| Nintendo History |
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Nintendo Company History Nintendo Co., Ltd., of Kyoto, Japan, is the acknowledged worldwide leader in the creation of interactive entertainment. To date, Nintendo has sold more than one billion video games worldwide, created such industry icons as Mario and Donkey Kong and launched franchises like The Legend of Zelda and Pokémon. Nintendo manufactures and markets hardware and software for its popular home video game systems, including Nintendo 64 and Game Boy - the world's best-selling video game system. As a wholly owned subsidiary, Nintendo of America Inc., based in Redmond, Washington, serves as headquarters for Nintendo's operations in the Western Hemisphere, where more than 40 percent of American households own a Nintendo game system. 1889 - Fusajiro Yamauchi, great-grandfather of the present president, began manufacturing "Hanafuda," Japanese playing cards in Kyoto. 1902 - Mr. Yamauchi started manufacturing the first playing cards in Japan. Originally for export, the product became popular in Japan as well as abroad. 1933 - Established an unlimited partnership, Yamauchi Nintendo & Co. 1947 - Began a distribution company, Marufuku Co. Ltd. 1950 - Hiroshi Yamauchi took office as President and absorbed the manufacturing operation of Yamauchi Nintendo & Co. 1951 - Changed the company name from Marufuku Co. Ltd. to Nintendo Playing Card Co. Ltd. 1952 - Consolidated factories were dispersed in Kyoto. 1953 - Became the first to succeed in manufacturing mass-produced plastic playing cards in Japan. 1959 - Started selling cards printed with Walt Disney characters, opening a new market in children's playing cards. The card department boomed! 1962 - In January, listed stock on the second section of the Osaka Stock Exchange and on the Kyoto Stock Exchange. 1963 - Changed company name to Nintendo Co. Ltd. and started manufacturing games in addition to playing cards. 1969 - Expanded and reinforced the game department; built a production plant in Uji City, a suburb of Kyoto. 1970 - Stock listing was changed to the first section of the Osaka Stock Exchange. Reconstruction and enlargement of corporate headquarters was completed. Started selling the Beam Gun series, employing opto-electronics. Introduced electronic technology into the toy industry for the first time in Japan. 1973 - Developed laser clay shooting system to succeed bowling as a major pastime. 1974 - Developed image projection system employing 16mm film projector for amusement arcades. Began exporting them to America and Europe. 1975 - In cooperation with Mitsubishi Electric, developed video game system using electronic video recording (EVR) player. Introduced the microprocessor into the video game system the next year. 1977 - Developed home-use video games in cooperation with Mitsubishi Electric. 1978 - Created and started selling coin-operated video games using microcomputers. 1979 - Started an operations division for coin-operated games. 1980 - Announced a wholly owned subsidiary, Nintendo of America Inc. in New York. Started selling "GAME & WATCH" product line. 1981 - Developed and began distribution of the coin-operated video game "Donkey Kong." This video game quickly became the hottest selling individual coin-operated machine in the business. 1982 - Merged New York subsidiary into Nintendo of America Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary headquartered in Seattle, Washington, U.S.A., with a capital of $600,000. 1983 - Built a new plant in Uji city to increase production capacity and to allow for business expansion. Established Nintendo Entertainment Centres Ltd. in Vancouver, B.C., Canada, to operate a family entertainment center. Raised authorized capital of Nintendo of America Inc. to $10 million. In July, listed stock on the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Started selling the home video game console "Family Computer" employing a custom CPU (Custom Processing Unit) and PPU (Picture Processing Unit). |