Over 5 billion games sold. 870 million consoles shipped. One franchise, Pokemon, now the most lucrative intellectual property in human history, ahead of Star Wars and Marvel. These figures belong to a company founded in 1889 to sell handmade playing cards in a back alley in Kyoto. Nintendo's history is full of paradoxes.
Where its competitors, Sony, Microsoft and Sega, are tech giants born in the 20th century, Nintendo is a historical anomaly. A 19th-century company that survived two world wars, several near-bankruptcies and a dozen technological revolutions. Only to end up defining the rules of an industry that didn't yet exist at its founding.
Nintendo's uniqueness lies in its model, far more than in its size or financial power. In an industry obsessed with graphical power and $200 million blockbusters, Nintendo has always played a different tune: creating new ways to play rather than better versions of what already exists. This philosophy, consistent over 135 years despite failures and crises, is what this article is really about.
The Origins (1889): Fusajiro Yamauchi and the Hanafuda Cards
It all begins on September 23, 1889, in a narrow alley in Kyoto, the ancient capital of Japan. Fusajiro Yamauchi, a talented craftsman and businessman, founds "Nintendo Koppai." The name is sometimes translated as "Leave luck to heaven," though that etymology remains disputed. His specialty: the handcrafted manufacture of Hanafuda, traditional Japanese "flower cards."
At the time, Western playing cards are banned in Japan due to their association with gambling. Hanafuda, illustrated with nature scenes and bearing no numbers, escape that prohibition. Success is immediate. Ironically, much of the demand comes from the Yakuza, who use these cards in their underground gambling dens. Players demand a fresh deck for every game to prevent cheating. A steady stream of sales, guaranteed by organized crime.
In 1902, Fusajiro produces the first Western-style playing cards in Japan. Initially intended for export, they quickly conquer the domestic market through a partnership with Japan Tobacco and Salt. Nintendo cards appear in every tobacco shop in the country. With no male heir, Fusajiro adopts his son-in-law Sekiryo Kaneda, who takes the Yamauchi name, to succeed him in 1929. Sekiryo creates a formal distribution structure, Marufuku Co., and establishes a modern headquarters in 1933.
The Transition Decades (1950–1970): Diversification, Toys and Hotels
The real turning point comes in 1949. Sekiryo suffers a stroke. His 22-year-old grandson, Hiroshi Yamauchi, is called back from his studies at Waseda University to take the helm. He will run the company with an iron fist for over 50 years. Upon arrival, he dismisses the family executives to secure total control.
Under his era, Nintendo experiments boldly. In 1959, Hiroshi signs a deal with Walt Disney to feature Mickey Mouse on playing cards. By positioning them as an educational tool rather than a gambling product, Nintendo sells over 600,000 packs in a single year. It's the company's first mass contact with a young audience.
But Yamauchi quickly realizes the card market is saturated. Between 1963 and 1968, Nintendo diversifies erratically: instant rice, a taxi company (Daya), vacuum cleaners, and even love hotels in Kyoto. All of these ventures fail. Nintendo teeters on the edge of bankruptcy.
Salvation comes from an unlikely figure: Gunpei Yokoi. Hired in 1965 as a maintenance technician, he tinkers with gadgets in his spare time. One day, Yamauchi catches him with a homemade telescoping arm. Rather than reprimanding him, he orders him to refine it for sale.
The Ultra Hand launches in 1966 and sells over one million units. Yokoi becomes the cornerstone of the R&D department, establishing the philosophy of "lateral thinking with proven technology": repurposing mature, affordable components to create innovative toys.
Entering Video Games (1970–1983): Arcades, Game & Watch, Famicom
In the 1970s, Nintendo enters electronics with the Beam Gun, in partnership with Sharp. In 1973, they launch the Laser Clay Shooting System, turning disused bowling alleys into laser shooting ranges. The oil shock of that same year paralyzes the Japanese economy and halts the project. Nintendo narrowly avoids bankruptcy again.
It's Yokoi who saves the day once more with the Game & Watch (1980). Watching a commuter play with an LCD calculator on the train, he imagines a miniaturized handheld console. The result is colossal: 43 million units sold. Nintendo repays its debts and generates massive profits to invest in the future.
Meanwhile, Nintendo tries to break into the arcade market. After the failure of Radar Scope in the United States, Yamauchi tasks a young artist, Shigeru Miyamoto, with creating a game to repurpose the unsold cabinets. Miyamoto designs Donkey Kong (1981). He introduces Jumpman, a carpenter soon renamed Mario in honor of the landlord of Nintendo of America's warehouse, Mario Segale. The game is a worldwide triumph and lays the foundations of the platformer genre.
In July 1983, Nintendo launches the Family Computer (Famicom) in Japan. Designed by Masayuki Uemura, this cartridge-based console delivers unprecedented graphical power at an affordable price. Despite an early recall due to a faulty chip, it crushes the competition.
The Global Conquest (1985–2000): NES, Super Mario and the Golden Age
The American video game market collapsed in 1983. Nintendo chooses to launch the Famicom there two years later under the name Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). To bypass retailer skepticism, the console is positioned not as a toy but as a sophisticated family entertainment system. The robotic accessory R.O.B. and the Zapper light gun complete the package.
Super Mario Bros. (1985) revolutionizes the industry. Designed by Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka, the game sets the standards for the genre with its iconic music composed by Koji Kondo. More masterpieces follow: The Legend of Zelda, Metroid. The NES goes on to sell nearly 62 million units worldwide, single-handedly resurrecting the American industry.
The years that follow confirm Nintendo's dominance. The Game Boy (1989) dominates the market despite its monochrome screen, driven by its battery life and the Tetris Tetrisphenomenon. In 1996, Pokemoncreated by Satoshi Tajiri, gives the console a legendary second life. The Super Nintendo (1990) wins the console war against Sega's Mega Drive. The Nintendo 64 (1996) makes history with Super Mario 64, the first true 3D platformer.
This period does, however, see a major failure. The Virtual Boy (1995), a monochrome red virtual reality console, causes headaches and sells fewer than one million units. Its failure precipitates the departure of Gunpei Yokoi.
The Nintendo Spirit
Nintendo's spirit is defined by a constant pursuit of innovation that prioritizes player enjoyment over raw technological power. This philosophy, whose theoretical foundations Gunpei Yokoi laid in the 1970s, runs through the entire history of the company. Nintendo plays a different tune: winning the spec war interests it far less than delivering surprise.
It's a deliberate refusal to follow industry trends. When Sony and Microsoft race to build faster processors, Nintendo reinvents the game interface. When the mobile market explodes, Nintendo waits for the right partner rather than rushing in. This ability to say no to the obvious is perhaps the company's most distinctive trait.
The very name "Nintendo" is often interpreted as "leave luck to heaven." This willingness to take bold risks while remaining true to its artisanal roots runs through every strategic decision. Satoru Iwata summed it up with disarming clarity: "Video games are meant to be just one thing. Fun. Fun for everyone." (GDC 2006). It's this pursuit of pure enjoyment that places Nintendo at the heart of what we call the the Flow State : that state of total absorption that the best games know how to provoke.
Key Figures & the Creative Process
Nintendo's success rests on a lineage of executives and creators with complementary profiles. Their visions have followed and sometimes clashed with one another to produce one of the most singular companies in the industry.
Hiroshi Yamauchi transformed the card factory into a video game giant through legendary instinct, despite never being a gamer himself. His ability to identify talent and trust it is one of the keys to Nintendo's success. Satoru Iwata, his successor, brought an unprecedented technical and human dimension to the role. A brilliant former programmer, he established direct communication with fans through "Nintendo Direct" presentations and the "Iwata Asks" interview series, still available on Nintendo's official website, a rare primary source on the company's internal creative process.
Gunpei Yokoi remains the architect of Nintendo's game design philosophy. Father of the Game & Watch, the Game Boy and the D-pad, a standard adopted by the entire industry, he proved that a simple, well-executed idea beats a technical feat every time.
Shigeru Miyamoto, father of Mario, Zelda and Donkey Kong, is widely considered the greatest creator in video game history. He was supported by Takashi Tezuka on level design and Koji Kondo on music. Kondo's compositions, particularly the Super Mario Bros.theme, elevated video game music to the status of cultural icon.
Worth mentioning too: Satoshi Tajiri, creator of Pokemon, who turned his childhood insect-collecting hobby into one of the most lucrative franchises in history. And Masayuki Uemura, the technical architect behind the Famicom and the Super Nintendo.
For a deeper look at Nintendo's games through this creative lens, the Game Maker's Toolkit channel is an essential reference.
Nintendo's creative process is defined by a radically intuitive approach. For Miyamoto, a game must be "easy to learn, but hard to master"The design of Super Mario Bros. 1-1 level is often cited as a masterpiece of game design pedagogy. Without a single word of text, the player grasps the jump and power-up mechanics through the visual placement of elements alone.
This principle illustrates what I explore in my article on game mechanics : a mechanic only has value if it serves a clear intention. For Super Mario 64, Miyamoto spent months perfecting the controls before designing a single level, ensuring that the joy of controlling Mario would be immediately felt.
The Business Model
Nintendo has built a robust economic model on vertical integration. Controlling both hardware and software allows the company to master the entire player experience.
From the NES era, Nintendo introduces the lockout chip (10NES). It prevents third-party publishers from releasing games without the company's approval. Yamauchi can thus filter titles and affix the Nintendo Seal of Quality to approved boxes. That seal served a far deeper function than a simple marketing argument: it was a direct response to the 1983 crash, caused by a flood of low-quality games saturating the American market.
By controlling its platform, Nintendo protected both its image and consumer trust — a lesson Apple would apply decades later with the App Store. The concepts of publisher, licensing and distribution are covered in the Production & Industry glossary for those who want to dig into the vocabulary.
To reintroduce video games to the United States after the crash, Nintendo takes an audacious positioning strategy. The NES is not sold as a console, but as a sophisticated family entertainment system. This ability to redefine the categories in which it operates would repeat itself with the Wii, the DS and the Switch.
On the diversification front, Nintendo progressively reduces its dependence on the hardware cycle. The amiibo figures (2014) combine physical collecting with digital content to massive success. The mobile market is approached selectively: Fire Emblem Heroes proves highly profitable through microtransactions, while Mario Kart Tour reaches a new audience. Film and theme parks complete an ecosystem where intellectual property generates value well beyond consoles.
The Casual Gaming Revolution: The Wii and the Reinvented Market
In 2002, Hiroshi Yamauchi retires and appoints Satoru Iwata as his successor. The first president outside the family lineage, Iwata is a former programming genius from HAL Laboratory, the studio behind Kirby and Super Smash Bros. Kirby and Super Smash Bros.
Under Iwata and Miyamoto's impetus, Nintendo adopts the "Blue Ocean" strategy. Rather than exhausting itself in a technology race against Sony and Microsoft, the company seeks to create new markets by attracting non-gamers. This logic connects directly to the structure of gameplay loops : Nintendo doesn't optimize an existing loop, it invents a new one. Iwata would put it plainly: "When we considered what to do with the graphics capability of the Wii, we put more attention and focus on the ability to create new experiences rather than the quality of the graphics."
The Nintendo DS (2004), with its dual screens and stylus, offers intuitive gameplay. Titles like Brain Age and Nintendogs Brain Age and Nintendogs attract women and seniors. It becomes the best-selling Nintendo console in history with 154 million units. The Wii (2006) introduces motion controls via the Wiimote. Wii Sports becomes a social phenomenon. The console sells over 100 million units, far outpacing its competitors.
The Highs and Lows: GameCube, Wii U and Lessons Learned
Things haven't always been smooth for Nintendo in the 2000s and 2010s. The GameCube (2001), despite cult titles like . Super Smash Bros. Melee, suffers from its proprietary mini-DVD format and an image perceived as too childish against the PlayStation 2.
The Wii U (2012) is a resounding failure: just 13.5 million units sold. Its GamePad tablet concept is poorly understood. The confusing marketing leads many to believe it's simply an accessory for the original Wii. This failure puts Nintendo in the red for the first time in 30 years.
From these failures come crucial lessons. Nintendo understands it must diversify its revenue streams. Under Iwata, the company launches the amiibo line in 2014 and opens up to mobile gaming with DeNA and Niantic. Tragically, Satoru Iwata passes away in 2015. He leaves behind the blueprints for a project that would change everything: the NX.
Nintendo Today (2017–): The Switch and Total Expansion
In March 2017, Nintendo launches the Switch under the presidency of Tatsumi Kimishima. A hybrid console that transitions seamlessly from living room to portable play, it embodies the perfect fusion of the company's heritage. Launched alongside The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, it becomes an unprecedented critical and commercial success.
Under the leadership of Shuntaro Furukawa (since 2018), Nintendo completes its transformation into a transmedia entertainment giant. The strategy now rests on expanding intellectual property, not just hardware. The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) surpasses one billion dollars at the box office. Super Nintendo World areas in Osaka, Hollywood and Orlando bring Mario's universe into the real world. In 2025, the Nintendo Switch 2 confirms the staying power of the hybrid model with flagship titles like Mario Kart World.
Today, with over 6 billion games and 870 million consoles sold, Nintendo continues to apply Iwata's vision: making everyone smile. From the card shop in Kyoto to screens around the world, the same ambition endures.
The Impact on the Collective Consciousness
In the 1980s and 1990s, "Nintendo" became a common noun in the United States. It referred to any video game console, much like "Frigidaire" for refrigerators or "Scotch" for adhesive tape. Mothers would tell their kids to turn off "their Nintendo," regardless of whether it was a Sega or a PlayStation. The company had to run advertising campaigns reminding the public that "Nintendo" was a registered trademark, fearing it might lose its legal rights through genericization.
Mario est devenu plus reconnaissable pour les enfants américains que Mickey Mouse ou Bugs Bunny. Pokemon Mario became more recognizable to American children than Mickey Mouse or Bugs Bunny. Pokémon sparked a genuine "Pokémania" in the late 1990s. A multimedia phenomenon blending games, trading cards and animated series, intense enough to trigger school bans.
Pokemon GO (2016) transformed public space, driving millions of people into the streets to catch virtual creatures. During the 2020 lockdowns, Animal Crossing: New Horizons became a social refuge. Some used it to host virtual weddings or gatherings with friends. Nintendo doesn't just sell products: it creates collective memories. The D-pad, the analog stick, the portable console: inventions that have become part of the fabric of the human experience of digital entertainment.
The Controversies
Despite its family-friendly image, Nintendo's history is dotted with controversies and legal battles. They reveal a company just as formidable in business as it is in creativity.
The company's origins are themselves tinged with ambiguity. The original Hanafuda cards were intimately tied to gambling and the Yakuza, who generated massive demand for Nintendo's products. A reality the company's official communications rarely acknowledge.
On the commercial front, Nintendo is accused in 1989 by the American FTC of price-fixing. In 2002, the European Commission levies a record €149 million fine for anticompetitive practices. The release of Mortal Kombat in the 1990s leads to U.S. Senate hearings, forcing Nintendo to help create the ESRB rating system to avoid government regulation.
It's the protection of its intellectual property, however, that earns Nintendo its most controversial reputation. ROM site takedowns, claiming ad revenue on YouTube Let's Play videos from 2013, and lawsuits against emulators. In 2024, Nintendo secures the shutdown of Yuzu, the most popular Switch emulator, and a $2.4 million settlement. The Verge covered the full course of the proceedings, including its implications for the entire emulation scene.
On health and safety: the Virtual Boy drew criticism for its effects on eyesight. Nintendo recommended children under 6 not use the 3DS's 3D feature. In 2000, the company paid $80 million in a settlement after children injured their hands spinning the control stick of the Nintendo 64 in Mario Party.
Conclusion
What does Nintendo ultimately tell us about video games?
Perhaps this: that play is not a matter of technology. That processor power doesn't create pleasure. That a massive budget doesn't guarantee emotion. Nintendo has proven, generation after generation and often against market consensus, that a simple, well-executed idea can move cultural mountains. A plumber who jumps, a controller that moves, a console you slip into your pocket.
There's something profoundly artisanal in this vision. Fusajiro Yamauchi made his cards by hand, one by one, with care for detail and the pleasure of the end user. A hundred and thirty-five years later, Miyamoto spends months perfecting a character's jump before designing a single level. The form has changed. The intention has not.
Nintendo reminds us that play is a serious thing. Not in a solemn sense, but in the sense that it touches something essential: the desire to play, to explore, to progress, to share. When Animal Crossing becomes a refuge during a global pandemic, when millions walk the streets to catch invisible creatures, when a mother tells her child to turn off "their Nintendo" while pointing at a competitor's console, that's Nintendo having achieved something few companies ever do. Getting into people's lives, not just their hands.
From the card shop in Kyoto to screens around the world, the same promise endures. Leave luck to heaven, and make everyone smile.
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