Nintendo Co., Ltd. Summary

Video games are an ever-growing franchise that is constantly undergoing change. Ever since the dawn of video games, new consoles, games, developers, and teams have come together, fallen apart, triumphed, and failed. What is it that has allowed some to thrive where others failed? Several different factors have changed and influenced the world of gaming, including the history that is continuously being written, the people who have built the games behind the scenes, and, of course, the actual video games themselves. Numerous video games have been more successful than others, but identifying what components set the successful apart from the unsuccessful is something definitely worth observing.

The birth of Nintendo dates back over 100 years ago and originally made only Japanese playing cards. This paper will explore how Nintendo started out as a playing card company and became one of the biggest gaming corporations that are alive today. It will also explore the success and failures of the company and how it achieved the status it has today. We will discuss the technology of gaming and how it evolved over time.

The Nintendo brand has changed over the years, starting out as a simple card company that has expanded into the massive electronic giant we know today. They have had their ups and downs through their time as a gaming company but they always have the gamer’s interest in mind. As the late CEO of Nintendo, Satoru Iwata said, "On my business card, I am a corporate president. In my mind, I am a game developer. But in my heart, I am a gamer" (Yu, E., & Chan, W.

However, the extent to which the hardcore gaming demographic dictates the structural aspects of the gaming industry as a whole is remarkable. Companies are still willing to cater to this audience because it is a profitable enterprise, as it is only the most devoted of fans who will line up days before a system release while generating free publicity on the internet and through word of mouth in the months prior. Thus, and perhaps unexpectedly, an important factor in the Wii's meteoric rise was Nintendo's ability, through the strength of its brand and residual nostalgia effects, to co-opt this hardcore gaming culture with a console that at best, only occasionally acceded to its wishes, while at worst, marginalized them completely. What Nintendo realized, and ultimately capitalized on, was that the hegemonic structure influencing the industry was inherently weak, in that it was essentially a small minority overwhelming the relatively silent masses. Although there are doubts to the sustainability of such an endeavor, the signs are present that the Wii has already altered the video game

Nintendo started up as a small business in Japan. It was founded by Fusajiro Yamauchi on the 23rd of September 1889 as Nintendo Koppai. Being based in Kyoto, Japan, it marketed and produced Hanafuda cards. These cards were handmade and soon they began to gain popularity and Yamauchi needed to hire assistants so as to mass produce in order to meet the high demand. Between 1956 and 1974, Nintendo ventured in toy productions rather than just the production of cards. Being a small company, it struggled for survival in the Japanese toy industry which was dominated by companies such as Tomy and Bandai.

In 1983, Nintendo launched the Family Computer, also known as “Famicom” alongside ports of its most famous arcade titles. In 1985, the Family Computer was remade and launched in North America as the Nintendo Entertainment System, or the NES. The console’s success led to the help of creating Super Mario Bros., one of the best-selling and popular video games of history.

You may be wondering where it all started, where it all came from. Well I have the answer you see it all started back in September 23 1889, a young man named Fusajiro Yamauchi opened a small store in the middle of Kyoto. He was very young (he only just turned 13) but he none the less was the first owner of Nintendo. He didn’t just go straight to games, and he didn’t want to be like any other shops selling normal everyday good such as silk and tea. He wanted to be unique and start selling a product that the government had just legalized. Can you guess what it is? That’s right nothing more than cards. But these weren’t just some ordinary card these where Nintendo cards as seen in picture #1. You can see how different they were sure there where

The dawn of Nintendo was when gaming evolved (Cobbett). Nintendo and others have changed the world of gaming (Cobbett). In 1981, Nintendo released the famous Donkey Kong (Cobbett). Still to this day, it’s a popular game (Cobbett). Nintendo revolutionized gaming by becoming the first gaming company to release a game that featured jumping over objects as a mechanic (Cobbett). This was the most revolutionary advance in gaming since the first Nintendo “EVR Race” (Cobbett).

Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo have been competing for a decade with Sony dominating the market throughout most of the years because of their superior technological products. The video games industry faces an entirely new rivalry situation. In 2008, Sony lost its strong position on the market, because of Nintendo’s success with their dynamic Wii over Sony’s high-tech PlayStation 3 and Windows’ Xbox 360. Although the Wii was technologically much less advanced than PS3 and Xbox 360, the Wii's cheaper price, ease of use, innovative motion-sensitive controller, and simple but fun games, made the console a hit all demographics from 9 to 65 years old, male and female. All these factors resulted in Nintendo’s Wii dominating sales and surpassing Sony’s by an impressive ratio of 2:1.

Nintendo a company with many accolades and an history of achievements has constantly made their mark in the gaming industry. Founded by japanese businessman Fusajiro Yamauchi in 1889 known for being a small card trading company. Nintendo grew over the years with the innovation of the new gaming systems like handhelds (Gameboy) and consoles (Magnaox Odyssey) which both were really successful and helped advances gaming the process. But in 1991 Nintendo released the Super Nintendo which helped the design of the controllers; after releasing the Super Nintendo, Nintendo looked into making more advances with the gaming side of the company. By teaming up with Sony, Nintendo established a way of play CD roms on gaming consoles, which is a huge event

     Nintendo's president, Hiroshi Yamauchi, wanted the company to expand faster; he wanted to be able to compete in a bigger portion of the market. Hiroshi came up with his own ideas to do so: individually portioned instant rice, a taxi service, and a "love hotel" that charged rooms by the hour (Game Over). Hiroshi later trashed these services and products to focus back on the part of the company that succeeded all the rest, the playing cards. Later on he sprouted another idea; and in 1969, Hiroshi set up a Games department for Nintendo (Company History). In order to compete with the toy industries: Hiroshi Yamauchi hired many people to the new department. Yamauchi had told them that they needed to come up with something that will be sold for the coming Christmas. Yamauchi only told them that it needed to be "something good" (Game Over).

Nintendo started back in 1889 as a Japanese multinational consumer electronics company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. Nintendo is the world 's largest video game company by revenue, it is worth about $22.2 billion dollars. (Forbes) It’s hard to believe that the business started by making playing cards. Nintendo was founded on September 23, 1889, by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it originally produced handmade hanafuda playing cards. Recently, the company is being run by Satoru Iwata. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as cab services and love hotels. Through the years, the company progressed into the manufacturing of toys and games and then eventually to the manufacturing electronic games. Early popular products included Nintendo 64, and Game Boy which was introduced in Japan in 2001. Popular current products include Wii fit and derivatives of the DS portable video game player. In this paper I will concisely explain Nintendo’s business strategy, global presence, cross cultural issues, vision/missions/goals, and their ethics and corporate social responsibility. (Nintendo)

Nintendo is a household name all over America and has been since the Nintendo Entertainment System was released back in 1983. Nintendo single-handedly saved the video game market and have created fond childhood memories for many people, including young adults and teenagers. Recently however, the video game juggernaut has been forgotten for other gaming companies since the commercial and financial flop that was the Wii U in 2012.

Nintendo did first start of as a card game company in the late 1880’s and the home video game console TV Game 6 in color in 1980’s.

The role of technology is vital in this industry as it focuses on technological efforts for competitive advantage. Every new development uses new technology. Though there are restricted innovations in the gaming industry, the speed of technological transfer is very high. Nintendo’s role from playing cards to toys to video games and then with each console introduced, included many technological changes. Technological up gradation increased hardware costs and discouraged innovation. The online capability of Nintendo Wii was a major change in the technology of the video game industry though they were not able to do as well as their competitors (Sony, Microsoft).