Nintendo
- This article is about the Japanese company. For the console sometimes colloquially referred to as a Nintendo, see Nintendo Entertainment System. For the development team, see Nintendo Entertainment Planning and Development.
| Nintendo | |
|---|---|
| |
| Founded | September 23, 1889 |
| First Super Mario game | Donkey Kong (1981) |
| Latest Super Mario game | Luigi's Mansion 2 HD (2024) |
| Current president | Shuntaro Furukawa |
Nintendo is a video game company with its origins in Japan. Nintendo is the creator of many popular franchises, including the Super Mario franchise, and the company's mascot is Mario himself.
History
Originally founded as a hanafuda playing card manufacturer in Kyoto, Japan, on September 23, 1889, Nintendo began exploring game-making after third president Hiroshi Yamauchi began diversifying the company's ventures. Nintendo entered the arcade industry in 1973 and the home console industry in 1977, simultaneously hiring Shigeru Miyamoto as a product designer. In 1978, Nintendo began making arcade video games, licensing titles to other companies for distribution outside Japan. In 1980, Nintendo established a North American division headed by Minoru Arakawa, and the first game that would be distributed by the American division would be Radar Scope. The game did not sell well in the United States, and a number of unsold cabinets remained in warehouses.
Arakawa asked Yamauchi if a new game could be developed and inserted into the unsold Radar Scope cabinets.[1] Yamauchi went through Nintendo's entire talent pool to see who could head the designing of a potential Radar Scope replacement, and the result was Miyamoto designing Donkey Kong. When Donkey Kong was released in 1981, it became a bestseller and marked the introduction of Mario. In 1983, Nintendo introduced the Family Computer, distributing it abroad as the Nintendo Entertainment System two years later. Its success in Japan and North America resulted in Nintendo becoming a dominant player in the video game industry and the revival of the industry in North America, which had been negatively affected by a crash in 1983. The most successful game for the NES, Super Mario Bros., further cemented Nintendo's dominance in the industry. The Super Mario franchise has since become Nintendo's flagship franchise and one of the most well-known brands to originate from video games.
Supported Regions
Nintendo has several first-party divisions dedicated to releasing products, including Super Mario games and merchandise, in different areas of the world:
- Nintendo of Japan
Japan
- Nintendo of America
Argentine Republic
Canada
Republic of Chile
Republic of Colombia
United Mexican States
Republic of Peru
United States of America
- Nintendo of Europe
Republic of South Africa
Swiss Confederation
European Union (except Scandinavia)
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
- Nintendo Australia
New Zealand
Commonwealth of Australia
- Nintendo of Korea
Republic of Korea
- Nintendo Hong Kong
Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China
Republic of China
In addition to the above, Nintendo currently works with third-party distributors to distribute Nintendo products (including Super Mario products) in the following regions:
- Active Bokei K.K.[2]
Republic of Indonesia
Republic of Singapore
Kingdom of Thailand
Republic of the Philippines
Malaysia
United Arab Emirates
Sultanate of Oman
Kingdom of Bahrain
State of Kuwait
State of Qatar
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
- Bergsala[3]
Republic of Finland
Kingdom of Denmark
Kingdom of Norway
Kingdom of Sweden
- Tencent[4]
People's Republic of China
- Tor Gaming[5]
State of Israel
Appearances in the Super Mario universe
- The WarioWare character 9-Volt calls himself "Nintendo's biggest fanboy," and his microgames are based on or around various Nintendo games and systems such as Dr. Mario and Donkey Kong.
- Diddy Kong's red cap has the Nintendo logo on it.
- Nintendo sponsors can be seen in the background of various Mario Kart courses and battle arenas.
- In the Mario Party series, the Nintendo logo, along with the Hudson Soft logo, appears on banners in various minigames.
- In Donkey Kong 64, Nintendo, along with Rareware, sponsors the boxing match between the Kongs and King K. Rool as mentioned by the Microphone.
- In Mario Power Tennis, the Nintendo logo appears on the Peach Dome court.
- In Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour and Mario Power Tennis, Wario holds up the Nintendo sign when the game boots up while stating the company's name, laughing.
- In Mario Hoops 3-on-3, the Nintendo logo, along with the Square Enix logo, appears on the arch next to the basket at Peach Field and on the banner and a large screen on the Mario Stadium court.
- In the Mario Baseball series, the Nintendo logo appears on some signs in Mario Stadium.
- In Mario Sports Mix, the Nintendo logo appears next to the sports equipment on the banners in Mario Stadium.
- In Mario Tennis Open, the Nintendo logo can be seen on the scoreboards in various courts.
Home consoles
- Color TV-Game series (1977–1982)
- Family Computer (1983–2003) / Nintendo Entertainment System (1985–1995)
- Super Famicom (1990–2003) / Super Nintendo Entertainment System (1991–1999)
- Nintendo 64 (1996–2003)
- Nintendo GameCube (2001–2009)
- Wii (2006–2013)
- Wii U (2012–2017)
- Nintendo Switch1 (2017–present)
Attachments and remodels
- Family Computer Disk System (1986–1994)
- Satellaview (1995–2000)
- Nintendo 64DD (1999–2001)
- Wii Family Edition (2011–2013)
- Wii mini (2012–2017)
These consoles may have different names in different markets. The NES is known as Famicom in Japan; the SNES, subsequently as Super Famicom. In China, the Nintendo 64 was released under the name iQue Player.
1 - Although the Nintendo Switch can also function as a handheld console, it is primarily marketed as a home console by Nintendo.
Handheld consoles
- Game & Watch (1980–1991)
- Game Boy (1989–2003)
- Virtual Boy (1995–1996)
- Game Boy Color (1998–2003)
- Game Boy Advance (2001–2009)
- Nintendo DS (2004–2013)
- Nintendo 3DS (2011–2019)
Remodels
- Game Boy Play it Loud (1996)
- Game Boy Pocket (1996–1998)
- Game Boy Light (1997–2003)
- Game Boy Advance SP (2003–2009)
- Game Boy Micro (2005–2009)
- Nintendo DS Lite (2006–2011)
- Nintendo DSi (2008–2013)
- Nintendo DSi XL (2009–2013)
- Nintendo 3DS XL (2012–2015)
- Nintendo 2DS (2013–2020)
- New Nintendo 3DS (2014–2017)
- New Nintendo 3DS XL (2014–2019)
- New Nintendo 2DS XL (2017–2020)
- Nintendo Switch Lite (2019–present)
Releases of these consoles in China usually replace "Nintendo" in the name with "iQue." Examples are the iQue DS and the iQue 3DS XL.
Gallery
The blue Nintendo logo variant, used in Japanese versions of Nintendo games
The gold Nintendo logo from the start-up of Mario Kart 64
Sprite of a Nintendo logo variant, from Diddy Kong Racing DS
The white Nintendo logo in a black background as seen in the first three Mario Party titles
The Nintendo logo recreated in the Super Mario Bros. game style in Super Mario Maker
Background featuring Super Mario characters created by Nintendo
Artwork of Nintendo's Kyoto headquarters from its recruitment book, showing a Warp Pipe at the bottom left corner
See also
- Shigeru Miyamoto
- Satoru Iwata
- Hiroshi Yamauchi
- Yoshiaki Koizumi
- Tatsumi Kimishima
- Koji Kondo
- Gunpei Yokoi
- Reggie Fils-Aimé
- Doug Bowser
Names in other languages
| Language | Name | Meaning | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Japanese | 任天堂 ニンテンドー ニンテンドウ[?] Nintendō |
任天堂 is the formal name of the company; in hiragana it is written as にんてんどう, two kanas or moras per kanji. Each of the kanji that make up its formal name mean the following:
ニンテンドー is a rough katakana form is used for the Japanese names of some consoles. This name comes from the Japanese saying 「運を天に任せる」(un o ten ni makaseru), meaning "To leave one's luck to heaven." |
|
| Chinese | 任天堂[?] Rèntiāntáng |
- | |
| Finnish | Nintendon (Captain N: The Game Master) Nintendo[?] |
- - |
|
| Greek | Νιντέντο[?] Ninténto |
- | |
| Hebrew | נינטנדו[?] Nintendo |
- | |
| Korean | 닌텐도[?] Nintendo |
- | |
| Russian | Нинтендо[?] Nintendo |
- |
External links
- Official Japan website
- Official United States website
- Official Canada (English) website
- Official Canada (French) website
- Official UK & Ireland website
- Official Mexico website
- Official Brazil website
- Official Colombia website
- Official Argentina website
- Official Chile website
- Official Peru website
- Official Europe website
- Official Denmark website
- Official Finland website
- Official Norway website
- Official Sweden website
- Official Hungary website
- Official Poland website
- Official Czechia website
- Official Slovakia website
- Official Israeli website
- Official Middle Eastern website
- Official Oceania website
- Official South Korea website
- Official Hong Kong website
- Official Taiwan website
- Official Singapore website
- Official Malaysia website
- Official Philippines website
- Official Thailand website
- Official South Africa website
- Official mainland China website
References
- ^ "IGN Presents: The History of Super Mario Bros."
- ^ Active Bokei K.K.. Active Bokei K.K. (English). Retrieved July 3, 2024. (Archived June 3, 2024, 05:14:24 UTC via Wayback Machine.)
- ^ Joe Skrebels (December 9, 2019). The Lie That Helped Build Nintendo. IGN (English). Retrieved June 1, 2024. (Archived December 21, 2019, 23:17:14 UTC via Wayback Machine.)
- ^ Takashi Moshizuki, Shan Li (April 18, 2019). Nintendo, With Tencent's Help, to Sell Switch Console in China. The Wall Street Journal (English). Retrieved July 3, 2024. (Archived December 6, 2019, 20:13:54 UTC via Wayback Machine.)
- ^ March 12, 2019. לראשונה בישראל – תור גיימינג משיקה את נינטנדו בארץ ביבוא רשמ. IGN Israel (Hebrew). Retrieved June 5, 2024. (Archived May 15, 2019, 03:34:09 UTC via Wayback Machine.)
