Nintendo

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This article is about the Japanese company. For the console sometimes referred to as a Nintendo, see Nintendo Entertainment System. For the development team, see Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development.
Nintendo
Founded September 23, 1889
Founder Fusajiro Yamauchi
Headquarters Japan Kyoto
USA Redmond, WA
Products List of products
Key people Fusajiro Yamauchi (founder)
Shuntaro Furukawa (president)
Shigeru Miyamoto (game designer)
Satoru Iwata (former CEO)
Revenue
¥1.759 trillion (US$13.71 billion) (2021)
Website Japanese website
North American website
European website
Australian website
Nintendo's regions (headquarters) in the world. This region selector, as well as this customer support selector, show each country that has a website on Nintendo products.

Nintendo Co., Ltd (Japanese: 任天堂; Rōmaji: Nintendō) is a Japanese company which develops and manufactures its own line of video games and consoles. They are the creators of many popular franchise, and their mascot and flagship is the Mario franchise. The company was founded in 1889 as Nintendo Karuta (任天堂骨牌) by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produced handmade hanafuda playing cards. After venturing into various lines of business during the 1960s and acquiring a legal status as a public company under the current company name, Nintendo distributed its first video game console, the Color TV-Game, in 1977.

Nintendo is the longest running company in the history of the video game console market and is one of the most influential and best known console manufacturers. However, they do have business rivalry with Sony, Microsoft, and formerly their biggest rival, Sega (which is now a third-party company). Nintendo, as a video game company, began in the Japanese market in 1983, the American market in 1985, and the European market in 1986. Over time, Nintendo has manufactured seven TV consoles and nine handheld consoles. They have also developed and published over 300 games, and have sold over 2 billion games worldwide.

All recent official Nintendo merchandise are marked with the Official Nintendo Seal. Originally, the seal was applied only to video games. Some best-selling games were re-released as a Player's Choice or Nintendo Selects title (depending on the console), under reduced prices.

History[edit]

It has been requested that this section be rewritten. Reason: lack of information and sources

The company's signature red logo from 1975 to 2006 (top) and gray logo from 2006 to 2015 (bottom). The gray logo is still used in corporate pages.
The company's signature red logo from 1975 to 2006 (top) and gray logo from 2006 to 2015 (bottom). The gray logo is still used in corporate pages.
The company's signature red logo from 1975 to 2006 (top) and gray logo from 2006 to 2015 (bottom). The gray logo is still used in corporate pages.

Nintendo was originally founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi to produce handmade Hanafuda cards for use in a Japanese playing card game of the same name. Eventually, in 1929, the company was passed on to Yamauchi's son-in-law, Sekiryo Kaneda. He took up the Yamauchi name when he married Fusajiro's daughter, Tei Yamauchi. Kaneda would run Nintendo until 1949 - he passed Nintendo down to his grandson, Hiroshi Yamauchi, before he retired. Under Hiroshi's leadership, Nintendo would dabble in a number of different businesses before sticking primarily to games. Nintendo entered the arcade industry in the 1970s, and began to license some of their games to other companies for distribution outside of Japan. Nintendo eventually set up its own headquarters in the United States headed by Minoru Arakawa, and the first game that would be distributed by the American division would be Radar Scope. Radar Scope did not sell well in the United States, and a number of unsold cabinets remained in warehouses.

Arakawa asked Hiroshi if a new game could be developed and inserted into the unsold Radar Scope cabinets.[1] Hiroshi went through Nintendo's entire talent pool to see who could head the designing of a potential Radar Scope replacement, and the result was Shigeru Miyamoto designing Donkey Kong. When Donkey Kong was released, it became a best-seller. Around this time, Nintendo assigned Gunpei Yokoi to make a handheld console for enjoyment while traveling. Thus, Yokoi made the Game & Watch, which became popular in both Japan and the United States. Nintendo then made the Nintendo Entertainment System; its success resulted in Nintendo becoming a dominant player in the video game industry and the revival of the industry in North America, which had been negatively affected by the video game crash of 1983. The most successful game for the NES, Super Mario Bros., further cemented their dominance in the industry. Aside from video games, Nintendo was also the majority owner of the Seattle Mariners, a Major League Baseball team from 1992 to 2016. In 2002, Hiroshi Yamauchi stepped down from office, giving the position to Satoru Iwata, who later became CEO of Nintendo's American branch and held both posts until his death in July 2015. After which, Tatsumi Kimishima was appointed Iwata's successor in September 2015, until he stepped down on June 28, 2018 and was succeeded by Shuntaro Furukawa.

People[edit]

Main article: List of Nintendo people

These are the people who currently work or have worked at Nintendo.

Products[edit]

Home consoles[edit]

1 - Although the Nintendo Switch can also function as a handheld console, it is primarily marketed as a home console by Nintendo.

Attachments and remodels[edit]

Handheld consoles[edit]

Remodels[edit]

Releases of these consoles in China usually replace "Nintendo" in the name with "iQue". Examples are the iQue DS and the iQue 3DS XL.

Appearances in video games[edit]

Mario franchise[edit]

Controversy[edit]

In the past, Nintendo has been fined for price fixing practices,[2] especially in Europe, where the European Union claimed that prices of Nintendo's products were too high.[3]

This section is a stub. You can help the Nintendo Wiki by expanding it.

Names in other languages[edit]

Language Name Meaning
Japanese 任天堂
ニンテンドー
Nintendō
 任天堂 is the formal name of the company. For each characters, 任 (nin) means "responsibility", "work" or "obligation", 天 (ten) means "sky" and 堂 (dō ) meaning "stately", "bless" or "sanctuary". Also 天堂 (tendō ) means "heaven".
ニンテンドー is written in rough katakana form and is used for the Japanese names of some Nintendo's consoles, like Nintendo GameCube (ニンテンドーゲームキューブ, Nintendō Gēmukyūbu).
The name Nintendo comes from a Japanese saying, 「運を天に任せる」(un o ten ni makaseru), meaning "To leave one's luck to heaven."

Chinese 任天堂
Rèntiāntáng
 -

Finnish Nintendon (Captain N: The Game Master)
Nintendo
 -
-
Korean 닌텐도
Nintendo
 -

Trivia[edit]

  • Nintendo licensed Laral Group LLC to make a joystick controller for personal computers called the NJS-3D1. It was released in July of 1997 and it was one of only two Nintendo-licensed products by Laral, the other being the Nintendo wireless infrared stereo headphone system.[4]

External links[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "IGN Presents: The History of Super Mario Bros."
  2. ^ October 30, 2002 (BBC News). "Nintendo fined for price fixing".
  3. ^ April 28, 2000 (BBC News). "Nintendo accused of cartel swindle".
  4. ^ Nintendrew (February 9, 2019). Nintendo's Forgotten PC Joystick - The NJS-3D1 | Nintendrew YouTube. Retrieved March 4, 2020.

This article is a stub. You can help the Nintendo Wiki by expanding it.

Companies
Game companies Divisions and subsidiaries of Nintendo 1-UP Studio • iQue • Mario Club Co., Ltd. • Nintendo • Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development • Nintendo Research & Development 1 • Nintendo Research & Development 2 • Nintendo Software Technology Corporation • Nintendo Software Planning & Development • Nintendo System Development • Retro Studios • Nd Cube • Treehouse • Nintendo Entertainment Planning and Development
Third parties AlphaDream • Arika • Artoon • Arzest • Bandai Namco Entertainment • Bullet-Proof Software • Camelot Software Planning • Capcom • CAProduction • Game Arts • Game Freak • Good-Feel • GREZZO Co.,Ltd. • GungHo Online Entertainment • HAL Laboratory • Hudson Soft • Ikegami Tsushinki • Intelligent Systems • Interplay • Jupiter • Konami • Monster Games • Next Level Games • NovaLogic • Paon • Racjin • Radical Entertainment • Rare Ltd. • Royal Philips Electronics • Sega • Silverball Studios • Softnica • Sora Ltd. • Spike Chunsoft • Square Enix • St.GIGA • SUZAK Inc. • TOSE Software Co. • Treasure • Ubisoft • Velan Studios
Other companies Book publishers Guinness World Records • Prima Games • Scholastics • Shogakukan • Valiant Comics • Dark Horse Comics
Animation studios DIC Entertainment • Illumination • Medialab • Nelvana • Pacific Rim Productions, Inc. • Sei Young Animation Co., Ltd.
Collectible / toy makers Bioworld • First4Figures • Furuta • Kenner • K'NEX • LEGO • PopCo Entertainment • S.H. Figuarts • San-ei Co., Ltd. • Toy Biz
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