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History of Nintendo
The history of Nintendo, a Japanese video game company based in Kyoto, starts in 1889 when Fusajiro Yamauchi founded "Yamauchi Nintendo", a producer of hanafuda playing cards. Sekiryo Kaneda was company president from 1929 to 1949. His successor Hiroshi Yamauchi had Nintendo producing toys like the Ultra Hand, and video games, including arcade games, the Color TV-Game series of home game consoles (1977—83), and the Game & Watch series of handheld electronic games (1980—86).
Shigeru Miyamoto designed Donkey Kong (1981) for arcades: Nintendo's first international hit game, and origin of the company's mascot, Mario. After the American video game crash of 1983, Nintendo filled a market gap there by releasing their Japanese Famicom home console (1983) as the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in 1985. Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka's innovative Famicom/NES titles, Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda, greatly influenced gaming. The Game Boy handheld console (1989) and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System home console (1990) were successful, yet Nintendo had an intense business rivalry with Sega's consoles. The Virtual Boy (1995), a portable console with stereoscopic 3D graphics, was a critical and financial failure. With the Nintendo 64 (1996), Nintendo began making games with fully-3D computer graphics. The Pokémon media franchise, partially owned by Nintendo, has been a worldwide hit since 1996.
The Game Boy Advance (2001) was another success. The GameCube home console (2001), while popular with Nintendo's fans, sold poorly compared to Sony and Microsoft's competing consoles. In 2002, Satoru Iwata became president, leading development of the Nintendo DS handheld (2004) with a touchscreen, and the Wii home console (2006) with a motion controller; both were extraordinarily successful. Wii Sports remains Nintendo's best-selling game. The Nintendo 3DS handheld (2011) successfully retried stereoscopic 3D. The Wii U home console (2012) sold poorly, putting Nintendo's future as a manufacturer in doubt, and influencing its entry into mobile gaming. Before dying in 2015, Iwata led development of the successful Nintendo Switch (2017), a hybrid home/handheld console. Tatsumi Kimishima succeeded him, followed by Shuntaro Furukawa in 2018. The Nintendo Switch 2 released in 2025.
Nintendo was founded as Yamauchi Nintendo (山内任天堂) by Fusajiro Yamauchi on September 23, 1889, though it was originally named Nintendo Koppai. Based in Kyoto, Japan, the business produced and marketed hanafuda, a type of Japanese playing card. The name "Nintendo" is commonly assumed to mean "leave luck to heaven", but there are no historical records to validate this. Hanafuda cards were an alternative to Western-style playing cards which were banned in Japan at the time. Nintendo's cards gained popularity, so Yamauchi hired assistants to mass-produce them.
Fusajiro Yamauchi did not have a son to take over the family business. Following the common Japanese tradition of mukoyōshi, he adopted his son-in-law, Sekiryo Kaneda, who then legally took his wife's last name of Yamauchi. In 1929, Fusajiro Yamauchi retired and allowed Kaneda to take over as president. In 1933, Sekiryo Kaneda established a joint venture with another company and renamed it Yamauchi Nintendo & Co.
Nintendo's headquarters were almost destroyed in 1945, during World War II, when the United States military was preparing to use their newly invented nuclear bomb on a Japanese city; Kyoto was the top city considered by the military for an attack, but U.S. Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson removed it as a potential target due to his appreciation of the city.
In 1947, Sekiryo established a distribution company, Marufuku Co., Ltd., to distribute the hanafuda and several other types of cards produced by Nintendo. Sekiryo Kaneda also had only daughters, so again his son-in-law (Shikanojo Inaba, renamed Shikanojo Yamauchi) was adopted into the family. Yamauchi later abandoned his family and did not become company president. Subsequently, his son Hiroshi Yamauchi was raised by his grandparents, and he later took over the company instead of his father.
In 1949, Hiroshi Yamauchi attended Waseda University in Tokyo. However, after his grandfather suffered a debilitating stroke, he left to take office as the president of Nintendo. In 1950, he renamed Marufuku Co. Ltd. to "Nintendo Kuruta". In 1953, Nintendo became the first company in Japan to produce playing cards from plastic.
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History of Nintendo
The history of Nintendo, a Japanese video game company based in Kyoto, starts in 1889 when Fusajiro Yamauchi founded "Yamauchi Nintendo", a producer of hanafuda playing cards. Sekiryo Kaneda was company president from 1929 to 1949. His successor Hiroshi Yamauchi had Nintendo producing toys like the Ultra Hand, and video games, including arcade games, the Color TV-Game series of home game consoles (1977—83), and the Game & Watch series of handheld electronic games (1980—86).
Shigeru Miyamoto designed Donkey Kong (1981) for arcades: Nintendo's first international hit game, and origin of the company's mascot, Mario. After the American video game crash of 1983, Nintendo filled a market gap there by releasing their Japanese Famicom home console (1983) as the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in 1985. Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka's innovative Famicom/NES titles, Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda, greatly influenced gaming. The Game Boy handheld console (1989) and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System home console (1990) were successful, yet Nintendo had an intense business rivalry with Sega's consoles. The Virtual Boy (1995), a portable console with stereoscopic 3D graphics, was a critical and financial failure. With the Nintendo 64 (1996), Nintendo began making games with fully-3D computer graphics. The Pokémon media franchise, partially owned by Nintendo, has been a worldwide hit since 1996.
The Game Boy Advance (2001) was another success. The GameCube home console (2001), while popular with Nintendo's fans, sold poorly compared to Sony and Microsoft's competing consoles. In 2002, Satoru Iwata became president, leading development of the Nintendo DS handheld (2004) with a touchscreen, and the Wii home console (2006) with a motion controller; both were extraordinarily successful. Wii Sports remains Nintendo's best-selling game. The Nintendo 3DS handheld (2011) successfully retried stereoscopic 3D. The Wii U home console (2012) sold poorly, putting Nintendo's future as a manufacturer in doubt, and influencing its entry into mobile gaming. Before dying in 2015, Iwata led development of the successful Nintendo Switch (2017), a hybrid home/handheld console. Tatsumi Kimishima succeeded him, followed by Shuntaro Furukawa in 2018. The Nintendo Switch 2 released in 2025.
Nintendo was founded as Yamauchi Nintendo (山内任天堂) by Fusajiro Yamauchi on September 23, 1889, though it was originally named Nintendo Koppai. Based in Kyoto, Japan, the business produced and marketed hanafuda, a type of Japanese playing card. The name "Nintendo" is commonly assumed to mean "leave luck to heaven", but there are no historical records to validate this. Hanafuda cards were an alternative to Western-style playing cards which were banned in Japan at the time. Nintendo's cards gained popularity, so Yamauchi hired assistants to mass-produce them.
Fusajiro Yamauchi did not have a son to take over the family business. Following the common Japanese tradition of mukoyōshi, he adopted his son-in-law, Sekiryo Kaneda, who then legally took his wife's last name of Yamauchi. In 1929, Fusajiro Yamauchi retired and allowed Kaneda to take over as president. In 1933, Sekiryo Kaneda established a joint venture with another company and renamed it Yamauchi Nintendo & Co.
Nintendo's headquarters were almost destroyed in 1945, during World War II, when the United States military was preparing to use their newly invented nuclear bomb on a Japanese city; Kyoto was the top city considered by the military for an attack, but U.S. Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson removed it as a potential target due to his appreciation of the city.
In 1947, Sekiryo established a distribution company, Marufuku Co., Ltd., to distribute the hanafuda and several other types of cards produced by Nintendo. Sekiryo Kaneda also had only daughters, so again his son-in-law (Shikanojo Inaba, renamed Shikanojo Yamauchi) was adopted into the family. Yamauchi later abandoned his family and did not become company president. Subsequently, his son Hiroshi Yamauchi was raised by his grandparents, and he later took over the company instead of his father.
In 1949, Hiroshi Yamauchi attended Waseda University in Tokyo. However, after his grandfather suffered a debilitating stroke, he left to take office as the president of Nintendo. In 1950, he renamed Marufuku Co. Ltd. to "Nintendo Kuruta". In 1953, Nintendo became the first company in Japan to produce playing cards from plastic.