Early history
The first light guns were produced in the 1930s, following the development of light-sensin ...
controller based on the Beam Gun design for the company's new home video game console, the
Magnavox Odyssey
The Magnavox Odyssey is the first commercial home video game console. The hardware was designed by a small team led by Ralph H. Baer at Sanders Associates, while Magnavox completed development and released it in the United States in September ...
, in 1971.
Other popular toys released at the time include the
Ultra Hand
Ultra Hand is a toy that was manufactured by Nintendo in the late 1960s. It was created in 1966 by Gunpei Yokoi, who would later design the Love Tester, the D-pad, the Game Boy, and the WonderSwan.
Ultra Hand consists of several criss-cross-co ...
, the
Ultra Machine, the Ultra Scope, and the
Love Tester
The is a novelty toy made by Nintendo in 1969. Designed "for young ladies and men", the device tries to determine how much two people love each other. To operate the device, both users grab one of the connected spherical metal sensors with one ...
, all designed by Yokoi. More than 1.2 million units of Ultra Hand were sold in Japan.
During the early 1970s, Nintendo began trading on the main section of the
Osaka stock exchange and opened a new headquarters.
1973–present: History in electronics
1973–1978: Early video games and Color TV-Game
The growing demand for Nintendo's products led Yamauchi to further expand the offices, for which he acquired the surrounding land and assigned the production of cards to the original Nintendo building. Meanwhile, Yokoi, Uemura, and new employees such as
Genyo Takeda
is a retired Japanese game designer and executive who worked for the video game company Nintendo. Takeda was formerly the general manager of Nintendo's Integrated Research & Development division, and was the co-representative director and "Tech ...
, continued to develop innovative products for the company. The
Laser Clay Shooting System was released in 1973 and managed to surpass bowling in popularity. Though Nintendo's toys continued to gain popularity, the
1973 oil crisis
The 1973 oil crisis or first oil crisis began in October 1973 when the members of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC), led by Saudi Arabia, proclaimed an oil embargo. The embargo was targeted at nations that had su ...
caused both a spike in the cost of plastics and a change in consumer priorities that put essential products over pastimes, and Nintendo lost several billion yen.
In 1974, Nintendo released ''
Wild Gunman'', a
skeet shooting
Skeet shooting is a recreational and competitive activity where participants use shotguns to attempt to break clay targets which two fixed stations mechanically fling into the air at high speed and at a variety of angles.
Skeet is one of the t ...
arcade simulation consisting of a
16 mm
16 mm film is a historically popular and economical gauge of film. 16 mm refers to the width of the film (about inch); other common film gauges include 8 and 35 mm. It is generally used for non-theatrical (e.g., industrial, edu ...
image projector with a sensor that detects a beam from the player's
light gun
A light gun is a pointing device for computers and a control device for arcade and video games, typically shaped to resemble a pistol.
Early history
The first light guns were produced in the 1930s, following the development of light-sensin ...
. Both the Laser Clay Shooting System and ''Wild Gunman'' were successfully exported to Europe and North America.
However, Nintendo's production speeds were still slow compared to rival companies such as
Bandai
is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational toy manufacturer and distributor headquartered in Taitō, Tokyo. Its international branches, Bandai Namco Toys & Collectables America and Bandai UK, are respectively headquartered in Irvine ...
and
Tomy
is a Japanese entertainment company that makes children's toys and merchandise. It was created from a merger on March 1st 2006 of two companies: Tomy (founded in 1924 as Tomiyama, changing the name to Tomy in 1963) and long-time rival Ta ...
, and their prices were high, which led to the discontinuation of some of their light gun products. The subsidiary Nintendo Leisure System Co., Ltd., which developed these products, was closed as a result of the economic impact dealt by the oil crisis.
Yamauchi, motivated by the successes of
Atari
Atari () is a brand name that has been owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by French publisher Atari SA through a subsidiary named Atari Interactive. The original Atari, Inc., founded in Sunnyvale, Ca ...
and Magnavox with their
video game console
A video game console is an electronic device that outputs a video signal or image to display a video game that can be played with a game controller. These may be home consoles, which are generally placed in a permanent location connected to ...
s, acquired the Japanese distribution rights for the Magnavox Odyssey in 1974,
and reached an agreement with
Mitsubishi Electric
, established on 15 January 1921, is a Japanese multinational electronics and electrical equipment manufacturing company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. It is one of the core companies of Mitsubishi. The products from MELCO include elevators an ...
to develop similar products between 1975 and 1978, including the first
microprocessor
A microprocessor is a computer processor where the data processing logic and control is included on a single integrated circuit, or a small number of integrated circuits. The microprocessor contains the arithmetic, logic, and control circ ...
for video games systems, the
Color TV-Game
The is the first video game system ever made by Nintendo. The system was released as a series of five dedicated home video game consoles between 1977 and 1980 in Japan only. Nintendo sold three million units of the first four models: one mil ...
series, and an arcade game inspired by
Othello
''Othello'' (full title: ''The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice'') is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare, probably in 1603, set in the contemporary Ottoman–Venetian War (1570–1573) fought for the control of the Island of Cyp ...
.
During this period, Takeda developed the video game ''
EVR Race
The following is a list of products developed and published by Nintendo. Products made by third parties are not included, unless licensed to or distributed by Nintendo.
Toys and cards
Amiibo
Arcade
This list consists of dedicated arcade ga ...
'', and
Shigeru Miyamoto
is a Japanese video game designer, producer and game director at Nintendo, where he serves as one of its representative directors. Widely regarded as one of the most accomplished and influential designers in the history of video games, he ...
joined Yokoi's team with the responsibility of designing the casing for the Color TV-Game consoles.
In 1978, Nintendo's research and development department was split into two facilities,
Nintendo Research & Development 1
commonly abbreviated as Nintendo R&D1, was Nintendo's oldest video game development team. It was known as before splitting in 1978. Its creation coincided with Nintendo's entry into the video game industry, and the original R&D1 was headed by ...
and
Nintendo Research & Development 2
commonly abbreviated as Nintendo R&D2, was a Japanese team within Nintendo that developed software and peripherals. While usually occupied in system operating software and technical support, the team would come back to early development in the ...
, respectively managed by Yokoi and Uemura.
Shigeru Miyamoto brought distinctive sources of inspiration, including the
natural environment
The natural environment or natural world encompasses all living and non-living things occurring naturally, meaning in this case not artificial. The term is most often applied to the Earth or some parts of Earth. This environment encompasses t ...
and regional culture of
Sonobe, popular culture influences like
Westerns
The Western is a genre set in the American frontier and commonly associated with folk tales of the Western United States, particularly the Southwestern United States, as well as Northern Mexico and Western Canada. It is commonly referred ...
and
detective fiction
Detective fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator or a detective—whether professional, amateur or retired—investigates a crime, often murder. The detective genre began around the same time as sp ...
, along with folk
Shinto
Shinto () is a religion from Japan. Classified as an East Asian religion by scholars of religion, its practitioners often regard it as Japan's indigenous religion and as a nature religion. Scholars sometimes call its practitioners ''Shint ...
practices and
family media
Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Ideall ...
.
These would each be seen in most of Nintendo's major franchises which developed following Miyamoto's creative leadership.
1979–1987: Game & Watch, arcade games, and Nintendo Entertainment System
Two key events in Nintendo's history occurred in 1979: its American
subsidiary
A subsidiary, subsidiary company or daughter company is a company owned or controlled by another company, which is called the parent company or holding company. Two or more subsidiaries that either belong to the same parent company or having a ...
was opened in New York City, and a new department focused on arcade game development was created. In 1980, one of the first
handheld video game systems, the ''
Game & Watch
The Game & Watch brand ( ''Gēmu & Uotchi''; called ''Tricotronic'' in West Germany and Austria, abbreviated as ''G&W'') is a series of handheld electronic games developed, manufactured, released, and marketed by Nintendo from 1980 to 1991. C ...
'', was created by Yokoi from the technology used in portable calculators.
It became one of Nintendo's most successful products, with over 43.4 million units sold worldwide during its production period, and for which 59 games were made in total.
Nintendo entered the
arcade video game
An arcade video game takes player input from its controls, processes it through electrical or computerized components, and displays output to an electronic monitor or similar display. Most arcade video games are coin-operated, housed in an arc ...
market with ''
Sheriff
A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland that is commonly transla ...
'' and ''
Radar Scope'', released in Japan in 1979 and 1980 respectively. ''Sheriff'', also known as ''Bandido'' in some regions, marked the first original video game made by Nintendo, was published by
Sega
is a Japanese multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its international branches, Sega of America and Sega Europe, are headquartered in Irvine, California and London, respectively. Its division ...
and developed by
Genyo Takeda
is a retired Japanese game designer and executive who worked for the video game company Nintendo. Takeda was formerly the general manager of Nintendo's Integrated Research & Development division, and was the co-representative director and "Tech ...
and
Shigeru Miyamoto
is a Japanese video game designer, producer and game director at Nintendo, where he serves as one of its representative directors. Widely regarded as one of the most accomplished and influential designers in the history of video games, he ...
.
While ''Radar Scope'', rivaled ''
Galaxian
is a 1979 fixed shooter arcade video game developed and published by Namco. The player assumes control of the Galaxip starfighter in its mission to protect Earth from waves of aliens. Gameplay involves destroying each formation of aliens, wh ...
'' in Japanese arcades but failed to find an audience overseas and created a financial crisis for the company.
To try to find a more successful game, they put Miyamoto in charge of their next arcade game design, leading to the release of ''
Donkey Kong
is a video game franchise created by Shigeru Miyamoto and owned by Nintendo. It follows the adventures of a gorilla named Donkey Kong (character), Donkey Kong and his clan of other Ape, apes and monkeys. The franchise primarily consists of plat ...
'' in 1981, one of the first
platform video games that allowed the player character to jump. The character, Jumpman, would later become
Mario
is a character (arts), character created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. He is the title character of the ''Mario (franchise), Mario'' franchise and the mascot of Japanese video game company Nintendo. Mario has appeared in ...
and Nintendo's official
mascot
A mascot is any human, animal, or object thought to bring luck, or anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, professional sports team, society, military unit, or brand name. Mascots are also used as ...
. Mario was named after
Mario Segale, the landlord of Nintendo's offices in
Tukwila, Washington
Tukwila ( ) is a suburban city in King County, Washington, United States, located immediately to the south of Seattle. The population was 21,798 at the 2020 census.
Tukwila is a community of communities, with residents of many diverse origin ...
. ''Donkey Kong'' was a financial success for Nintendo both in Japan and overseas, and led Coleco to fight Atari for licensing rights for porting to home consoles and personal computers.
In 1983, Nintendo opened a new production facility in Uji and was listed on the first section of the
Tokyo Stock Exchange
The , abbreviated as Tosho () or TSE/TYO, is a stock exchange located in Tokyo, Japan. It is the third largest stock exchange in the world by aggregate market capitalization of its listed companies, and the largest in Asia. It had 2,292 listed ...
.
Uemura, taking inspiration from the
ColecoVision
ColecoVision is a second-generation home video-game console developed by Coleco and launched in North America in August 1982. It was released a year later in Europe by CBS Electronics as the CBS ColecoVision.
The console offered a closer exp ...
, began creating a new video game console that would incorporate a
ROM cartridge
A ROM cartridge, usually referred to in context simply as a cartridge, cart, or card, is a replaceable part designed to be connected to a consumer electronics device such as a home computer, video game console or, to a lesser extent, elect ...
format for video games as well as both a
central processing unit
A central processing unit (CPU), also called a central processor, main processor or just processor, is the electronic circuitry that executes instructions comprising a computer program. The CPU performs basic arithmetic, logic, controlling, a ...
and a
picture processing unit
A video display controller or VDC (also called a display engine or display interface) is an integrated circuit which is the main component in a video-signal generator, a device responsible for the production of a TV video signal in a computing ...
.
The
Family Computer
The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit Third generation of video game consoles, third-generation home video game console produced by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan in 1983 as the commonly known as the The NES, a redes ...
, or Famicom, was released in Japan in July 1983 along with three games adapted from their original arcade versions: ''Donkey Kong'', ''
Donkey Kong Jr.
is a 1982 arcade platform game that was released by Nintendo. It is the sequel to ''Donkey Kong'', but with the roles reversed compared to its predecessor: Mario (previously named "Jumpman") is now the villain and Donkey Kong Jr. is trying t ...
'' and ''
Popeye
Popeye the Sailor Man is a fictional cartoon character created by Elzie Crisler Segar.[Sega
is a Japanese multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its international branches, Sega of America and Sega Europe, are headquartered in Irvine, California and London, respectively. Its division ...](_blank)
's
SG-1000
The is a home video game console manufactured by Sega. It was Sega's first entry into the home video game hardware business. Developed in response to a downturn in arcades starting in 1982, the SG-1000 was created on the advice of Hayao Nak ...
.
At this time, Nintendo adopted a series of guidelines that involved the validation of each game produced for the Famicom before its distribution on the market, agreements with developers to ensure that no Famicom game would be adapted to other consoles within two years of its release, and restricting developers from producing more than five games per year for the Famicom.
In the early 1980s, several video game consoles proliferated in the United States, as well as low-quality games produced by
third-party developers, which oversaturated the market and led to the
video game crash of 1983
The video game crash of 1983 (known as the Atari shock in Japan) was a large-scale recession in the video game industry that occurred from 1983 to 1985, primarily in the United States. The crash was attributed to several factors, including ma ...
. Consequently, a recession hit the American
video game industry
The video game industry encompasses the development, marketing, and monetization of video games. The industry encompasses dozens of job disciplines and thousands of jobs worldwide.
The video game industry has grown from niches to mainstrea ...
, whose revenues went from over $3 billion to $100 million between 1983 and 1985. Nintendo's initiative to launch the Famicom in America was also impacted. To differentiate the Famicom from its competitors in America, Nintendo rebranded it as an entertainment system and its
cartridges as Game Paks, and with a design reminiscent of a
VCR.
Nintendo implemented a
lockout chip in the Game Paks for control on its third party library to avoid the market saturation that had occurred in the United States.
The result is the
Nintendo Entertainment System
The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit third-generation home video game console produced by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan in 1983 as the commonly known as the The NES, a redesigned version, was released in America ...
, or NES, which was released in North America in 1985.
The landmark games ''
Super Mario Bros.
is a platform game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). The successor to the 1983 arcade game '' Mario Bros.'' and the first game in the ''Super Mario'' series, it was first released in 1985 for ...
'' and ''
The Legend of Zelda
''The Legend of Zelda'' is an action-adventure game franchise created by the Japanese game designers Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka. It is primarily developed and published by Nintendo, although some portable installments and re-relea ...
'' were produced by Miyamoto and
Takashi Tezuka
is a Japanese video game designer, director, and video game producer, producer. He is a senior officer of Nintendo EPD and executive at Nintendo.
Career
Upon graduating the Design Department of Osaka University of Arts, he joined Nintendo in A ...
. Composer
Koji Kondo
is a Japanese music composer, pianist, and music director who works for the video game company Nintendo. He is best known for his numerous contributions to the ''Super Mario'' and ''The Legend of Zelda'' series of video games, among others pr ...
reinforced the idea that musical themes could act as a complement to game mechanics rather than simply a miscellaneous element. Production of the NES lasted until 1995, and production of the Famicom lasted until 2003.
In total, around 62 million Famicom and NES consoles were sold worldwide.
During this period, Nintendo created a copyright infringement protection in the form of the Official Nintendo Seal of Quality, added to their products so that customers may recognize their authenticity in the market. By this time, Nintendo's network of electronic suppliers had extended to around thirty companies, including
Ricoh
is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational imaging and electronics company (law), company. It was founded by the now-defunct commercial division of the Riken, Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (Riken) known as the ''Riken ...
(Nintendo's main source for
semiconductor
A semiconductor is a material which has an electrical conductivity value falling between that of a conductor, such as copper, and an insulator, such as glass. Its resistivity falls as its temperature rises; metals behave in the opposite way ...
s) and the
Sharp Corporation
is a Japanese multinational corporation that designs and manufactures electronic products, headquartered in Sakai-ku, Sakai, Osaka Prefecture. Since 2016 it has been majority owned by the Taiwan-based Foxconn Group. Sharp employs more t ...
.
1988–1992: Game Boy and Super Nintendo Entertainment System
In 1988, Gunpei Yokoi and his team at
Nintendo R&D1
commonly abbreviated as Nintendo R&D1, was Nintendo's oldest video game development team. It was known as before splitting in 1978. Its creation coincided with Nintendo's entry into the video game industry, and the original R&D1 was headed b ...
conceived the
Game Boy
The is an 8-bit fourth generation handheld game console developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan on April 21, 1989, in North America later the same year, and in Europe in late 1990. It was designed by the same t ...
, the first handheld video game console made by Nintendo. Nintendo released the Game Boy in 1989. In North America, the Game Boy was bundled with the popular third-party game ''
Tetris
''Tetris'' (russian: link=no, Тетрис) is a puzzle video game created by Soviet software engineer Alexey Pajitnov in 1984. It has been published by several companies for multiple platforms, most prominently during a dispute over the appro ...
'' after a difficult negotiation process with
Elektronorgtechnica
Elektronorgtechnica (also spelled ''Electronorgtechnica'', ), better known abbreviated as ELORG (Элорг), was a state-owned organization with a monopoly on the import and export of computer hardware and software in the Soviet Union. It was con ...
. The Game Boy was a significant success. In its first two weeks of sale in Japan, its initial inventory of 300,000 units sold out, and in the United States, an additional 40,000 units were sold on its first day of distribution. Around this time, Nintendo entered an agreement with
Sony
, commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...
to develop the
Super Famicom CD-ROM Adapter, a peripheral for the upcoming
Super Famicom
The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), commonly shortened to Super NES or Super Nintendo, is a Fourth generation of video game consoles, 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan and South ...
capable of playing
CD-ROM
A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains data. Computers can read—but not write or erase—CD-ROMs. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold both com ...
s. However, the collaboration did not last as Yamauchi preferred to continue developing the technology with
Philips
Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters is ...
, which would result in the
CD-i
The Compact Disc-Interactive (CD-I, later CD-i) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage device, data storage format that was mostly developed and marketed by Dutch company Philips. It was created as an extension of Compact Disc Di ...
, and Sony's independent efforts resulted in the creation of the
PlayStation console.
The first issue of ''
Nintendo Power
''Nintendo Power'' was a video game news and strategy magazine from Nintendo of America, first published in July/August 1988 as Nintendo's official print magazine for North America. The magazine's publication was initially done monthly by Ninten ...
'' magazine, which had an annual circulation of 1.5 million copies in the United States, was published in 1988.
In July 1989, Nintendo held the first
Nintendo Space World trade show
A trade fair, also known as trade show, trade exhibition, or trade exposition, is an exhibition organized so that companies in a specific industry can showcase and demonstrate their latest products and services, meet with industry partners and ...
with the name ''Shoshinkai'' for the purpose of announcing and demonstrating upcoming Nintendo products. That year, the first World of Nintendo
stores-within-a-store, which carried official Nintendo merchandise, were opened in the United States. According to company information, more than 25% of homes in the United States had an NES in 1989.
In the late 1980s, Nintendo's dominance slipped with the appearance of
NEC
is a Japanese multinational information technology and electronics corporation, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. The company was known as the Nippon Electric Company, Limited, before rebranding in 1983 as NEC. It provides IT and network soluti ...
's
PC Engine
The TurboGrafx-16, known as the outside North America, is a home video game console designed by Hudson Soft and sold by NEC Home Electronics. It was the first console marketed in the fourth generation, commonly known as the 16-bit era, thoug ...
and
Sega
is a Japanese multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its international branches, Sega of America and Sega Europe, are headquartered in Irvine, California and London, respectively. Its division ...
's
Mega Drive
The Sega Genesis, known as the outside North America, is a 16-bit fourth generation home video game console developed and sold by Sega. It was Sega's third console and the successor to the Master System. Sega released it in 1988 in Japan a ...
,
16-bit
16-bit microcomputers are microcomputers that use 16-bit microprocessors.
A 16-bit register can store 216 different values. The range of integer values that can be stored in 16 bits depends on the integer representation used. With the two ...
game consoles with improved graphics and audio compared to the NES. In response to the competition, Uemura designed the
Super Famicom
The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), commonly shortened to Super NES or Super Nintendo, is a Fourth generation of video game consoles, 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan and South ...
, which launched in 1990. The first batch of 300,000 consoles sold out in hours. The following year, as with the NES, Nintendo distributed a modified version of the Super Famicom to the United States market, titled the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Launch games for the Super Famicom and Super NES include ''
Super Mario World
''Super Mario World,'' known in Japan as is a platform video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). It was released in Japan in 1990, North America in 1991 and Europe and Australia in 19 ...
'', ''
F-Zero
is a series of futuristic racing video games originally created by Nintendo Entertainment Analysis & Development, Nintendo EAD with multiple games developed by outside companies. The F-Zero (video game), first game was released for the Super Fa ...
'', ''
Pilotwings
''Pilotwings'' is a series of flight simulation video games beginning with the 1990 video game '' Pilotwings'' and most recently ''Pilotwings Resort'' in 2011. One of Nintendo's franchises, the series was released on the Super Nintendo Entertain ...
'', ''
SimCity
''SimCity'' is an open-ended city-building video game series originally designed by Will Wright. The first game in the series, ''SimCity'', was published by Maxis in 1989 and were followed by several sequels and many other spin-off "''Sim ...
'', and ''
Gradius III''. By mid-1992, over 46 million Super Famicom and Super NES consoles had been sold.
The console's life cycle lasted until 1999 in the United States, and until 2003 in Japan.
In March 1990, the first
Nintendo World Championship
The Nintendo World Championships (NWC) is a nationwide video game competition series, organized by Nintendo of America at no particular interval.
The first Nintendo World Championships was in 1990, touring 29 American cities, being hosted in ...
was held, with participants from 29 American cities competing for the title of "best Nintendo player in the world".
In June 1990, the subsidiary Nintendo of Europe was opened in
Großostheim
Großostheim (or ''Grossostheim'') is a market community in the Aschaffenburg district in the ''Regierungsbezirk'' of Lower Franconia (''Unterfranken'') in Bavaria, Germany. The inhabitants call themselves ''Aistmer'' (''ostheimers'').
Geography ...
, Germany; in 1993, subsequent subsidiaries were established in the Netherlands (where
Bandai
is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational toy manufacturer and distributor headquartered in Taitō, Tokyo. Its international branches, Bandai Namco Toys & Collectables America and Bandai UK, are respectively headquartered in Irvine ...
had previously distributed Nintendo's products), France, the United Kingdom, Spain, Belgium, and Australia.
In 1992, Nintendo acquired a majority stake in the
Seattle Mariners
The Seattle Mariners are an American professional baseball team based in Seattle. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. The team joined the American League as an expansion ...
baseball team, and sold most of its shares in 2016. Nintendo ceased manufacturing arcade games and systems in September 1992. In 1993, ''
Star Fox
is an arcade style rail shooter and third person action-adventure video game series created by Shigeru Miyamoto, produced and published by Nintendo. The games follow the Star Fox combat team of anthropomorphic animals, led by chief protagon ...
'' was released, which marked an industry milestone by being the first video game to make use of the
Super FX
The Super FX is a coprocessor on the Graphics Support Unit (GSU) added to select Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) video game cartridges, primarily to facilitate advanced 2D and 3D graphics. The Super FX chip was designed by Argona ...
chip.
The proliferation of graphically violent video games, such as ''
Mortal Kombat
''Mortal Kombat'' is an American media franchise centered on a series of video games originally developed by Midway Games in 1992. The development of the first game was originally based on an idea that Ed Boon and John Tobias had of making a ...
'', caused controversy and led to the creation of the
Interactive Digital Software Association
The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) is the trade association of the video game industry in the United States. It was formed in April 1994 as the Interactive Digital Software Association (IDSA) and renamed on July 21, 2003. It is based in ...
and the
Entertainment Software Rating Board
The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) is a self-regulatory organization that assigns age and content ratings to consumer video games in the United States and Canada. The ESRB was established in 1994 by the Entertainment Software Ass ...
, in whose development Nintendo collaborated during 1994. These measures also encouraged Nintendo to abandon the content guidelines it had enforced since the release of the NES. Commercial strategies implemented by Nintendo during this time include the
Nintendo Gateway System
The Nintendo Gateway System is a version of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo 64, or GameCube that was installed on some Northwest, Singapore Airlines, Air China, Air Canada, Alitalia-Lin ...
, an in-flight entertainment service available for airlines, cruise ships and hotels, and the "Play It Loud!" advertising campaign for Game Boys with different-colored casings. The Advanced Computer Modeling graphics used in ''
Donkey Kong Country
''Donkey Kong Country'' is a 1994 platform game developed by Rare (company), Rare and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). It is a Reboot (fiction), reboot of Nintendo's ''Donkey Kong'' franchise and foll ...
'' for the Super NES and ''
Donkey Kong Land
''Donkey Kong Land'' is a 1995 platform game developed by Rare and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy. It condenses the side-scrolling gameplay of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) game ''Donkey Kong Country'' (1994) for the han ...
'' for the Game Boy were technologically innovative, as was the
Satellaview
The is a satellite modem peripheral produced by Nintendo for the Super Famicom in 1995. Containing 1 megabyte of ROM space and an additional 512 kB of RAM, Satellaview allowed players to download games, magazines, and other media through sate ...
satellite modem peripheral for the Super Famicom, which allowed the digital transmission of data via a
communications satellite
A communications satellite is an artificial satellite that relays and amplifies radio telecommunication signals via a transponder; it creates a communication channel between a source transmitter and a receiver at different locations on Earth ...
in space.
1993–1998: Nintendo 64, Virtual Boy, and Game Boy Color
In mid-1993, Nintendo and
Silicon Graphics
Silicon Graphics, Inc. (stylized as SiliconGraphics before 1999, later rebranded SGI, historically known as Silicon Graphics Computer Systems or SGCS) was an American high-performance computing manufacturer, producing computer hardware and soft ...
announced a strategic alliance to develop the
Nintendo 64
The (N64) is a home video game console developed by Nintendo. The successor to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, it was released on June 23, 1996, in Japan, on September 29, 1996, in North America, and on March 1, 1997, in Europe and ...
.
NEC
is a Japanese multinational information technology and electronics corporation, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. The company was known as the Nippon Electric Company, Limited, before rebranding in 1983 as NEC. It provides IT and network soluti ...
,
Toshiba
, commonly known as Toshiba and stylized as TOSHIBA, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Its diversified products and services include power, industrial and social infrastructure systems, ...
, and Sharp also contributed technology to the console. The Nintendo 64 was marketed as one of the first consoles to be designed with
64-bit
In computer architecture, 64-bit integers, memory addresses, or other data units are those that are 64 bits wide. Also, 64-bit CPUs and ALUs are those that are based on processor registers, address buses, or data buses of that size. A ...
architecture. As part of an agreement with
Midway Games
Midway Games Inc., known previously as Midway Manufacturing and Bally Midway, and commonly known as simply Midway, was an American video game developer and publisher. Midway's franchises included ''Mortal Kombat'', '' Rampage'', '' Spy Hunter'' ...
, the arcade games ''
Killer Instinct
''Killer Instinct'' is a series of fighting video games originally created by Rare and published by Midway, Nintendo, and Microsoft Studios. The original ''Killer Instinct'' was released for arcades in 1994; the game was then released for ...
'' and ''
Cruis'n USA
''Cruis'n USA'' is an arcade game, arcade racing video game, racing game originally released in 1994. It was developed by Eugene Jarvis' company TV Games Inc., and manufactured by Midway Games. It is the first game in the ''Cruis'n'' series and ...
'' were ported to the console.
Although the Nintendo 64 was planned for release in 1995, the production schedules of third-party developers influenced a delay,
and the console was released in June and September 1996 in Japan and the United States respectively, and in March 1997 in Europe. By the end of its production in 2002, around 33 million Nintendo 64 consoles were sold worldwide,
and it is considered one of the most recognized video game systems in history. 388 games were produced for the Nintendo 64 in total, some of which – particularly ''
Super Mario 64
is a platform game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. It was released in Japan and North America in 1996 and PAL regions in 1997. It is the first ''Super Mario'' game to feature 3D gameplay, combining traditional ...
'', ''
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time'', and ''
GoldenEye 007'' – have been distinguished as
some of the greatest of all time.
In 1995, Nintendo released the
Virtual Boy
The Virtual Boy is a 32-bit tabletop portable video game console developed and manufactured by Nintendo. Released in 1995, it was marketed as the first console capable of displaying stereoscopic "3D" graphics. The player uses the console like ...
, a console designed by
Gunpei Yokoi
, sometimes transliterated Gumpei Yokoi, was a Japanese video game designer. He was a long-time Nintendo employee, best known as creator of the Game & Watch handheld system, inventor of the cross-shaped Control Pad, the original designer of the ...
with
stereoscopic graphics. Critics were generally disappointed with the quality of the games and red-colored graphics, and complained of gameplay-induced headaches. The system sold poorly and was quietly discontinued. Amid the system's failure, Yokoi formally retired from Nintendo. In February 1996,
''Pocket Monsters Red'' and ''Green'', known internationally as ''Pokémon Red'' and ''Blue'', developed by
Game Freak
is a Japanese video game developer, best known as the primary developer of the mainline ''Pokémon'' series of role-playing video games published by Nintendo and The Pokémon Company.
History
Predating the video game company, ''Game Freak'' ...
was released in Japan for the Game Boy, and established the popular ''
Pokémon
(an abbreviation for in Japan) is a Japanese media franchise managed by The Pokémon Company, founded by Nintendo, Game Freak, and Creatures, the owners of the trademark and copyright of the franchise.
In terms of what each of thos ...
'' franchise. The game went on to sell 31.37 million units, with the video game series exceeding a total of 300 million units in sales as of 2017. In 1997, Nintendo released the
Rumble Pak, a plug-in device that connects to the Nintendo 64 controller and produces a vibration during certain moments of a game.
In 1998, the
Game Boy Color
The (commonly abbreviated as GBC) is a handheld game console, manufactured by Nintendo, which was released in Japan on October 21, 1998 and to international markets that November. It is the successor to the Game Boy and is part of the Game ...
was released. In addition to
backward compatibility
Backward compatibility (sometimes known as backwards compatibility) is a property of an operating system, product, or technology that allows for interoperability with an older legacy system, or with input designed for such a system, especiall ...
with Game Boy games, the console's similar capacity to the NES resulted in select adaptations of games from that library, such as ''
Super Mario Bros. Deluxe
is a platform game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). The successor to the 1983 arcade game ''Mario Bros.'' and the first game in the ''Super Mario'' series, it was first released in 1985 for th ...
''.
Since then, over 118.6 million Game Boy and Game Boy Color consoles have been sold worldwide.
1999–2003: Game Boy Advance and GameCube
In May 1999, with the advent of the
PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October 2000, in Europe on 24 November 2000, and in Australia on ...
, Nintendo entered an agreement with
IBM and
Panasonic
formerly between 1935 and 2008 and the first incarnation of between 2008 and 2022, is a major Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation, headquartered in Kadoma, Osaka. It was founded by Kōnosuke Matsushita in 1918 as a lightbulb ...
to develop the
128-bit Gekko processor and the DVD drive to be used in Nintendo's next home console. Meanwhile, a series of administrative changes occurred in 2000, when Nintendo's corporate offices were moved to the Minami-ku neighborhood in Kyoto, and Nintendo Benelux was established to manage the Dutch and Belgian territories.
In 2001, two new Nintendo consoles were introduced: the
Game Boy Advance
The (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console developed, manufactured and marketed by Nintendo as the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, in North America on June 11, 2001, in the PAL region on June 22, ...
, which was designed by Gwénaël Nicolas with stylistic departure from its predecessors, and the
GameCube
The is a home video game console developed and released by Nintendo in Japan on September 14, 2001, in North America on November 18, 2001, and in PAL territories in 2002. It is the successor to the Nintendo 64 (1996), and predecessor of the ...
. During the first week of the Game Boy Advance's North American release in June 2001, over 500,000 units were sold, making it the fastest-selling video game console in the United States at the time. By the end of its production cycle in 2010, more than 81.5 million units had been sold worldwide.
As for the GameCube, even with such distinguishing features as the
miniDVD
MiniDVD (also Mini DVD or miniDVD) is a DVD disc which is in diameter. Most MiniDVDs hold 1.4 GB of data, but there are variants that hold up to 5.2 GB. The MiniDVD is also known as a "3 inch DVD", referring to its approximate diameter in inc ...
format of its games and Internet connectivity for a few games, its sales were lower than those of its predecessors, and during the six years of its production, 21.7 million units were sold worldwide. An innovative product developed by Nintendo during this time was the
Nintendo e-Reader
The Nintendo e-Reader, stylized as ereader, commonly abbreviated as e-Reader, known in Japan as the is an add-on manufactured by Nintendo for its Game Boy Advance handheld video game console. It was released in Japan in December 2001, with a ...
, a Game Boy Advance peripheral that allows the transfer of data stored on a series of cards to the console.
In 2002, the
Pokémon Mini
The (officially stylized as Pokémon mini) is a handheld game console that was designed and manufactured by Nintendo and themed around the ''Pokémon'' media franchise. It is the smallest game system with interchangeable cartridges ever produce ...
was released. Its dimensions were smaller than that of the Game Boy Advance and it weighed 70 grams, making it the smallest video game console in history.
Nintendo collaborated with
Sega
is a Japanese multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its international branches, Sega of America and Sega Europe, are headquartered in Irvine, California and London, respectively. Its division ...
and
Namco
was a Japanese multinational video game and entertainment company, headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo. It held several international branches, including Namco America in Santa Clara, California, Namco Europe in London, Namco Taiwan in Kaohsiun ...
to develop
Triforce
The is a fictional artifact and icon of Nintendo's ''The Legend of Zelda'' series of video games. It first appeared in the original 1986 action-adventure game ''The Legend of Zelda'' and is a focus of subsequent games in the series, including ...
, an arcade board to facilitate the conversion of arcade titles to the GameCube. Following the European release of the GameCube in May 2002,
Hiroshi Yamauchi
was a Japanese businessman and the third president of Nintendo, joining the company in 1949 until stepping down on 24 May 2002, being subsequently succeeded by Satoru Iwata. During his 53-year tenure, Yamauchi transformed Nintendo from a hanafu ...
announced his resignation as the president of Nintendo, and
Satoru Iwata
was a Japanese businessman, video game programmer, video game designer, and producer. He was the fourth president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Nintendo from 2002 until his death in 2015. He was a major contributor in broadening the app ...
was selected by the company as his successor. Yamauchi would remain as advisor and director of the company until 2005, and he died in 2013. Iwata's appointment as president ended the Yamauchi succession at the helm of the company, a practice that had been in place since its foundation.
In 2003, Nintendo released the
Game Boy Advance SP, an improved version of the Game Boy Advance with a foldable case, an illuminated display, and a rechargeable battery. By the end of its production cycle in 2010, over 43.5 million units had been sold worldwide.
Nintendo also released the
Game Boy Player, a peripheral that allows Game Boy and Game Boy Advance games to be played on the GameCube.
2004–2009: Nintendo DS and Wii
In 2004, the last remnants of Nintendo's original headquarters was reportedly demolished. Later that year, Nintendo released the
Nintendo DS
The is a handheld game console produced by Nintendo, released globally across 2004 and 2005. The DS, an initialism for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld games: two LCD screens working in t ...
, which featured such innovations as dual screens – one of which being a
touchscreen
A touchscreen or touch screen is the assembly of both an input ('touch panel') and output ('display') device. The touch panel is normally layered on the top of an electronic visual display of an information processing system. The display is ofte ...
– and wireless connectivity for multiplayer play.
Throughout its lifetime, more than 154 million units were sold, making it the most successful handheld console and the second best-selling console in history.
In 2005, Nintendo released the Game Boy Micro, the last system in the Game Boy line.
Sales did not meet Nintendo's expectations, with 2.5 million units being sold by 2007.
In mid-2005, the Nintendo New York, Nintendo World Store was inaugurated in New York City.
Nintendo's next home console was conceived in 2001, although development commenced in 2003, taking inspiration from the Nintendo DS. Nintendo also considered the relative failure of the GameCube, and instead opted to take a "Blue Ocean Strategy, blue ocean strategy" by developing a reduced performance console in contrast to the high-performance consoles of Sony and Microsoft to avoid directly competiting with them. The
Wii
The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America and in December 2006 for most other regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major home game console, ...
was released in November 2006, with a total of 33 launch games. With the Wii, Nintendo sought to reach a broader demographic than its Seventh generation of video game consoles, seventh-generation competitors, with the intention of also encompassing the "non-consumer" sector. To this end, Nintendo invested in a $200 million advertising campaign. The Wii's innovations include the Wii Remote controller, equipped with an accelerometer system and infrared sensors that allow it to detect its position in a three-dimensional environment with the aid of a sensor bar; the Nunchuk peripheral that includes an analog controller and an accelerometer; and the Wii MotionPlus expansion that increases the sensitivity of the main controller with the aid of gyroscopes. By 2016, more than 101 million Wii consoles had been sold worldwide,
making it the most successful console of its generation, a distinction that Nintendo had not achieved since the 1990s with the Super NES.
Several accessories were released for the Wii from 2007 to 2010, such as the Wii Balance Board, the Wii Wheel and the WiiWare download service. In 2009, Nintendo Iberica S.A. expanded its commercial operations to Portugal through a new office in Lisbon.
By that year, Nintendo held a 68.3% share of the worldwide handheld gaming market. In 2010, Nintendo celebrated the 25th anniversary of Mario's debut appearance, for which certain allusive products were put on sale. The event included the release of ''Super Mario All-Stars 25th Anniversary Edition'' and special editions of the Nintendo DSi XL and Wii.
2010–2016: Nintendo 3DS, Wii U, and mobile ventures
Following an announcement in March 2010, Nintendo released the Nintendo 3DS in 2011. The console produces Stereoscopy, stereoscopic effects without 3D glasses. By 2018, more than 69 million units had been sold worldwide; the figure increased to 75 million by the start of 2019.
In 2011, Nintendo celebrated the 25th anniversary of ''The Legend of Zelda'' with the orchestra concert tour The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses, ''The Legend of Zelda'': Symphony of the Goddesses and the video game ''The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword''.
In 2012 and 2013, two new Nintendo game consoles were introduced: the Wii U, with high-definition graphics and a Wii U GamePad, GamePad controller with near-field communication technology, and the Nintendo 2DS, a version of the 3DS that lacks the clamshell design of Nintendo's previous handheld consoles and the stereoscopic effects of the 3DS. With 13.5 million units sold worldwide,
the Wii U is the least successful video game console in Nintendo's history. In 2014, a new product line was released consisting of figures of Nintendo characters called amiibos.
On 25 September 2013, Nintendo announced its acquisition of a 28% stake in PUX Corporation, a subsidiary of
Panasonic
formerly between 1935 and 2008 and the first incarnation of between 2008 and 2022, is a major Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation, headquartered in Kadoma, Osaka. It was founded by Kōnosuke Matsushita in 1918 as a lightbulb ...
, for the purpose of developing Facial recognition system, facial, Speech recognition, voice, and text recognition for its video games. Due to a 30% decrease in company income between April and December 2013, Iwata announced a temporary 50% cut to his salary, with other executives seeing reductions by 20%–30%. In January 2015, Nintendo ceased operations in the Brazilian market due in part to high import Duty (economics), duties. This did not affect the rest of Nintendo's Latin American market due to an alliance with Juegos de Video Latinoamérica. Nintendo reached an agreement with NC Games for Nintendo's products to resume distribution in Brazil by 2017, and by September 2020, the Switch was released in Brazil.
On 11 July 2015, Iwata died of Cholangiocarcinoma, bile duct cancer, and after a couple of months in which Miyamoto and Takeda jointly operated the company, Tatsumi Kimishima was named as Iwata's successor on 16 September 2015. As part of the management's restructuring, Miyamoto and Takeda were respectively named creative and technological advisors.
The financial losses caused by the Wii U, along with Sony's intention to release its video games to other platforms such as smart TVs, motivated Nintendo to rethink its strategy concerning the production and distribution of its properties. In 2015, Nintendo formalized agreements with DeNA and Universal Parks & Resorts to extend its presence to smart devices and amusement parks respectively.
In March 2016, Nintendo's first mobile app for the iOS and Android (operating system), Android systems, ''Miitomo'', was released. Since then, Nintendo has produced other similar apps, such as ''Super Mario Run'', ''Fire Emblem Heroes'', ''Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp'', ''Mario Kart Tour'', and ''Pokémon Go'', the last being developed by Niantic (company), Niantic and having generated $115 million in revenue for Nintendo. The theme park area Super Nintendo World opened at Universal Studios Japan in 2020. In March 2016, the loyalty program My Nintendo replaced Club Nintendo.
The NES Classic Edition was released in November 2016. The console is a version of the NES based on emulation, HDMI, and the Wii remote. Its successor, the Super NES Classic Edition, was released in September 2017. By October 2018, around ten million units of both consoles combined had been sold worldwide.
2017–present: Nintendo Switch and expansion to other media
The Wii U's successor in the eighth generation of video game consoles, the Nintendo Switch, was released in March 2017. The Switch features a hybrid design as a home and handheld console, Joy-Con controllers that each contain an accelerometer and gyroscope, and the simultaneous wireless networking of up to eight consoles. To expand its library, Nintendo entered alliances with several third-party and independent developers; by February 2019, more than 1,800 Switch games had been released. Worldwide sales of the Switch exceeded 55 million units by March 2020. In April 2018, the Nintendo Labo line was released, consisting of cardboard accessories that interact with the Switch and the Joy-Con controllers. More than one million units of the Nintendo Labo Variety Kit were sold in its first year on the market.
In 2018, Shuntaro Furukawa replaced Kimishima as company president, and in 2019, Doug Bowser succeeded Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aimé. In April 2019, Nintendo formed an alliance with Tencent to distribute the Nintendo Switch in China starting in December. In April 2020, ValueAct Capital Partners announced an acquisition of $1.1 billion in Nintendo stock purchases, giving them an overall stake of 2% in Nintendo. On 6 January 2020, hotel and restaurant development company Plan See Do announced that it would refurbish the former headquarters of Marufuku Nintendo Card Co. as a hotel, with plans to add 20 guest rooms, a restaurant, bar, and gym, with a planned opening date of mid 2021. The building belongs to Yamauchi Co., Ltd., an asset management company of Nintendo's founding family.
It was further reported that the original 19th-century headquarters was apparently demolished and turned into a parking lot.
Although the COVID-19 pandemic caused delays in the production and distribution of some of Nintendo's products, the situation "had limited impact on business results"; in May 2020, Nintendo reported a 75% increase in income compared to the previous fiscal year, mainly contributed by the Nintendo Switch Online service. In August 2020, Nintendo was named the richest company in Japan.
Nintendo announced plans in June 2021 to convert its former Uji Ogura plant, where it had previously made playing and hanafuda cards, into a museum for the company to be completed by the 2023 fiscal year. The building has been vacant since these functions were transferred to a new Uji plant in 2016.
Nintendo is co-producing an animated film ''The Super Mario Bros. Movie'' alongside Universal Pictures and Illumination (company), Illumination, with Miyamoto and Illumination CEO Chris Meledandri producing, set for release in April 2023. In 2021, Furukawa indicated Nintendo's plan to create more animated projects based on their work outside the ''Mario'' film, and by July, Melendandri joined the board of directors "as an independent and non-executive outside director", to help Nintendo produce further movies through his filmmaking experience, and Furukawa confirmed that work on other animated projects was currently underway. According to Furukawa, the company's expansion toward animated production is to keep "[the] business [of producing video games] thriving and growing", realizing the "need to create opportunities where even people who do not normally play on video game systems can come into contact with Nintendo characters". That day, Miyamoto said that "[Melendandri] really came to understand the Nintendo point of view" and that "asking for [his] input, as an expert with many years of experience in Hollywood, will be of great help to" Nintendo's transition into film production.
Later, in July 2022, Nintendo acquired Dynamo Pictures, a Japanese CG company founded by Hiroshi Hirokawa on March 18, 2011. Dynamo had worked with Nintendo on digital shorts in the 2010s, including for the ''Pikmin'' series, and Nintendo said that Dynamo would continue their goal of expanding into animation. Following the completion of the acquisition in October 2022, Nintendo renamed Dynamo as Nintendo Pictures.
In February 2022, Nintendo announced the acquisition of Systems Research & Development, SRD Co., Ltd. (Systems Research and Development) after 40 years, a major contributor of Nintendo's first-party games such as ''Donkey Kong'' and ''The Legend of Zelda'' until the 1990s, and then support studio since.
In May 2022, it was reported by Bloomberg that Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund had purchased a 5% stake in Nintendo.
Products
Nintendo's central focus is the research, development, production, and distribution of entertainment productsprimarily video game software and hardware and card games. Its main markets are Japan, America, and Europe, and more than 70% of its total sales come from the latter two territories. As of 2022, Nintendo has sold more than 5.4 billion video games and over 800 million
hardware units.
Toys and cards
Video game consoles
Since the launch of the
Color TV-Game
The is the first video game system ever made by Nintendo. The system was released as a series of five dedicated home video game consoles between 1977 and 1980 in Japan only. Nintendo sold three million units of the first four models: one mil ...
in 1977, Nintendo has produced and distributed home, handheld, dedicated and hybrid consoles. Each has a variety of accessories and controllers, such as the NES Zapper, the Game Boy Camera, the Super NES Mouse, the
Rumble Pak, the Wii MotionPlus, the Wii U Pro Controller, and the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller, Switch Pro Controller.
Video games
Nintendo's first electronic games are arcade games. ''EVR Race'' (1975) was the company's first Electromechanics, electromechanical game, and ''
Donkey Kong
is a video game franchise created by Shigeru Miyamoto and owned by Nintendo. It follows the adventures of a gorilla named Donkey Kong (character), Donkey Kong and his clan of other Ape, apes and monkeys. The franchise primarily consists of plat ...
'' (1981) was the first platform game in history. Since then, both Nintendo and other development companies have produced and distributed an extensive catalogue of video games for Nintendo's consoles. Nintendo's games are sold in both removable media formats such as Nintendo optical discs, optical disc and Nintendo Entertainment System Game Pak, cartridge, and online formats which are Digital distribution, distributed via services such as the Nintendo eShop and the Nintendo Network.
Marketing
Nintendo of America has engaged in several high-profile marketing campaigns to define and position its brand. One of its earliest and most enduring slogans was "Now you're playing with power!", used first to promote its
Nintendo Entertainment System
The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit third-generation home video game console produced by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan in 1983 as the commonly known as the The NES, a redesigned version, was released in America ...
. It modified the slogan to include "SUPER power" for the
Super Nintendo Entertainment System
The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), commonly shortened to Super NES or Super Nintendo, is a 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan and South Korea, 1991 in North America, 1992 in Eu ...
, and "PORTABLE power" for the
Game Boy
The is an 8-bit fourth generation handheld game console developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan on April 21, 1989, in North America later the same year, and in Europe in late 1990. It was designed by the same t ...
.
Its 1994 "Play It Loud!" campaign played upon teenage rebellion and fostered an edgy reputation.
During the
Nintendo 64
The (N64) is a home video game console developed by Nintendo. The successor to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, it was released on June 23, 1996, in Japan, on September 29, 1996, in North America, and on March 1, 1997, in Europe and ...
era, the slogan was "Get N or get out".
During the GameCube era, the "Who Are You?" suggested a link between the games and the players' identities. The company promoted its Nintendo DS handheld with the tagline "Touching is Good".
For the Wii, they used the "Wii would like to play" slogan to promote the console with the people who tried the games including ''Super Mario Galaxy'' and ''Super Paper Mario''.
The Nintendo 3DS used the slogan "Take a look inside". The Wii U used the slogan "How U will play next". The Nintendo Switch uses the slogan "Switch and Play" in North America, and "Play anywhere, anytime, with anyone" elsewhere.
Trademark
During the peak of Nintendo's success in the video game industry in the 1990s, its name was ubiquitously used to refer to any video game console, regardless of the manufacturer. To prevent its trademark from becoming generic trademark, generic, Nintendo pushed the term "game console", and succeeded in preserving its trademark.
Logos
Used since the 1960s, Nintendo's most recognizable logo is the racetrack shape, especially the red-colored wordmark typically displayed on a white background, primarily used in the Western markets from 1985 to 2006. In Japan, a monochromatic version that lacks a colored background is on Nintendo's own Famicom, Super Famicom, Nintendo 64, GameCube, and handheld console packaging and marketing. Since 2006, in conjunction with the launch of the Wii, Nintendo changed its logo to a gray variant that lacks a colored background inside the wordmark, making it transparent. Nintendo's official, corporate logo remains this variation. For consumer products and marketing, a white variant on a red background has been used since 2015, and has been in full effect since the launch of the Nintendo Switch in 2017.
File:Nintendo 1889.svg , 1889–1950
File:Nintendo - 1950.png , 1950–1960
File:Nintendo - 1960.png , 1960–1965
File:Nintendo - 1965.png , 1965–1970
File:Nintendo - 1967.png , 1967–1975
File:Nintendo - 1968.png , 1968–1975
File:Nintendo Logo 1970.png , 1970–1975
File:Nintendo - 1972.png , 1972
File:Nintendo red logo.svg , 1975–present
File:Nintendo gray logo.svg , 2006–present
File:Nintendo.svg , 2016–present
Company structure
Board of directors
Representative directors
* Shuntaro Furukawa, President (corporate title), President
*
Shigeru Miyamoto
is a Japanese video game designer, producer and game director at Nintendo, where he serves as one of its representative directors. Widely regarded as one of the most accomplished and influential designers in the history of video games, he ...
, Fellow
Directors
* Shinya Takahashi, senior managing executive officer, general manager of Entertainment Planning & Development, and supervisor of Business Development Division and Development Administration & Support Division.
* Ko Shiota, senior executive officer, general manager of Platform Technology Development
* Satoru Shibata, senior executive officer, general manager of marketing and licensing
Executive officers
* Satoshi Yamato, senior executive officer, president of Nintendo Sales Co., Ltd
* Hirokazu Shinshi, senior executive officer, chief director of manufacturing
* Yoshiaki Koizumi, senior executive officer, deputy general manager of Entertainment Planning & Development
*
Takashi Tezuka
is a Japanese video game designer, director, and video game producer, producer. He is a senior officer of Nintendo EPD and executive at Nintendo.
Career
Upon graduating the Design Department of Osaka University of Arts, he joined Nintendo in A ...
, executive officer, senior officer of Entertainment Planning & Development
* Hajime Murakami, executive officer, general Manager of Finance Administration Division
* Yusuke Beppu, executive officer and deputy general manager of Business Development Division
* Kentaro Yamagishi, executive officer and chief director of General Affairs
* Doug Bowser, executive officer, president, and Chief operating officer, COO of Nintendo of America
* Stephan Bole, executive officer, president, and COO of Nintendo of Europe
Internal divisions
Nintendo's internal research and development operations are divided into three main divisions:
# Nintendo Entertainment Planning & Development (or EPD), the main software development and production division of Nintendo, which focuses on
video game
Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This feedba ...
and software development, production, and supervising;
# Nintendo Platform Technology Development (or PTD), which focuses on Home video game console, home and handheld video game console hardware development; and
# Nintendo Business Development (or NBD), which focuses on refining business strategy and is responsible for overseeing the smart device arm of the business.
Entertainment Planning & Development (EPD)
The Nintendo Entertainment Planning & Development division is the primary software development, production, and supervising division at Nintendo, formed as a merger between their former Nintendo Entertainment Analysis & Development, Entertainment Analysis & Development and Nintendo Software Planning & Development, Software Planning & Development divisions in 2015. Led by Shinya Takahashi, the division holds the largest concentration of staff at the company, housing more than 800 engineers, producers, directors, coordinators, planners, and designers.
Platform Technology Development (PTD)
The Nintendo Platform Technology Development division is a combination of Nintendo's former Nintendo Integrated Research & Development, Integrated Research & Development (or IRD) and Nintendo System Development, System Development (or SDD) divisions. Led by Ko Shiota, the division is responsible for designing hardware and developing Nintendo's operating systems, developer environment, and internal network, and maintenance of the Nintendo Network.
Business Development (NBD)
The Nintendo Business Development division was formed following Nintendo's foray into software development for smart devices such as mobile phones and tablet computer, tablets. It is responsible for refining Nintendo's business model for the dedicated video game system business, and development for smart devices.
Subsidiaries
Although most of the research and development is being done in Japan, there are some Research and development, R&D facilities in the United States, Europe, and China that are focused on developing software and hardware technologies used in Nintendo products. Although they all are subsidiaries of Nintendo (and therefore first-party), they are often referred to as external resources when being involved in joint development processes with Nintendo's internal developers by the Japanese personnel involved. This can be seen in the ''List of Iwata Asks interviews, Iwata Asks'' interview series. Nintendo Software Technology (NST) and Nintendo Technology Development (NTD) are located in Redmond, Washington, United States, while Nintendo European Research & Development (NERD) is located in Paris, France, and Nintendo Network Service Database (NSD) is located in
Kyoto
Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the c ...
, Japan.
Most external First-party developer, first-party software development is done in Japan, because the only overseas subsidiaries are Retro Studios in the United States (acquired in 2002) and Next Level Games in Canada (acquired in 2021). Although these studios are all subsidiaries of Nintendo, they are often referred to as external resources when being involved in joint development processes with Nintendo's internal developers by the Nintendo Entertainment Planning & Development (EPD) division. 1-Up Studio and NDcube are located in Tokyo, Japan, and Monolith Soft has one studio located in Tokyo and another in
Kyoto
Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the c ...
.
Nintendo also established The Pokémon Company alongside Creatures (company), Creatures and
Game Freak
is a Japanese video game developer, best known as the primary developer of the mainline ''Pokémon'' series of role-playing video games published by Nintendo and The Pokémon Company.
History
Predating the video game company, ''Game Freak'' ...
to manage the
Pokémon
(an abbreviation for in Japan) is a Japanese media franchise managed by The Pokémon Company, founded by Nintendo, Game Freak, and Creatures, the owners of the trademark and copyright of the franchise.
In terms of what each of thos ...
brand. Similarly, Warpstar Inc. was formed through a joint investment with
HAL Laboratory
formerly shortened as HALKEN (derived from its native name), is a Japanese video game developer founded on 21 February 1980. While independent, it has been closely tied with Nintendo throughout its history, and is often referred to as a seco ...
, which was in charge of the ''Kirby: Right Back at Ya!'' animated series. Both companies are investments from Nintendo, with Nintendo holding 32% of the shares of The Pokémon Company and 50% of the shares of Warpstar Inc.
In total there are 25 subsidiaries reported by the company with 21 being known as of November 2022 via the Annual Report:
* Nintendo of America Inc.
* Nintendo of Canada Ltd.
* Nintendo of Europe SE
* Nintendo RU LLC
* Nintendo Australia
* Nintendo of Korea Co. Ltd.
* Nintendo (Hong Kong) Limited
* Nintendo Sales Co., Ltd. (Japan)
* Nintendo Technology Development, Inc.
* Nintendo Software Technology Corporation
* Retro Studios
* Next Level Games
* Nintendo European Research and Development
* iQue (China)
* NDcube
* 1-UP Studio
* Monolith Soft
* Mario Club Co., Ltd.
* Systems Research & Development, SRD Co., Ltd.
* Nintendo Pictures
* Nintendo Systems Co., Ltd. (80%)
Additional distributors
Bergsala
Bergsala, a third-party company based in Sweden, exclusively handles Nintendo operations in the Nordic region. Bergsala's relationship with Nintendo was established in 1981 when the company sought to distribute ''Game & Watch'' units to Sweden, which later expanded to the NES console by 1986. Bergsala were the only non-Nintendo owned distributor of Nintendo's products, until 2019 when Tor Gaming gained distribution rights in Israel.
Tencent
Nintendo has partnered with Tencent to release Nintendo products in China, following the lifting of the country's console ban in 2015. In addition to distributing hardware, Tencent helps with the governmental approval process for video game software.
Tor Gaming
In January 2019, Ynet and IGN Israel reported that negotiations about official distribution of Nintendo products in the country were ongoing.
After two months, IGN Israel announced that Tor Gaming Ltd., a company established in earlier 2019, gained a distribution agreement with Nintendo of Europe, handling official retailing beginning at the start of March, followed by opening an official online store the next month. In June 2019, Tor Gaming launched an official Nintendo Store at Dizengoff Center in Tel Aviv, making it the second official Nintendo Store worldwide, 13 years after NYC.
Branches
Nintendo Co., Ltd.
Headquartered in Kyoto, Japan since the beginning, Nintendo Co., Ltd. oversees the organization's global operations and manages Japanese operations specifically. The company's two major subsidiaries, Nintendo of America and Nintendo of Europe, manage operations in North America and Europe respectively. Nintendo Co., Ltd. moved from its original Kyoto location to a new office in Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto, in 2000; this became the research and development building when the head office relocated to its location in Minami-ku, Kyoto.
Nintendo of America
Nintendo founded its North American subsidiary in 1980 as Nintendo of America (NoA).
Hiroshi Yamauchi
was a Japanese businessman and the third president of Nintendo, joining the company in 1949 until stepping down on 24 May 2002, being subsequently succeeded by Satoru Iwata. During his 53-year tenure, Yamauchi transformed Nintendo from a hanafu ...
appointed his son-in-law Minoru Arakawa as president, who in turn hired his own wife and Yamauchi's daughter Yoko Yamauchi as the first employee. The Arakawa family moved from Vancouver, British Columbia to select an office in Manhattan, New York, due to its central status in American commerce. Both from extremely affluent families, their goals were set more by achievement than moneyand all their seed capital and products would now also be automatically inherited from Nintendo in Japan, and their inaugural target is the existing $8 billion-per-year coin-op
arcade video game
An arcade video game takes player input from its controls, processes it through electrical or computerized components, and displays output to an electronic monitor or similar display. Most arcade video games are coin-operated, housed in an arc ...
market and largest entertainment industry in the US, which already outclassed movies and television combined. During the couple's arcade research excursions, NoA hired gamer youths to work in the filthy, hot, ratty warehouse in New Jersey for the receiving and service of game hardware from Japan.
In late 1980, NoA contracted the Seattle-based arcade sales and distribution company Far East Video, consisting solely of experienced arcade salespeople Ron Judy and Al Stone. The two had already built a decent reputation and a distribution network, founded specifically for the independent import and sales of games from Nintendo because the Japanese company had for years been the under-represented maverick in America. Now as direct associates to the new NoA, they told Arakawa they could always clear all Nintendo inventory if Nintendo produced better games. Far East Video took NoA's contract for a fixed per-unit commission on the exclusive American distributorship of Nintendo games, to be settled by their Seattle-based lawyer, Howard Lincoln.
Based on favorable test arcade sites in Seattle, Arakawa wagered most of NoA's modest finances on a huge order of 3,000 ''
Radar Scope'' cabinets. He panicked when the game failed in the fickle market upon its arrival from its four-month boat ride from Japan. Far East Video was already in financial trouble due to declining sales and Ron Judy borrowed his aunt's life savings of $50,000, while still hoping Nintendo would develop its first ''Pac-Man''-sized hit. Arakawa regretted founding the Nintendo subsidiary, with the distressed Yoko trapped between her arguing husband and father.
Amid financial threat, Nintendo of America relocated from Manhattan to the Seattle metro to remove major stressors: the frenetic New York and New Jersey lifestyle and commute, and the extra weeks or months on the shipping route from Japan as was suffered by the ''Radar Scope'' disaster. With the Seattle harbor being the US's closest to Japan at only nine days by boat, and having a lumber production market for arcade cabinets, Arakawa's real estate scouts found a warehouse for rent containing three officesone for Arakawa and one for Judy and Stone. This warehouse in the Tukwila, Washington, Tukwila suburb was owned by
Mario Segale after whom the
Mario
is a character (arts), character created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. He is the title character of the ''Mario (franchise), Mario'' franchise and the mascot of Japanese video game company Nintendo. Mario has appeared in ...
character would be named, and was initially managed by former Far East Video employee Don James. After one month, James recruited his college friend Howard Phillips (consultant), Howard Phillips as assistant, who soon took over as warehouse manager.
[ 10:00, 11:50, 17:25.] The company remained at fewer than 10 employees for some time, handling sales, marketing, advertising, distribution, and limited manufacturing
of arcade cabinets and ''
Game & Watch
The Game & Watch brand ( ''Gēmu & Uotchi''; called ''Tricotronic'' in West Germany and Austria, abbreviated as ''G&W'') is a series of handheld electronic games developed, manufactured, released, and marketed by Nintendo from 1980 to 1991. C ...
'' handheld units, all sourced and shipped from Nintendo.
Arakawa was still panicked over NoA's ongoing financial crisis. With the parent company having no new game ideas, he had been repeatedly pleading for Yamauchi to reassign some top talent away from existing Japanese products to develop something for Americaespecially to redeem the massive dead stock of ''Radar Scope'' cabinets. Since all of Nintendo's key engineers and programmers were busy, and with NoA representing only a tiny fraction of the parent's overall business, Yamauchi allowed only the assignment of
Gunpei Yokoi
, sometimes transliterated Gumpei Yokoi, was a Japanese video game designer. He was a long-time Nintendo employee, best known as creator of the Game & Watch handheld system, inventor of the cross-shaped Control Pad, the original designer of the ...
's young assistant who had no background in engineering,
Shigeru Miyamoto
is a Japanese video game designer, producer and game director at Nintendo, where he serves as one of its representative directors. Widely regarded as one of the most accomplished and influential designers in the history of video games, he ...
.
NoA's staffexcept the sole young gamer Howard Phillipswere uniformly revolted at the sight of the freshman developer Miyamoto's debut game, which they had imported in the form of emergency conversion kits for the overstock of ''Radar Scope'' cabinets. The kits transformed the cabinets into NoA's massive windfall gain of from Miyamoto's smash hit ''
Donkey Kong
is a video game franchise created by Shigeru Miyamoto and owned by Nintendo. It follows the adventures of a gorilla named Donkey Kong (character), Donkey Kong and his clan of other Ape, apes and monkeys. The franchise primarily consists of plat ...
'' in 1981–1983 alone. They sold 4,000 new arcade units each month in America, making the 24-year-old Phillips "the largest volume shipping manager for the entire Port of Seattle".
Arakawa used these profits to buy of land in Redmond in July 1982 and to perform the $50 million launch of the
Nintendo Entertainment System
The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit third-generation home video game console produced by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan in 1983 as the commonly known as the The NES, a redesigned version, was released in America ...
in 1985 which revitalized the entire video game industry from its video game crash of 1983, devastating 1983 crash.
A second warehouse in Redmond was soon secured, and managed by Don James. The company stayed at around 20 employees for some years.
The organization was reshaped nationwide in the following decades, and those core sales and marketing business functions are now directed by the office in Redwood City, California. The company's distribution centers are Nintendo Atlanta in Atlanta, Georgia, and Nintendo North Bend in North Bend, Washington. , the Nintendo North Bend facility processes more than 20,000 orders a day to Nintendo customers, which include Retail, retail stores that sell Nintendo products in addition to consumers who Online shopping, shop Nintendo's website. Nintendo of America operates two retail stores in the United States: Nintendo New York on Rockefeller Plaza in New York City, which is open to the public; and Nintendo Redmond, co-located at NoA headquarters in Redmond, Washington, which is open only to Nintendo employees and invited guests. Nintendo of America's Canadian branch, Nintendo of Canada, is based in Vancouver, British Columbia with a distribution center in Toronto, Ontario. Nintendo Treehouse is NoA's localization team, composed of around 80 staff who are responsible for translating text from Japanese to English, creating videos and marketing plans, and quality assurance.
Nintendo of America announced in October 2021 that it will be closing its offices in Redwood City, California and Toronto and merging their operations with their Redmond and Vancouver offices.
Nintendo of Europe
Nintendo's European subsidiary was established in June 1990,
based in
Großostheim
Großostheim (or ''Grossostheim'') is a market community in the Aschaffenburg district in the ''Regierungsbezirk'' of Lower Franconia (''Unterfranken'') in Bavaria, Germany. The inhabitants call themselves ''Aistmer'' (''ostheimers'').
Geography ...
, Germany. The company handles operations across Europe (excluding Scandinavia, where operations are handled by Bergsala),
as well as South Africa.
Nintendo of Europe's United Kingdom branch (Nintendo UK) handles operations in that country and in Ireland from its headquarters in Windsor, Berkshire. In June 2014, NOE initiated a reduction and consolidation process, yielding a combined 130 layoffs: the closing of its office and warehouse, and termination of all employment, in Großostheim; and the consolidation of all of those operations into, and terminating some employment at, its Frankfurt location. As of July 2018, the company employs 850 people. In 2019, NoE signed with Tor Gaming Ltd. for official distribution in Israel.
Nintendo Australia
Nintendo's Australian subsidiary is based in Melbourne. It handles the publishing, distribution, sales, and marketing of Nintendo products in Australia and New Zealand. It also manufactures some Wii games locally.
Nintendo of Korea
Nintendo's South Korean subsidiary was established on 7 July 2006, and is based in Seoul. In March 2016, the subsidiary was heavily downsized due to a corporate restructuring after analyzing shifts in the current market, laying off 80% of its employees, leaving only ten people, including Chief executive officer, CEO Hiroyuki Fukuda. This did not affect any games scheduled for release in South Korea, and Nintendo continued operations there as usual.
Policy
Content guidelines
For many years, Nintendo had a policy of strict content guidelines for video games published on its consoles. Although Nintendo allowed graphic violence in its video games released in Japan, nudity and sexuality were strictly prohibited. Former Nintendo president
Hiroshi Yamauchi
was a Japanese businessman and the third president of Nintendo, joining the company in 1949 until stepping down on 24 May 2002, being subsequently succeeded by Satoru Iwata. During his 53-year tenure, Yamauchi transformed Nintendo from a hanafu ...
believed that if the company allowed the licensing of Pornography, pornographic games, the company's image would be forever tarnished. Nintendo of America went further in that games released for Nintendo consoles could not feature nudity, sexuality, profanity (including racism, sexism or Hate speech, slurs), blood, graphic or domestic violence, drugs, political messages, or Religious symbolism, religious symbolswith the exception of widely unpracticed religions, such as the Greek mythology, Greek Pantheon. The Japanese parent company was concerned that it may be viewed as a "Japanese Invasion" by forcing Japanese community standards on North American and European children. Past the strict guidelines, some exceptions have occurred: ''Bionic Commando (NES video game), Bionic Commando'' (though Nazi swastika, swastikas were eliminated in the US version), ''Smash TV'' and ''Golgo 13: Top Secret Episode'' contain human violence, the latter also containing implied Human sexuality, sexuality and Smoking, tobacco use; ''River City Ransom'' and ''Taboo: The Sixth Sense'' contain nudity, and the latter also contains religious images, as do ''Castlevania II: Simon's Quest, Castlevania II'' and ''Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse, III''.
A known side effect of this policy is the Sega Genesis, Genesis version of ''
Mortal Kombat
''Mortal Kombat'' is an American media franchise centered on a series of video games originally developed by Midway Games in 1992. The development of the first game was originally based on an idea that Ed Boon and John Tobias had of making a ...
'' having more than double the unit sales of the Super NES version, mainly because Nintendo had forced publisher Acclaim Entertainment, Acclaim to recolor the red blood to look like white sweat and replace some of the more gory graphics in its release of the game, making it less violent. By contrast,
Sega
is a Japanese multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its international branches, Sega of America and Sega Europe, are headquartered in Irvine, California and London, respectively. Its division ...
allowed blood and gore to remain in the Genesis version (though a code is required to unlock the gore). Nintendo allowed the Super NES version of ''Mortal Kombat II'' to ship uncensored the following year with a content warning on the packaging.
Video game ratings systems were introduced with the
Entertainment Software Rating Board
The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) is a self-regulatory organization that assigns age and content ratings to consumer video games in the United States and Canada. The ESRB was established in 1994 by the Entertainment Software Ass ...
of 1994 and the Pan European Game Information of 2003, and Nintendo discontinued most of its censorship policies in favor of consumers making their own choices. Today, changes to the content of games are done primarily by the game's developer or, occasionally, at the request of Nintendo. The only clear-set rule is that ESRB AO-rated games will not be licensed on Nintendo consoles in North America, a practice which is also enforced by Sony Computer Entertainment, Sony and Microsoft, its two greatest competitors in the present market. Nintendo has since allowed several mature-content games to be published on its consoles, including these: ''Perfect Dark'', ''Conker's Bad Fur Day'', ''Doom (franchise), Doom'', ''Doom 64'', ''BMX XXX'', the ''Resident Evil'' series, ''Killer7'', the ''Mortal Kombat'' series, ''Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem'', ''BloodRayne'', ''Geist (video game), Geist'', ''Dementium: The Ward'', ''Bayonetta 2'', ''Devil's Third'', and ''Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water''. Certain games have continued to be modified, however. For example, Konami was forced to remove all references to cigarettes in the 2000
Game Boy Color
The (commonly abbreviated as GBC) is a handheld game console, manufactured by Nintendo, which was released in Japan on October 21, 1998 and to international markets that November. It is the successor to the Game Boy and is part of the Game ...
game ''Metal Gear Solid (Game Boy), Metal Gear Solid'' (although the previous NES version of ''Metal Gear'' and the subsequent GameCube game ''Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes'' both included such references, as did Wii game ''MadWorld''), and maiming and blood were removed from the Nintendo 64 Porting, port of ''
Cruis'n USA
''Cruis'n USA'' is an arcade game, arcade racing video game, racing game originally released in 1994. It was developed by Eugene Jarvis' company TV Games Inc., and manufactured by Midway Games. It is the first game in the ''Cruis'n'' series and ...
''.
Another example is in the Game Boy Advance game ''Mega Man Zero 3'', in which one of the bosses, called Hellbat Schilt in the Japanese and European releases, was renamed Devilbat Schilt in the North American Internationalization and localization, localization. In North America releases of the ''Mega Man Zero'' games, enemies and bosses killed with a saber attack do not gush blood as they do in the Japanese versions. However, the release of the Wii was accompanied by several even more controversial games, such as ''Manhunt 2'', ''No More Heroes (video game), No More Heroes'', ''The House of the Dead: Overkill'', and ''MadWorld'', the latter three of which were initially published exclusively for the console.
License guidelines
Nintendo of America also had guidelines before 1993 that had to be followed by its licensees to make games for the
Nintendo Entertainment System
The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit third-generation home video game console produced by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan in 1983 as the commonly known as the The NES, a redesigned version, was released in America ...
, in addition to the above content guidelines. Guidelines were enforced through the 10NES lockout chip.
* Licensees were not permitted to release the same game for a competing console until two years had passed.
* Nintendo would decide how many cartridges would be supplied to the licensee.
* Nintendo would decide how much space would be dedicated such as for articles and advertising in the ''
Nintendo Power
''Nintendo Power'' was a video game news and strategy magazine from Nintendo of America, first published in July/August 1988 as Nintendo's official print magazine for North America. The magazine's publication was initially done monthly by Ninten ...
'' magazine.
* There was a minimum number of cartridges that had to be ordered by the licensee from Nintendo.
* There was a yearly limit of five games that a licensee may produce for a Nintendo console. This rule was created to prevent market over-saturation, which had contributed to the
video game crash of 1983
The video game crash of 1983 (known as the Atari shock in Japan) was a large-scale recession in the video game industry that occurred from 1983 to 1985, primarily in the United States. The crash was attributed to several factors, including ma ...
.
The last rule was circumvented in several ways; for example, Konami, wanting to produce more games for Nintendo's consoles, formed Ultra Games and later Ultra Games, Palcom to produce more games as a technically different publisher. This disadvantaged smaller or emerging companies, as they could not afford to start additional companies. In another side effect, Square (video game company), Square Co. (now Square Enix) executives have suggested that the price of publishing games on the
Nintendo 64
The (N64) is a home video game console developed by Nintendo. The successor to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, it was released on June 23, 1996, in Japan, on September 29, 1996, in North America, and on March 1, 1997, in Europe and ...
along with the degree of censorship and control that Nintendo enforced over its games, most notably ''Final Fantasy VI'', were factors in switching its focus towards Sony Computer Entertainment, Sony's PlayStation console.
In 1993, a class action suit was taken against Nintendo under allegations that their lockout chip enabled unfair business practices. The case was settled, with the condition that California consumers were entitled to a $3 discount coupon for a game of Nintendo's choice.
Intellectual property protection
Nintendo has generally been proactive to assure its intellectual property in both hardware and software is protected. Nintendo's protection of its properties began as early as the arcade release of ''Donkey Kong'' which was widely video game clone, cloned on other platforms, a practice common to the most popular arcade games of the era. Nintendo did seek legal action to try to stop release of these unauthorized clones, but estimated they still lost in potential sales to these clones.
Nintendo became more proactive as they entered the Famicom/NES period. Nintendo had witnessed the events of a flooded game market that occurred in the United states in the early 1980s that led to the 1983 video game crash, and with the Famicom had taken business steps, such as controlling the cartridge production process, to prevent a similar flood of video game clones. However, the Famicom had lacked any lockout mechanics, and numerous unauthorized bootleg cartridges were made across the Asian regions. Nintendo took to creating its #Seal of Quality, "Nintendo Seal of Quality" stamped on the games it made to dissuade consumers from purchasing these bootlegs, and as it prepared the Famicom for entry to Western regions as the NES, incorporated a CIC (Nintendo), lock-out system that only allowed authorized game cartridges they manufactured to be playable on the system. After the NES's release, Nintendo took legal action against companies that attempted to reverse-engineer the lock-out mechanism to make unauthorized games for the NES.
Nintendo has used Video game console emulator, emulation by itself or licensed from third parties to provide means to re-release games from their older platforms on newer systems, with Virtual Console, which re-released classic games as downloadable titles, the NES and Super NES library for Nintendo Switch Online subscribers, and with dedicated consoles like the NES Classic Edition, NES and Super NES Classic Editions. However, Nintendo has taken a hard stance against unlicensed emulation of its video games and consoles, stating that it is the single largest threat to the intellectual property rights of video game developers. Further, Nintendo has taken action against fan-made games which have used significant facets of their IP, issuing cease & desist letters to these projects or Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)-related complaints to services that host these projects. The company has also taken legal action against those that made modchips for its hardware; notably, in 2020 and 2021, Nintendo took action against Team Xecuter which had been making modchips for Nintendo's consoles since 2013, after members of that team were arrested by the United States Department of Justice.
In a related action, Nintendo sent a cease and desist letter to the organizers of the 2020 The Big House (tournament), The Big House ''Super Smash Bros.'' tournament that was held entirely online due to the COVID-19 pandemic that year. Nintendo had taken issue with the tournament using emulated versions of ''Super Smash Bros. Melee'' which had included a mod (video gaming), user mod for networked play, as this would have required ripping a copy of ''Melee'' to play, an action they do not condone.
Fangames that reuse or recreate Nintendo assets also have been targeted by Nintendo typically through cease and desist letters or DMCA-based takedown to shut down these projects. ''Full Screen Mario'', a web browser-based version of ''Super Mario Bros.'', was shut down in 2013 after Nintendo issued a ceased and desist letter. Over five hundred fangames hosted at Game Jolt, including ''AM2R'', a remake of ''Metroid II: Return of Samus'', were shut down by Nintendo in 2016. Other notable fan projects that have been taken down include ''Pokémon Uranium'', a fangame based on the ''
Pokémon
(an abbreviation for in Japan) is a Japanese media franchise managed by The Pokémon Company, founded by Nintendo, Game Freak, and Creatures, the owners of the trademark and copyright of the franchise.
In terms of what each of thos ...
'' series in 2016. ''Super Mario 64 Online'', an online multiplayer version of ''
Super Mario 64
is a platform game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. It was released in Japan and North America in 1996 and PAL regions in 1997. It is the first ''Super Mario'' game to feature 3D gameplay, combining traditional ...
'' in 2017,
and ''Metroid Prime 2D'', a demake of ''Metroid Prime'', in 2021. Nintendo has defended these actions as necessary to protect its intellectual property, stating "just as Nintendo respects the intellectual property rights of others, we must also protect our own characters, trademarks and other content."
In some cases, the developers of these fangames have repurposed their work into new projects. In the case of ''No Mario's Sky'', a mashup of ''Super Mario Bros.'' and ''No Man's Sky'', after Nintendo sought to terminate the project, the Mario content was stripped and the game renamed as ''DMCA's Sky''.
In recent years, Nintendo has taken legal action against sites that knowingly distribute ROM images of its games. On 19 July 2018, Nintendo sued Jacob Mathias, the owner of distribution websites LoveROMs and LoveRetro, for "brazen and mass-scale infringement of Nintendo's intellectual property rights". Nintendo settled with Mathias in November 2018 for more than along with relinquishing all ROM images in their ownership. While Nintendo is likely to have agreed to a smaller fine in private, the large amount was seen as a Chilling effect, deterrent to prevent similar sites from sharing ROM images. Nintendo won a separate suit against RomUniverse in May 2021, which also offered infringing copies of Nintendo DS and Switch games in addition to ROM images. The site owner was required to pay Nintendo in damages, and later given a permanent injunction preventing the site from operating in the future and requiring the owner to destroy all ROM copies. Nintendo successfully won a suit in the United Kingdom in September 2019 to force the major Internet service providers in the country to block access to sites that offered copyright-infringing copies of Switch software or hacks for the Nintendo Switch to run unauthorized software.
Nintendo sought enforcement action against a hacker that for several years had infiltrated Nintendo's internal database by various means including phishing to obtain plans for games and hardware for upcoming shows like E3. This was leaked to the Internet, impacting how Nintendo's own announcements were received. Though the person was a minor when Nintendo brought the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to investigate, and had been warned by the FBI to desist, the person continued over 2018 and 2019 as an adult, posting taunts on social media. The perpetrator was arrested in July 2019, and the FBI found documents confirming the hacks, many unauthorized game files, and child pornography, leading to the perpetrator's admission of guilt for all crimes in January 2020 and was sentenced to three years in prison. Similarly, Nintendo alongside The Pokémon Company spent significant time to identify who had leaked information about Pokémon Sword and Shield, ''Pokémon Sword'' and ''Shield'' several weeks before its planned Nintendo Directs, ultimately tracing the leaks back to a Portugal game journalist who leaked the information from official review copies of the game and subsequently severed ties with the publication.
2020 data leaks
In May 2020, a major leak of documents occurred, including source code, designs, hardware drawings, documentation, and other internal information primarily related to the Nintendo 64, GameCube, and Wii. The leak may have been related to Acer Inc., BroadOn, a company that Nintendo had contracted to help with the Wii's design, or to Zammis Clark, a Malwarebytes employee and hacker who pleaded guilty to infiltrating Microsoft's and Nintendo's servers between March and May 2018.
A second and larger leak occurred in July 2020, which has been called the "Gigaleak" as it contains gigabytes of data, and is believed related to the May 2020 leak.
The leak includes the source code and prototypes for several early 1990s Super NES games including ''Super Mario Kart'', ''Yoshi's Island'', ''
Star Fox
is an arcade style rail shooter and third person action-adventure video game series created by Shigeru Miyamoto, produced and published by Nintendo. The games follow the Star Fox combat team of anthropomorphic animals, led by chief protagon ...
'', and ''Star Fox 2'', and it includes internal development tools and system software components. The veracity of the material was confirmed by Dylan Cuthbert, a programmer for Nintendo during that period. The leak has the source code to several Nintendo 64 games including ''
Super Mario 64
is a platform game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. It was released in Japan and North America in 1996 and PAL regions in 1997. It is the first ''Super Mario'' game to feature 3D gameplay, combining traditional ...
'' and ''
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time'', and the console's operating system. The leak contains personal files from Nintendo employees.
Seal of Quality
The gold sunburst seal was first used by #Nintendo of America, Nintendo of America, and later Nintendo of Europe. It is displayed on any game, system, or accessory licensed for use on one of its
video game console
A video game console is an electronic device that outputs a video signal or image to display a video game that can be played with a game controller. These may be home consoles, which are generally placed in a permanent location connected to ...
s, denoting the game has been properly approved by Nintendo. The seal is also displayed on any Nintendo-licensed merchandise, such as trading cards, game guides, or apparel, albeit with the words "Official Nintendo Licensed Product."
In 2008, game designer Sid Meier cited the Seal of Quality as one of the three most important innovations in video game history, as it helped set a standard for game quality that protected consumers from shovelware.
NTSC regions
In NTSC regions, this seal is an elliptical starburst named the "Official Nintendo Seal". Originally, for NTSC countries, the seal was a large, black and gold circular starburst. The seal read as follows: "This seal is your assurance that NINTENDO has approved and guaranteed the quality of this product." This seal was later altered in 1988: "approved and guaranteed" was changed to "evaluated and approved". In 1989, the seal became gold and white, as it currently appears, with a shortened phrase, "Official Nintendo Seal of Quality". It was changed in 2003 to read "Official Nintendo Seal".
The seal currently reads this:
PAL regions
In PAL regions, the seal is a circular starburst named the "Original Nintendo Seal of Quality." Text near the seal in the Australian
Wii
The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America and in December 2006 for most other regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major home game console, ...
manual states:
Charitable projects
In 1992, Nintendo teamed with the Starlight Children's Foundation to build Starlight Fun Center mobile entertainment units and install them in hospitals.
1,000 Starlight Nintendo Fun Center units were installed by the end of 1995.
These units combine several forms of multimedia entertainment, including gaming, and serve as a distraction to brighten moods and boost kids' morale during hospital stays.
Environmental record
Nintendo has consistently been ranked last in Greenpeace's "Guide to Greener Electronics" due to Nintendo's failure to publish information. Similarly, they are ranked last in the Enough Project's "Conflict Minerals Company Rankings" due to Nintendo's refusal to respond to multiple requests for information.
Like many other electronics companies, Nintendo offers a recycling program for customers to mail in unused products. Nintendo of America claimed 548 tons of returned products in 2011, 98% of which became reused or recycled.
See also
* ''Lewis Galoob Toys, Inc. v. Nintendo of America, Inc.''
* List of Nintendo development teams
* Lists of Nintendo characters
* Lists of Nintendo games
* List of Nintendo video game series
* ''Universal City Studios, Inc. v. Nintendo Co., Ltd.''
Notes
References
Bibliography
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External links
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{{Authority control
Nintendo,
Amusement companies of Japan
Companies listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange
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Golden Joystick Award winners
Hanafuda manufacturers
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Japanese companies established in 1889
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Manufacturing companies based in Kyoto
Multinational companies headquartered in Japan
Playing card manufacturers
Seattle Mariners owners
The Game Awards winners
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