Nintendo today is a video game company. They own the Wii, and the Nintendo DS systems. But did you know that they have a history that dates back to before the 20th century? Obviously video games were not invented then. What was a video game company to do?
When Nintendo was founded in 1887, they were a playing card company. They made hand made hanafuda cards made on mulberry bark. They kept doing this for a while then they went to plastic cards. They were the first to do this and were very popular. Then they put Disney people on the cards, this made them even more popular. By 1963 they were looking for ways to make even more money. Nothing made them much money, but the toy market did pay for its self. Then cards became unpopular in Japan. Nintendo sunk and was doing nothing. Then they saw a fixer guy they had hired made an arm to pick things up for you so that you would not have to bend down. They marketed this and Nintendo was going again.
That same fixer guy got moved to development, and started making electronic toys. These made more money, and were Nintendo's ticket to success. Seeing their success, Nintendo then started making video games. They started with a simple game system called the Color TV Game 6. Then they started making arcade games like Donkey Kong, and Mario Bros. (Not Super Mario Bros.) Then they went into more home consoles releasing The Famicom (NES) in Japan, along with Super Mario Bros, and R.O.B. They were a blowout success, and in North America they had a 95% market share.
In 1990 they released The Super Famicom, (SNES) they were pushed down at first by SEGA and their Genesis. But Nintendo fought them out with Super Mario World, The Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past, and more. Then in 1996 they released The Nintendo 64, but Sony released the PlayStation. Sony then just destroyed Nintendo from there out. Then in 2001 they released the GameCube. Again Sony released the PlayStation 2, the best selling system ever. Again Sony destroyed them. Microsoft this time helped kill Nintendo with the Xbox. In 2006 Nintendo released The Wii. Sony released the PlayStation 3 (at $700) Microsoft the Xbox 360. This time Nintendo absolutely destroyed everyone, and still is. (I forgot to put in the handhelds history, I will do that another time.)
There you have it. Nintendo is an adapter. They change a lot. I don't see them changing again very soon. Video games are here to stay, at home, and at Nintendo.
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