nearly everyone has grown up owning a nintendo console and playing games like mario kart
but how exactly did nintendo go from a small card company to dominating the gaming industry how did
the company founded by fusajiro yamaluchi in 1889 end up with the valuation of more than 85 billion
this is the story of nintendo welcome to planet biz
chapter 1 the beginning nintendo was founded by fusujiro yamauchi in september 1889
under the name of nintendo koppai it's hard to imagine that the video game empire started off
as nothing but a simple gaming card company in its initial days the company dealt with
handmade playing cards and only a small number of employees the reason behind nintendo's success
back in the 80s was the fact that japan had banned all kinds of foreign and local card games
but fusajiro decided to sell hanafuda cards with colorful images of flowers
that could be used to play many games nintendo's unique hand-painted cards
immediately became popular and the company started to make hefty profits with their sales
the company had to employ additional people to keep up with the demands of their customers this
led on to nintendo creating western style playing cards around 1902 which were again received very
well within the public this made nintendo the top selling card company in all of japan
in 1949 nintendo went international and a year later fusajiro's great grandson hiroshi yamauchi
took over the operations he went to the usa to expand the company's horizon and employed
a great number of business tactics to grow the business locally and internationally he struck
a deal with disney to print playing cards with disney characters this move proved to
be great for the business because it opened up a whole new market for nintendo they were not
just manufacturing cars for gamblers anymore but their cards were also children's toys now
after that yamaluchi attempted to dive into other industries as well including a taxi service hotels
and even launched instant ramen under nintendo's name but all of these ventures obviously failed
forcing the company to venture towards the electronic game industry
with the help of one of nintendo's employees gunpei okoye who was an engineer the company
manufactured electronic toys like the popular bean gun and the ultra hand in the 70s but because of
the saturation in the market nintendo had a hard time standing out in the gaming industry at first
chapter 2 the start of electronic gaming
in 1972 nintendo established family gaming venues which included the laser clay shooting system
a light gun simulation game but sadly the company didn't really make enough profits from this
venture and had to shut it down eventually just a year later nintendo managed to buy
distribution rights for the magnavox odyssey a commercial gaming console that ultimately led to
nintendo producing its own video games the company released its first ever arcade game donkey kong
in 1981 and that was the turning point for nintendo in the gaming industry
the game designed by shigeru miyamoto saw immense success right after its release after that
nintendo began experimenting with their own gaming systems the nintendo entertainment system was the
first ever commercially sold console that nintendo produced and it sold over 60 million units
around the same time the company launched its most popular gaming series super mario bros
the game took the world by storm and mario became one of the most easily recognizable
video game characters all over the world nintendo also launched games like the legend of zelda
which received just as much love from gaming enthusiasts however the company's next big
break came in 1989 with the launch of the handheld game boy along with the gameboy
nintendo also launched their famous game tetris which was sold with every version of the game boy
tetris made game boy skyrocket and nintendo sold over 150 million units of the gaming system
all over the world next was the nintendo 64 which sold nearly 550 000 units and was also a success
chapter 3 nintendo consoles
the reason nintendo was able to compete with other emerging console companies like sega
and sony was because the company paid a great amount of attention to their gameplay
the company catered to family gaming which is why nintendo appealed to a greater market
than its competitors with games like mario kart nintendo was able to establish itself as one of
the greatest video game manufacturers of all time by 1994 the company had sold one billion
game cartridges outshining all other names in the industry against all odds satoru iwata
nintendo's fourth president explained later at nintendo we do not run from risk we run to it
at the same time nintendo kept upgrading its gaming consoles with new additions in the
boy series along with consoles like nintendo 64. with games like pokemon and super mario 64
nintendo was able to stay consistent with its popularity in the video game market in fact
pokemon was such a hit that it actually inspired a tv series several movies books and toy lines mario
and pokemon combined skyrocketed nintendo's sales and continued to be the company's best sellers
chapter 4 launching the nintendo wii and nintendo switch with the release of the playstation and
xbox consoles in the 2000s people started to believe that nintendo was lacking behind
but the company took everyone by surprise in 2006 by releasing the nintendo wii gaming
system featuring wireless motion sensitive remote controllers and built-in wi-fi the wii completely
sold out only a few hours after its release shigeru miyamoto nintendo's most respected
game developer said a game that keeps a smile on the player's face is the most wonderful thing
nintendo's theme for 2006 will be create new fun spread the fun of games to everyone to do this
we must return to the beginning to recapture the essence that made people who enjoy games even now
enjoy them in the first place what's so special about the wii was that it allowed gamers to be
physically interactive with the games they played for example users could swing the wii remote like
a sword while playing the legend of zelda and simulating a bowling motion while playing wii
sports which was unlike anything any other gaming console had done before after the release of the
wii nintendo has remained one of the most profitable video game companies in the world
the brand decided to shake things up once again with the launch of the nintendo switch in 2018
the console was designed to work as a hybrid console that could be used as a home console
connected to a television or as a portable gaming device with the same motion detecting
feature of the wii the nintendo switch has dominated the handheld video game market
after the failure of sony's playstation portable no one could have imagined a handheld video games
gaining traction again but nintendo clearly did it with the hybrid nature of the switch
giving competition to smartphone gaming along with traditional console gaming
the switch has sold 52 million units since its launch in 2017 beating the estimated sales of
the xbox one more than 14 million switch consoles were sold in less than 12 months
and seven switch games sold more than 1 million copies each chapter 5 the future of nintendo
currently nintendo has seen a rise in sales with the release of its popular simulation game animal
crossing in 2020 the game has sold over 26 million copies bringing nintendo's profits up by 428
as of now the brand has no plans of launching a new console but with the success of the switch
there's no immediate need for a new launch either with a yearly revenue of about 12
billion dollars in 2020 it's safe to say that nintendo has established itself as a force to
be reckoned with in the gaming industry as for the future rumor has it that nintendo is ready
to update their switch games and consoles with 4k technology to add to their gaming experience
nintendo's success strategy has never relied on competition the gaming brand
has carved out its own niche by developing his gameplay experiences and focusing on making
products that appeal to a worldwide audience which is why nintendo has managed to compete
with consoles like playstation and xbox despite lagging behinds at places in terms of hardware
as hiroshi yamahuchi once said that's absolutely wrong the gaming wars they will never end that's
just how this business works nobody knows what tomorrow will bring with the kind of inclusive
gaming culture that nintendo promotes it's safe to predict that the brand will continue
to dominate the video game industry for ages to come that's a wrap for the story of nintendo are
you excited for the launch of nintendo switch 2 next year let us know in the comments below
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