Nintendo
- This article is about the Japanese company. For information about the development team, see Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development.
| Nintendo | |
|---|---|
| Nintendo Logo 2017.svg | |
| Founded | September 23, 1889 |
| First Mario-related game | Donkey Kong (1981) |
| Latest Mario-related game | WarioWare: Get It Together! (2021) |
| Current president | Shuntaro Furukawa |
Nintendo (Japanese: 任天堂 nintendō; TSE: NTDOY) is a company in Japan which develops and manufactures its own line of video games and consoles. The name Nintendo means "leave luck to heaven." They are the creators of many popular franchises aside from Mario, such as The Legend of Zelda. Nintendo's mascot is Mario himself. Nintendo revived the North American video game industry after the video game crash of 1983.
History
The company was originally founded on September 23rd, 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. The company continued on to make Hanafuda cards. However, Kaneda decided to retire in 1949 and passed Nintendo down to his grandson, Hiroshi Yamauchi. Little did he know that Hiroshi would change the focus of Nintendo for the best. In the late 70's, Yamauchi decided to expand Nintendo into the United States, as arcade machines were becoming very popular. However, his plan did not go over as well as he had hoped. Many children in the U.S. did not show much interest in Nintendo's products, like Sheriff or Radar Scope. Nintendo started to lose money, so in desperation, Yamauchi turned to one of his employees, Shigeru Miyamoto, for help.
He only called Miyamoto in because he was the only employee who had any time on his hands. Yamauchi asked Miyamoto to make a product for the arcade machine that would become a best-seller. Shigeru Miyamoto worked on the project he was thinking of for a while: Donkey Kong. When it entered the North American market, it did really become a best-seller. Nintendo started moving into video games and assigned Gunpei Yokoi to make a handheld console for enjoyment while traveling. Thus, Yokoi made the Game & Watch, which became unusually popular in both Japan and the United States. Nintendo then made the Nintendo Entertainment System, which grew very popular among children, the most popular game being Super Mario Bros. The release of the system forever changed the focus of video game development from quantity to quality and cemented the company's place in history. Aside from video games, Nintendo is also the majority owner of the Seattle Mariners, a Major League Baseball team, which is now handled by Howard Lincoln. In 2002, Hiroshi Yamauchi stepped down from office, giving the position to Satoru Iwata. In April 2013, Satoru Iwata became CEO of Nintendo of America and ran both branches until mid-2015, after Satoru passed in July 2015, Tatsumi Kimishima was appointed Iwata's successor in September 2015, until he stepped down on June 28, 2018 and was succeeded by Shuntaro Furukawa, the current President of Nintendo.
All current official Nintendo merchandise is marked with the Official Nintendo Seal. Originally, the seal was only applied to video games.
Recurring
Most of Nintendo's appearances within the Mario franchise are in the spinoff titles, in which their logo can be seen in various locations, such as on banners, alleging them as an in-universe sponsor. In Mario games that were either developed or co-developed by a different studio, their logo is often similarly featured alongside Nintendo's.
- Diddy Kong's cap bears the Nintendo logo.
- Nintendo advertisements can be seen in the background of various Mario Kart race tracks and battle arenas.
- In the Mario Party series, the Nintendo logo, along with the Hudson Soft logo, appears on banners in various minigames.
- In the Mario Baseball series, the Nintendo logo appears on some signs in Mario Stadium.
- The WarioWare character 9-Volt calls himself "Nintendo's biggest fanboy." His microgames are based on various Nintendo games and systems, including their classic ones.
Game-specific
- In Donkey Kong 64, Nintendo, along with Rare Ltd., sponsors the boxing match between the Kongs and King K. Rool as mentioned by the Microbuffer. In addition, the Nintendo logo appears on Diddy Kong's hat.
- In Mario Power Tennis, the Nintendo logo appears on the Peach Dome court.
- In Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour and Mario Power Tennis, Wario holds up the Nintendo sign when the game boots up while stating the company's name, laughing.
- In Mario Hoops 3-on-3, the Nintendo logo, along with the Square Enix logo, appears on the arch next to the basket at Peach Field and on the banner and a large screen on the Mario Stadium court.
- In Mario Sports Mix, the Nintendo logo appears next to the sports equipment on the banners in Mario Stadium.
- In Mario Tennis Open, the Nintendo logo can be seen on the scoreboards in various courts.
Home consoles
- Color TV-Game series (1977-1982)
- Nintendo Entertainment System (1983-1994) (titled Family Computer in Japan)
- Super Nintendo Entertainment System (1991-2003) (titled Super Famicom in Japan)
- Nintendo 64 (1996-2002) (released in China as the iQue Player)
- Nintendo GameCube (2001-2007)
- Wii (2006-2013)
- Wii U (2012-2017)
- Nintendo Switch (2017-present)
Handheld consoles
- Game & Watch (1980-1991)
- Game Boy (1989-1999)
- Virtual Boy (1995-1996)
- Game Boy Play it Loud (1996)
- Game Boy Pocket (1996-1998)
- Game Boy Light (1998)
- Game Boy Color (1999-2002)
- Game Boy Advance (2001-2004)
- Game Boy Advance SP (2003-2008)
- Game Boy Micro (2005-2008)
- Nintendo DS (2004-2009)
- Nintendo DS Lite (2006-2011)
- Nintendo DSi (2009-2012)
- Nintendo DSi XL (2009-2013)
- Nintendo 3DS (2011-2015)
- Nintendo 3DS XL (2012-2017)
- Nintendo 2DS (2013-2018)
- New Nintendo 3DS (2014-2020)
- New Nintendo 3DS XL (2014-2020)
- New Nintendo 2DS XL (2017-2020)
- Nintendo Switch Lite (2019-present)
Releases of these consoles in China usually replace "Nintendo" in the name with "iQue". Examples are the iQue Game Boy Advance and the iQue DS.
