If you know anything about video games, you’ve almost certainly heard the name Nintendo. Like many other tech companies in Japan, Nintendo has grown into an internationally known brand, and has established itself as the biggest and most famous video game company on earth. That being said, while many people have a general idea of what Nintendo does, the story of where they came from is not as obvious. I’d like to share a brief history of this legendary company, its rise to power, and its current position in the video game industry.
Given that video games are a relatively modern media, it may surprise you to learn that Nintendo was founded as early as 1889. Strange as it may seem, the company was founded by Fusajiro Yamauchi in order to make and sell “hanafuda” cards. These hand-crafted cards, decorated with flowers and other designs, could be used to play a variety of different games, much like western playing cards.
While cards were Nintendo’s original product, they eventually branched out into other business ventures, ranging from taxis to instant ramen. A turning point for the company came in the 1960s, when they began to break into the toy industry. Competition was fierce at the time, and Nintendo struggled to stand out among contemporaries like Bandai and Tomy, bringing the company to the brink of bankruptcy.
One day, the president was inspecting one of the hanafuda factories when he noticed a worker who had made an extending arm toy in his free time. This maintenance man, named Gunpei Yokoi, was asked to develop his crude prototype into an official product, and he was promoted to lead toy designer.
That first toy, called the Ultra Hand, was an immediate success, and was a sign of the many innovations Yokoi would make at Nintendo. As the company expanded into video games, Yokoi had a key role in some of their greatest successes. He designed the Game and Watch and the Game Boy, two early handheld game systems, and invented the cross-shaped control pad button design which is still used in almost every modern controller.
Nearly 100 years after its inception, Nintendo established itself as a major video game company with the release of the Famicom in 1983, called the Nintendo Entertainment System or NES in America. This affordable 8-bit home console revitalized the struggling game industry, and popularized playing video games at home rather than in arcades.
The main strength of the NES was not in the machine itself, but in the talented designers and developers at Nintendo. Game designers such as Shigeru Miamoto made a wide variety of fun and challenging games, in genres including action, adventure, horror and RPG. Popular and long-lasting franchises such as Mario, Zelda and Metroid all started here, cementing Nintendo as the video game company to beat.
In 1989, Nintendo launched the Game Boy, a handheld game system. While they had dabbled in portable game systems with the Game and Watch series, the Game Boy was a full-fledged system with an impressive monochrome display, as well as a great selection of exclusive games, including the massively popular Pokemon series. As a result, this too was a huge success, putting Nintendo at the top of both home and portable gaming.
Despite their newfound success, Nintendo would soon face major competition from many sources. In the 80s and 90s, Sega was a major rival, releasing a more powerful 16-bit console and an edgier mascot in the form of Sonic the Hedgehog. Nintendo would soon respond with their own 16-bit machine, dubbed the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, in 1991. Referred to as the SNES, it was another huge success, boasting better graphics and another huge selection of excellent games, many of which were sequels to NES classics. The SNES was even powerful enough to support primitive 3D graphics, as seen in games like Star Fox.
Nintendo would continue to innovate with the Nintendo 64, released in 1996. As their most powerful machine yet, it was designed to support full 3D graphics, and yet again they used this new technology to create many classic games. However, this year could also be considered the end of Nintendo’s first golden age. Sony’s Playstation was comparable in power, and had a strong selection of games, leading to lower sales overall for Nintendo. The company would continue to struggle to keep up with advancing technology; their next console, the Game Cube, was noticeably less powerful than its contemporaries, with less realistic graphics than Microsoft’s Xbox or Sony’s Playstation 2. That said, while their home console sales were down, Nintendo continued to dominate the handheld gaming market with the Game Boy Advance and the Nintendo DS.
Rather than try to compete directly with their rivals, Nintendo continued to rely on innovation and the popularity of classic franchises like Zelda and Mario. The Wii, released in 2006, had primitive graphics compared to modern consoles, but featured unique motion controls and a selection of games focused on appealing to a wider audience. This unusual and family-friendly system was Nintendo’s biggest success in years, selling an amazing 101 million units internationally. This also prompted Sony and Microsoft to attempt to imitate the Wii’s motion control, but with little success.
In more recent years, Nintendo has continued to explore innovative hardware, while continuing to expand on their uniquely vibrant and colorful style of games. The Wii U, released in 2012, was marred by poor marketing and a sparse library of games, but it did introduce an interesting controller featuring a high-resolution touch screen. While not nearly as successful as the Wii, Nintendo would iterate on its design with 2017’s Nintendo Switch, a hybrid console that combined the best elements of home and handheld systems. It was powerful enough to support modern games on an HD TV, but its small size and built-in screen allowed it to be used as a portable game console as well.
The success of the Switch, which continues to be one of the best and fastest-selling consoles in the world, has kicked off what some have called a Nintendo renaissance. While Nintendo’s hardware is not always on the cutting edge, it has a long and consistent history of making well-loved and influential games that have been enjoyed by generations of players. Culturally, they have produced some of the most iconic and frequently referenced characters and franchises of all time, making a permanent mark on popular culture around the world. Given how consistently they have continued to push forward the art of game development, I think it is safe to say that they will continue to lead and influence video games for many years to come.
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