Nintendo

Nintendo Co., Ltd. is a Japanese multinational consumer electronics company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. Nintendo is the world's largest video game company by revenue. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it originally produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as cab services and love hotels.

Abandoning previous ventures, Nintendo developed into a video game company, becoming one of the most influential in the industry and Japan's third most valuable listed company with a market value of over US$85 billion. Nintendo of America is also the majority owner of the Seattle Mariners Major League Baseball team.

The name Nintendo can be roughly translated from Japanese to English as "leave luck to heaven." As of June 30, 2013, Nintendo has sold over 655.9 million hardware units and 4.12 billion software units.

Nintendo was founded as a card company in late 1889, originally named Nintendo Koppai. Based in Kyoto, Japan, the business produced and marketed a playing card game called Hanafuda. The handmade cards soon became popular, and Yamauchi hired assistants to mass-produce cards to satisfy demand. Nintendo continues to manufacture playing cards in Japan and organizes its own contract bridge tournament called the "Nintendo Cup."

In 1956, Hiroshi Yamauchi, grandson of Fusajiro Yamauchi, visited the U.S. to talk with the United States Playing Card Company, the dominant playing card manufacturer there. He found that the world's biggest company in his business was only using a small office. This was a turning point when Yamauchi realized the limitations of the playing card business. He then gained access to Disney's characters and put them on the playing cards to drive sales.

In 1963, Yamauchi renamed Nintendo Playing Card Co. Ltd. to Nintendo Co., Ltd. The company then began to experiment in other areas of business using newly injected capital. During this period of time between 1963 and 1968, Nintendo set up a taxi company, a love hotel chain, a TV network, a food company (selling instant rice, similar to instant noodles) and several other things. All of these ventures eventually failed, and after the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, playing card sales dropped, and Nintendo's stock price plummeted to ¥60.

In 1966, Nintendo moved into the Japanese toy industry with the Ultra Hand, an extendable arm developed by its maintenance engineer Gunpei Yokoi in his free time. Yokoi was moved from maintenance to the new "Nintendo Games" department as a product developer. Nintendo continued to produce popular toys, including the Ultra Machine, Love Tester and the Kousenjuu series of light gun games. Despite some successful products, Nintendo struggled to meet the fast development and manufacturing turnaround required in the toy market, and fell behind the well-established companies such as Bandai and Tomy.

In 1973, its focus shifted to family entertainment venues with the Laser Clay Shooting System, using the same light gun technology used in Nintendo's Kousenjuu series of toys, and set up in abandoned bowling alleys. Following some success, Nintendo developed several more light gun machines (such as the light gun shooter game Wild Gunman) for the emerging arcade scene. While the Laser Clay Shooting System ranges had to be shut down following excessive costs, Nintendo had found a new market.

Nintendo's first venture into the video gaming industry was securing rights to distribute the Magnavox Odyssey video game console in Japan in 1974. Nintendo began to produce its own hardware in 1977, with the Color TV Game home video game consoles. Four versions of these consoles were produced, each including variations of a single game (for example, Color TV Game 6 featured six versions of Light Tennis).

A student product developer named Shigeru Miyamoto was hired by Nintendo at this time. He worked for Yokoi, and one of his first tasks was to design the casing for several of the Color TV Game consoles. Miyamoto went on to create, direct and produce some of Nintendo's most famous video games and become one of the most recognizable figures in the video game industry.

In 1975, Nintendo moved into the video arcade game industry with EVR Race, designed by their first game designer, Genyo Takeda, and several more titles followed. Nintendo had some small success with this venture, but the release of Donkey Kong in 1981, designed by Miyamoto, changed Nintendo's fortunes dramatically. The success of the game and many licensing opportunities (such as ports on the Atari 2600, Intellivision and ColecoVision) gave Nintendo a huge boost in profit and in addition, the game also introduced an early iteration of Mario, known then as Jumpman, the eventual mascot of the company.

In 1980, Nintendo launched Game & Watch—a handheld video game series developed by Yokoi where each game was played on a separate device—to worldwide success.

In 1983, Nintendo launched the Family Computer home video game console in Japan (abbreviated "Famicom" and known outside Japan as the Nintendo Entertainment System or NES) alongside ports of its most popular arcade titles. In 1985, the NES launched in North America, and was accompanied by Super Mario Bros., one of the best-selling video games of all time. The Famicom was followed by the Super Famicom in 1990, released outside Japan in 1991 and 1992 as the Super Nintendo Entertainment System(SNES). This was Nintendo's console of the 16-bit 4th generation, boasting superior graphics, game speed, and sound over the Famicom of the 8-bit 3rd generation, and whose main rival was the Sega Mega Drive (known in North America as Sega Genesis). A console war between Sega and Nintendo ensued during the early 1990s. Although relatively late to market, the SNES considerably outsold the Mega Drive.

Aiming to produce an affordable virtual reality console, Gunpei Yokoi designed the Virtual Boy, a table-mounted semi-portable console featuring stereoscopic graphics. Users view games through a binocular eyepiece and control games using a gamepad. Critics were generally disappointed with the quality of the games and graphics, and complained of gameplay-induced headaches. The system sold poorly and was quietly discontinued.Amid the system's failure, Yokoi retired from Nintendo.

With its market shares slipping to Sega's Mega System and new rival Sony's PlayStation, Nintendo utilized a $185 million marketing campaign, centered around the "Play it Loud" slogan, to revitalize its brand. The company's 5th generation home console, the Nintendo 64, was released in 1996 and features 3D polygon model rendering capabilities and built-in multiplayer for up to four players. The system's controller introduced the analog stick and later introduced the Rumble Pak, an accessory for the controller that produces force feedback with compatible games. Both were the first such features to come to market for home console gaming and eventually became a standard built-in feature for many controllers in the industry. Announced before the console's launch, an expansion device called the Nintendo 64DD ("DD" standing for "Disk Drive") utilizing 64 MB magneto-optical disks was developed and in 1999 eventually released to Japan, but its commercial failure there resulted in only nine games being released and precluded further worldwide release.

The 6th-generation GameCube followed in 2001 and was the first Nintendo console to utilize optical disc storage instead of cartridges. Though only supported by seven games (three of which only support LAN play), the release of the Broadband Adapter and Modem Adapter peripheral made the GameCube Nintendo's first Internet-enabled console. While profitable, sales paled in comparison with new rival Microsoft's Xbox and Sony's latest, the PlayStation 2.

The Wii was released in 2006 and introduced the Wii Remote—with motion sensing and pointing capabilities—and on-board 802.11b/g Wi-Fi functionality, used for services such as Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection and the Internet Channel. Since its release, the Wii has spawned many peripheral devices, including the Wii Balance Board and Motion Plus, and has had several hardware revisions. With the release of the Wii, Nintendo revised the color of its company logo from red to gray. The successor to Wii, the Wii U, features improved, HD graphical capabilities and a new controller, the Wii U GamePad. The GamePad features a touch screen, 9-axis of motion sensors, a microphone and a camera. The Wii U launched in two versions, "Basic" and "Premium" ("Deluxe" in North America), with 8GB and 32GB of on-board flash memory respectively. The "Basic" version will be discontinued September 20, coinciding with a drop in price for the "Premium" version.

After the success of the Game & Watch series, Yokoi developed the Game Boy handheld console, which was released in 1989. Eventually becoming the best-selling handheld of all time, the Game Boy remained dominant for more than a decade, seeing critically and commercially popular games such as Pokémon Yellow released as late as 1998 in Japan and 2000 in Europe. Incremental updates of the Game Boys Pocket, Light and Color did little to change the original formula, though the latter introduced color graphics to the Game Boy line.

The first major update to its handheld line since 1989, Game Boy Advance features improved technical specifications similar to those of the SNES. The Game Boy Advance SP was the first revision to the GBA line and introduced screen lighting and a clam shell design, while later iteration, the Game Boy Micro, brought a smaller form factor.

Although originally advertised as an alternative to the Game Boy Advance, the Nintendo DS replaced the Game Boy line after its initial release in 2004. It was distinctive for its dual screens and a microphone, as well as a touch-sensitive lower screen. The Nintendo DS Lite brought a smaller form factor while the Nintendo DSi features larger screens and two cameras, and was followed by an even larger model, the DSi XL, with a 90% bigger screen.

Further expanding the Nintendo DS line, the Nintendo 3DS uses the process of autostereoscopy to produce a stereoscopic three-dimensional effect without glasses. Released to major markets during 2011, the 3DS got off to a slow start, initially missing many key features that were promised before the system launched. Partially as a result of slow sales, Nintendo stock declined in value. Subsequent price cuts and game releases helped to boost 3DS and 3DS software sales and to renew investor confidence in the company. The Nintendo 3DS XL was introduced in August 2012 and includes a 90% larger screen, a 4GB SD card and extended battery life. In August 2013, Nintendo announced the Nintendo 2DS, a version of the 3DS without a stereoscopic 3D screen. It has a slate-like design as opposed to the hinged,clamshell design of its DS-line predecessors. The 2DS will release October 12 in North America and Europe.

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. It modified the slogan to include "SUPER power" for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and "PORTABLE power" for the Game Boy. Its 1994 "Play It Loud!" campaign played upon teenage rebellion and fostered an edgy reputation. During the Nintendo 64 era, the slogan was "Get N or get out." During the GameCube era, the "Who Are You?" suggested a link between the games we play and the people we are. 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. Its successor, the Wii U, uses the slogan "How U will play next."

Nintendo Co., Ltd. (NCL) oversees the company'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. was originally based in Kyoto.It then moved to a new office in Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto, which is now its research and development building. Since 2000, the company has been based in Minami-ku, Kyoto.

Nintendo of America, Inc. (NoA), its U.S. division, is based in Redmond, Washington. Originally the NOA headquarters handled sales, marketing, and advertising. However, the office in Redwood City, California now directs those functions. The company maintains distribution centers in Atlanta, Georgia (Nintendo Atlanta) and North Bend, Washington (Nintendo North Bend). The 380,000-square-foot (35,000 m²) Nintendo North Bend facility processes more than 20,000 orders a day to Nintendo customers, which include retail stores that sell Nintendo products and consumers who order their video games and associated components online. Nintendo of America's Canadian branch,^[42] Nintendo of Canada, Ltd. (NOCL), is based in Vancouver, BC, with its distribution center in Toronto, Ontario.

Nintendo of Europe (NoE) was established in June 1990. The company handles operations in Europe and South Africa. The subsidiary is based in Großostheim, close to Frankfurt, Germany. Nintendo of Europe's United Kingdom branch handles operations in that country and in Ireland from its headquarters in Windsor, Berkshire.

Nintendo Australia Pty. Ltd. (NAL) is based in Melbourne, Victoria. It handles the publishing, distribution, sales and marketing of Nintendo products in Australia, New Zealand, and Oceania (Cook Islands, Fiji, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, and Vanuatu). It also manufactures some Wii games locally. Nintendo Australia is also a third-party distributor of some titles from Rising Star Games, Namco Bandai Games Europe, Atlus, The Tetris Company, Sega, Tecmo Koei Games Europe and Capcom Europe.

iQue, Ltd., a Chinese joint venture between its founder, Wei Yen, and Nintendo, manufactures and distributes official Nintendo consoles and games for the mainland Chinese market, under the iQue brand. The product lineup for the Chinese market is considerably different from that for other markets. For example, Nintendo's only console in China is the iQue Player, a modified version of the Nintendo 64. The company has not released its more modern GameCube or Wii to the market, although a version of the Nintendo 3DS XL was released in 2012.

Nintendo established Nintendo of Korea (NoK) on July 7, 2006.

Nintendo has consistently been ranked last in Greenpeace's "Guide to Greener Electronics" due to Nintendo not revealing information. Similarly, they are ranked last in the Enough Project's "Conflict Minerals Company Rankings" due to Nintendo refusing to respond to multiple requests for information.

Like many other electronics companies, Nintendo does offer a take-back recycling program which allows customers to mail in old products they no longer use; Nintendo of America claimed that it took in 548 tons of returned products in 2011, 98% of which was either reused or recycled.