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overview
One of the world's largest game makers and a major manufacturer and seller of leisure equipment for home use. Manufactures and sells home-use game machines such as Nintendo DS and Wii, card games such as Hanafuda and playing cards, Go, and Shogi. It also develops and sells game software dedicated to its own devices.
history
Founded in 1889, it is a long-established company. The founder is Fusajiro Yamauchi (great-grandfather of Hiroshi Yamauchi). The head office is consistently in Kyoto, and until recent years it was reluctant to expand its base in Tokyo.
It is a company with a unique stance, such as not touching fields other than the entertainment business, holding huge cash assets with debt-free management, and not engaging in any business activities.
In addition, while the founder Fusajiro is a craftsman, he also manages a cement wholesaler called Ashiko Honten (the original family business of the Yamauchi family, a lime wholesaler if you follow it further). He was active in a two-legged craftsman with "Personal store Fusajiro Yamauchi store (Nintendo bone)".
According to the history of Ashiko Main Store Co., Ltd., when the third generation owner of Ashiko Main Store was appointed as the owner, Genzo Yamauchi, the business of the Yamauchi family, Ashiko Main Store and Nintendo became independent after going through a branch family. It should be noted that the Yamauchi family's "Kimi (Mother of 溥)" and "Kou" sisters who married their sister "Kou" (became a son-in-law) were the Genzo, and this is a branch house.
After Hiroshi Yamauchi's grandfather, Sekiryo Kaneda, succeeded to the reign of the head family, he built the foundation of the current company Nintendo from the store Nintendo.
After Tsumuro died at the age of 66, his grandson, Hiroshi Yamauchi, who was 22 at the time, succeeded the president of Nintendo, and after trial and error described later, he will be raised to Nintendo around the world.
Starting with Hanafuda, he succeeded in manufacturing and selling entertainment products such as playing cards, Hyakunin Isshu, mahjong tiles, and Go / Shogi supplies, and became the top player in the playing card industry in Japan.
These are still being manufactured even after the following diversified management failures, and playing cards, Hanafuda, etc. maintain the top share in Japan.
From the 30's to the early 1950's
When Hiroshi Yamauchi visited the US Playing Card Company, which is the largest in the card game industry, he was disappointed in the card game industry when he saw that the factory was a small company and the factory was manual work. I started to develop diversified management from the idea that I can't grow. Development of "instant rice" that can be eaten in 3 minutes with hot water, management of hot spring inns, taxi business (after that, the taxi company that gave up started to manage a love hotel, and it is often misunderstood that it was run by Nintendo), etc.
Even though I reached out to various businesses in this way, the results were not good and I withdrew. After that, he entered the arcade business, which became the foundation for the later hardware business. At this time, the famous Gunpei Yokoi joined the company and released toys such as "Ultra Hand" and "NES Zapper Series". These became hits, and Nintendo succeeded in establishing a certain position in the toy industry. Yokoi also worked on several arcade games. Another famous place is a toy called "Love Tester", but it didn't sell much compared to the above two (but after that, it appeared frequently in Nintendo games, and reprints made by other companies. Etc. are on sale, so it's not wasted).
Having found a way into the entertainment industry with some success in the arcade industry, Nintendo plans to create and market a large-scale amusement machine in a bowling alley where the boom has passed. Although it sold well, the oil shock that occurred at the time canceled all reservations and caused a huge debt.
By the way, there is a past that supplied a peripheral device, a raygun (GunCon), for the "Odyssey" of Magnavox, the world's first home video game console. The original NES Zapper series was equipped with a miniature bulb (photophore) at the muzzle and a solar cell (photophore) at the target, but by reversing this, a receiver is attached to the muzzle to detect the target of the cathode ray tube. rice field.
From that edge, Nintendo acquired the Odyssey license and released Color TV Game 15 in 1977. Color TV-Game has become a popular product with sales of about 1 million units, but the debt has not been paid off.
Game Watch and Donkey Kong (1980-)
And in 1980, the hit of "Game & Watch" repaid all the debt.
Based on such experience and reflection, it is said that it is unwritten to never touch any industry other than entertainment.
The arcade game "Donkey Kong" released in 1981 was also a big hit and gained a foothold in expanding into the United States.
In addition, software was also provided to other companies' hardware, such as Donkey Kong being ported to ColecoVision together with Zaxxon (Sega), which developed the same Ikegami communication device.
Famicom-Present (1983-)
In 1983, the family computer (Famicom) was released.
In software, "Donkey Kong," "The Legend of Zelda," "Metroid," "Fire Emblem," etc. The first works of the famous series are available at this time.
Since this time, we have not provided any software to other companies' hardware.
Game Boy was released in 1989, and Super Nintendo was released in 1990.
Game Boy's "Pokemon" (1996) once again made a big hit at the social phenomenon level, and after going through Game Boy Advance, caused a social phenomenon again on the Nintendo DS.
On the other hand, in the era of NINTENDO64-GameCube, it was decided to transfer the top share to SCEI in the sales share of stationary game machines, but regained the top share in the manufacturing and sales of Wii, causing a social phenomenon that can be said to be since Famicom over and over again. rice field.
Although the successor Nintendo 3DS and Wii U era had to struggle, it maintained its top share in the handheld game console market and continues to maintain an overwhelming share in game software sales.
From 2014, we started selling "amiibo", a character figure and card that works with the game.
Launched a new Nintendo Switch in 2017. In addition to winning the Internet Buzzword Award, the most software has been released in the first year, and it is already showing great excitement.
In the "Super Smash Bros. Smash Bros." series, a gorgeous competition of Nintendo All-Stars by the above-mentioned famous series has been realized (although there are some differences in the image and settings from the original due to integration).
In addition to being able to cover the salaries of employees for nearly a decade with only the assets they have, it is unusually strong from both the entertainment product industry and other industries, where the ups and downs are fierce, such as being a debt-free business during a prolonged recession. It is also one of Japan's leading super-excellent companies.
Even in the N64-GC era, which was said to be a difficult battle, we firmly maintained profitability (not only, in the GC era, we achieved record high profits at that time), and our management skills are also very good. I can see it.
In 2011, due to the cost drop of 3DS and the appreciation of the yen, it became the first deficit since listing, but
Since 2014, it has picked up and has maintained profitable management again.
At the House of Councilors Budget Committee in March 2014, Prime Minister Abe cites "making Japan like Nintendo" as a management sample in response to a member's question "what is a growth strategy?" Maintains sound management.
President Hiroshi Yamauchi, who raised Nintendo as a game company, said, "Software is the main, hardware is the subordinate." "Hard is a box that people have no choice but to buy to play software." "Always give people new surprises." As an entertainment product maker, it has a prideful management philosophy, and it has been inherited by the current Nintendo while changing its shape.
In this way, because it is a long-established company that represents Japan, it is often featured in newspapers and magazines that are not originally related to the game industry, and it is drawing a lot of attention every time it announces new hardware or business plans. It is famous for its polite support system, such as accepting repair requests for Famicom for 24 years, and it is also characteristic that it has many heartwarming episodes with consumers.
March 17, 2015. The news of the partnership between Nintendo and DeNA, which had been skeptical and reluctant in the smartphone game market until then, shocked everywhere (until there was a reason for Nintendo to be convinced of the partnership. It is clear that he refused).
Regarding the game design described later, there are gradually opportunities for Nintendo characters that have not been seen before to appear in software of other companies (third parties). (Example: Bandai Namco's Project Cross Zone 2 etc.)
We are gradually increasing the opportunities for distribution of indie games so that they can be played on our own hardware, reflecting the times.
On April 12, 2022, Kyoto City was selected as an effective utilization company for the city-owned land adjacent to the head office, which was recruited by a publicly-offered proposal on December 8, 2021, and acquired the city-owned land. The Nintendo Headquarters Second Development Building (tentative name) is scheduled to be established in December 2027. The completed image is a slightly vertically long shape. The height is about 72m (it's just an image, so it may be a little different after completion).
Associated Franchises
- Animal Crossing
- Donkey Kong
- Dragalia Lost
- Fatal Frame
- Fire Emblem
- F-Zero
- Ice Climber
- Kid Icarus
- Kirby
- Mario
- Metroid
- Mother
- Pikmin
- Pokémon
- Splatoon
- Star Fox
- Super Smash Bros.
- The Legend of Zelda
- WarioWare (Made in Wario)
- Xenoblade Chronicles
Consoles and accessories
Home
Handheld
See also
- Mario
- Hanafuda
- Yamauchi Hiroshi (3rd president)
- Iwata Satoru (4th president)
- Kimishima Tatsumi (5th president, 2nd CEO of NoA)
- Reggie Fils-Aime (3rd CEO of NoA)
- Doug Bowser (4th CEO of NoA)
- Miyamoto Shigeru