Yes, the company we all know and love was founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi It is vital that any self-confessed fanboy or fangirl here be aware of the awe-inspiring history behind this amazing company. Now we could go on about Nintend...
It is vital that any self-confessed fanboy or fangirl here be aware of the awe-inspiring history behind this amazing company. Now we could go on about Nintendo’s humble beginnings as a producer of handmade hanafuda cards (Wikipedia is your friend), how it ventured into new business opportunities such as a taxi company, a "love hotel" chain (don’t ask), a TV network, and a food company; that was ages and ages ago. But how exactly did Nintendo break into the video games market? Here is just a smidgen of some things that went down before Nintendo became the supreme lord of the universe.
The year is 1985. Video games kind of look like they were a fad and there’s really no appetite on both the part of people actually buying video games or retail stores to even carry video games. While American companies don’t want to touch video games with a ten-foot pole, video games are still going strong in Japan and Europe.
At this point in time, Atari is dead in terms of consoles, but it has a name. Atari is a household name in America, and Nintendo isn’t. However, a fiasco involving Coleco and Donkey Kong sours the relationship between the two during the negotiations, and Atari refuses to back Nintendo’s console.
By this time, the video game market is believed to be six feet under; even a mention of the word “video game” causes scepticism. Undaunted, and with the realisation that they can’t live in the video game market, Nintendo rebrand the system the Nintendo Entertainment System. It is an entertainment system because it has a little robot called R.O.B., he’s your robotic operating buddy, and a light gun so you can shoot stuff. With a bit of shenanigans, Nintendo insists that it’s not a video game system, it’s a toy.
This time the perception is a little bit better. The challenge for Nintendo at this point isn’t selling it to the kids; it’s obvious that it’s the greatest thing of all time. The problem lies in getting stores to sell it. Nintendo decide to contact Worlds of Wonder (a successful toy company at the time) and come to an agreement that sees Worlds of Wonder receive a percentage of NES sales if they can get the systems to all the department stores they supply toys to. By partnering with a sales force, Nintendo is actually able to get into sales channels with leading toy chains and department stores that they wouldn’t have had access to other wise. This gets Nintendos in front of the public and the public starts buying them up.
So now it’s starting to build a little bit of momentum. Then Mario comes out, and now its got a lot of momentum. It’s one of the greatest games ever and it gives Nintendo the huge push. The next year rolls around and Nintendo is just taking off. They sever the agreement with Worlds of Wonder, and here is where Nintendo really enters the golden age. Games like Metroid, Zelda, Punch-Out!! and Excite Bike start coming out. And at this point it has built up so much steam that it can’t be stopped. It’s clear that it’s more than a fad, it’s a phenomenon.
The golden age of Atari only lasted a few years,, but Nintendo has been around, even if not always the top dogs, for more than twenty years, and now with the Wii and the DS line, they are back on top again. In 1990, Nintendo was 1/10th of the trade deficit between America and Japan. That’s right, just Nintendo products. That’s how big they were. They knew that once kids played a Nintendo and once they had it, it was going to catch on, and they were right, they were totally right. And then everyone made money and everyone was happy.
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