The history of Nintendo is from 1889 to the present, starting as a playing-card company to eventually becoming a multinational video game conglomerate. It has always remained headquartered in Kyoto, Japan.[1]
Nintendo was founded as Yamauchi Nintendo (山内任天堂) by Fusajiro Yamauchi on September 23, 1889.[2][3][4] Based in Kyoto, Japan, the business produced and marketed hanafuda. The name "Nintendo" is commonly assumed to mean "leave luck to heaven", but there are no historical records to validate this.[5] The handmade cards soon gained popularity, so Yamauchi hired assistants to mass-produce cards.
Fusajiro Yamauchi did not have a son to take over the family business. Following the common Japanese tradition of mukoyōshi, he adopted his son-in-law, Sekiryo Kaneda, who then legally took his wife's last name of Yamauchi. In 1929, Fusajiro Yamauchi retired and allowed Kaneda to take over as president. In 1933, Sekiryo Kaneda established a joint venture with another company and renamed it Yamauchi Nintendo & Co.
In 1947, Sekiryo established a distribution company, Marufuku Co., Ltd.,[6] to distribute the hanafuda and several other types of cards produced by Nintendo. Sekiryo Kaneda also had only daughters, so again his son-in-law (Shikanojo Inaba, renamed Shikanojo Yamauchi) was adopted into the family. Yamauchi later abandoned his family and did not become company president. Subsequently, his son Hiroshi Yamauchi was brought up by his grandparents and he later took over the company instead of his father.
In 1949, Hiroshi Yamauchi attended Waseda University in Tokyo. However, after his grandfather suffered a debilitating stroke, he left to take office as the president of Nintendo.[7] In 1950, he renamed Marufuku Co. Ltd. to Nintendo Karuta (任天堂かるた), and in 1951 to Nintendo Karuta (任天堂骨牌) (writing "karuta" as "骨牌" rather than "かるた").[8][9][10] In 1953, Nintendo became the first company in Japan to produce playing cards from plastic.[11]
In 1956, Yamauchi visited the U.S., to engage in talks with the United States Playing Card Company (USPCC), the dominant playing card manufacturer in the United States, based in Cincinnati. He was shocked to find that the world's biggest company in his business was relegated to using a small office. This was a turning point for Yamauchi, who then realized the limitations of the playing card business.
In 1958, Nintendo made a deal with Disney to allow the use of Disney's characters on Nintendo's playing cards.[9] Previously, Western playing cards were regarded as something similar to hanafuda and mahjong: a device for gambling. By tying playing cards to Disney and selling books explaining the different games playable with the cards, Nintendo could sell the product to Japanese households. The tie-in was a success and the company sold at least 600,000 card packs in one year. Due to this success, in 1962, Yamauchi took Nintendo public, listing the company in Osaka Stock Exchange Second division.[10]
In 1963, Nintendo Playing Card Co., Ltd. was renamed to Nintendo by Yamauchi.[10] Nintendo now began to experiment in other areas of business using the newly injected capital. This included establishing a food company in partnership with two other firms with a product line featuring instant rice (similar to instant noodles),[12] a vacuum cleaner, and Chiritory (which later appeared in a two-player minigame in WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$ in 2003). All these ventures eventually failed, except toymaking, based on some earlier experience from selling playing cards.[13] In 1964, while Japan was experiencing an economic boom due to the Tokyo Olympics, the playing card business reached saturation. Japanese households stopped buying playing cards, and the price of Nintendo stock fell from 900 yen to 60 yen.[14]
In 1965, Nintendo hired Gunpei Yokoi as a maintenance engineer for the assembly line. However, Yokoi soon became famous for much more than his ability to repair conveyor belts.[15]
During the 1960s, Nintendo struggled to survive in the Japanese toy industry, which was still small at this point, and already dominated by already well-established companies such as Bandai and Tomy. Because of the generally short product life cycle of toys, the company took the approach of introducing new products at a quicker rate, marking the start of a major new era for Nintendo.
In 1966, Yamauchi, upon visiting one of the company's hanafuda factories, noticed an extending arm-shaped toy, which had been made by one of its maintenance engineers, Gunpei Yokoi, for fun. Yamauchi ordered Yokoi to develop it as a proper product for the Christmas rush. Released as the Ultra Hand, it became one of Nintendo's earliest toy blockbusters, selling over hundreds of thousands units. Seeing that Yokoi had potential, Yamauchi pulled him off assembly line work. Yokoi was soon moved from maintenance duty to product development.
Due to his electrical engineering background, it soon became apparent that Yokoi was quite adept at developing electronic toys. These devices had a much higher novelty value than traditional toys, allowing Nintendo to charge a higher price margin for each product. Yokoi went on to develop many other toys, including the Ten Billion Barrel puzzle, a baseball throwing machine called the Ultra Machine, and a Love Tester.
Nintendo released the first solar-powered light gun, the Nintendo Beam Gun,[16] in 1970; this was the first commercially available light-gun for home use, produced in partnership with Sharp.[17]
In 1972, Nintendo released the Ele-Conga, one of the first programmable drum machines. It plays pre-programmed rhythms from disc-shaped punch cards, which can be altered or programmed by the user, to play different patterns.[18]
1972–1982: Arcade games, Color TV-Game, and the Game & Watch era
Released in 1972, the first commercially available video game console, the Magnavox Odyssey, has a light gun accessory, the Shooting Gallery.[19] This was the first involvement of Nintendo in video games. According to Martin Picard in the International Journal of Computer Game Research: "in 1971, Nintendo had—even before the marketing of the first home console in the United States—an alliance with the American pioneer Magnavox to develop and produce optoelectronic guns for the Odyssey (released in 1972), since it was similar to what Nintendo was able to offer in the Japanese toy market in 1970s".[20]
In 1973, its focus shifted to family-friendly arcades with the Laser Clay Shooting System,[21] using the same light gun technology used in Nintendo's Kousenjuu series of toys, and set up in abandoned bowling alleys. Gaining some success, Nintendo developed several more light gun machines for the emerging arcade scene. While the Laser Clay Shooting System ranges had to be shut down following excessive costs, Nintendo had founded a new market.
Nintendo also entered the video game market. Its first steps were to acquire the rights to distribute the Magnavox Odyssey in Japan in 1974 and to release its first video arcade game, EVR Race,[22] in 1975. In 1977, Nintendo released the Color TV-Game 6 and Color TV-Game 15, two consoles jointly developed with Mitsubishi Electric. The numbers in the console names indicate the number of games included in each.[10]
In the early 1980s, Nintendo's video game division was led by Yokoi to create some of its most famous arcade games. The massively popular Donkey Kong was designed by Shigeru Miyamoto and released in arcades in 1981. Home releases soon followed, made by Coleco for the Atari 2600, Intellivision, and ColecoVision video game systems. Some of Nintendo's other arcade games were ported to home consoles by third parties, including Donkey Kong Jr., Sky Skipper, Mario Bros., and Donkey Kong 3. Nintendo started to focus on the home game market. It stopped manufacturing and releasing arcade games in Japan in late 1985,[23][24] and withdrew its membership from the Japan Amusement Machinery Manufacturers Association (JAMMA) on February 28, 1989.[25] On July 31, 1992, Nintendo of America announced it would no longer manufacture arcade equipment.[26][27]
In addition to the arcade game activity, Nintendo was testing the consumer handheld video game market with the Game & Watch. It is a line of handheld electronic games produced by Nintendo from 1980 to 1991. Created by game designer Gunpei Yokoi, each Game & Watch features a single game to be played on an LCD screen in addition to a clock or an alarm. It is the earliest Nintendo product to garner major success, with 43.4 million units sold worldwide.
In 1982, Nintendo developed a prototype system called the Advanced Video System (AVS). Its accessories include controllers, a tape drive, a joystick, and a lightgun. The system can be used as a simple home computer. It was never released and is on display at the Nintendo World Store in New York.[28][29][30] In July 1983, Nintendo released the Family Computer console in Japan, as its first attempt at a cartridge-based video game console. More than 500,000 units were sold within two months at around $100 each. After a few months of favorable sales, Nintendo received complaints that some Famicom consoles would freeze on certain games. The fault was found in a malfunctioning chip and Nintendo decided to recall all Famicom units that were currently on store shelves, at a cost of approximately $500,000.[citation needed]
During this period, Nintendo redesigned the Famicom as the Nintendo Entertainment System for launch in the US. Since the company had very little experience with the US market, it had previously attempted to contract with Atari for the system's distribution in 1983. However, a controversy involving Coleco and Donkey Kong soured the relationship between the two during the negotiations, and Atari refused to back Nintendo's console.
In 1983–1985, a large scale recession in video game sales hit the market which amounted to a 97% decrease primarily in the North American area. The recession known as the video game crash of 1983 was caused by a few main factors including the flooding of the console market, competition of home computers, inflation, and loss of publishing control. The video game crash of 1983 soon took out not only Atari, but the vast majority of the American market itself. Over time, dominance in the market shifted from America to Japan. Nintendo began exporting to America and had virtually only one major competitor in the market, Sega, which was another Japanese company.
Nintendo was determined not to make the same mistakes in the US that Atari had. Because of massive influxes of games that were regarded as some of the worst ever created, gaming had almost completely died out in America. Nintendo decided that to avoid facing the same problems, they would only allow games that received their "Seal of Quality" to be sold for the Famicom.
In 1985, Nintendo announced the release of the Famicom (Family Computer) worldwide with a different design under the name the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). It used a creative tactic to counter the bad press on video games, and released the NES with R.O.B. units that connect to the games. To ensure the localization of the highest-quality games by third-party developers, Nintendo of America limited third-party developers to five game releases in a single year. Konami, the first third-party company allowed to make Famicom games, later circumvented this rule by creating a spinoff company, Ultra Games, to release additional games per year. Other manufacturers soon employed the same tactic. Also in 1985, Super Mario Bros. was released for the Famicom in Japan and became a large success.
Nintendo test marketed the Nintendo Entertainment System in the New York area on October 18, 1985. They expanded the test to Los Angeles in February 1986, followed by tests in Chicago and San Francisco. They would go national by the end of 1986, along with 15 games, sold separately. In the US and Canada, it widely outsold its competitors. Also in 1986, Metroid and The Legend of Zelda were released to much critical acclaim.
In 1988, Nintendo of America unveiled Nintendo Power, a monthly news and strategy magazine from Nintendo that served to advertise new games. The first issue is July/August, which spotlights the NES game Super Mario Bros. 2 (Super Mario USA in Japan). Nintendo Power has since ceased publication with its December 2012 edition.[31]
1989–1996: Game Boy, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and Virtual Boy era
In 1989, Nintendo (which had much success from the Game & Watch) released the Game Boy (both created by Gunpei Yokoi), along with the accompanying game Tetris. Due to the price, the game, and its durability (unlike the static and screen rot of the prior Microvision from Milton Bradley Company), the Game Boy line eventually amassed sales of 118 million units.[32]Super Mario Land was released with the system, and 14 million copies were sold worldwide. Also in 1989, Nintendo announced a successor to the Famicom, the Super Famicom.[33]
The last major first-party game for the NES, Super Mario Bros. 3, was released in early 1990 in North America, with more than 18 million units sold.[34] It was followed by a licensed television adaption named The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, which was released by DIC Entertainment and Viacom Enterprises in that year to capitalize on the game's immense popularity.
The Super Famicom was released in Japan on November 21, 1990. The launch was widely successful, and the Super Famicom was sold out across Japan within three days, with 1.6 million units sold by June 1991.[35] In August 1991, the Super Famicom was launched in the US under the name "Super Nintendo Entertainment System" (SNES), followed by Europe in 1992.[36]
Like the NES, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System has high technical specifications for its era. The SNES controller had also improved over that of the NES, as it now had rounded edges and four new buttons, a standard which is evident on many modern controllers today. The controller was called the "dog bone".
Nintendo had begun development on a CD-ROM attachment for the SNES/Super Famicom. Its first partner in this project was Sony, which had provided the SNES with its SPC sound chip. Development on the Nintendo PlayStation CD-ROM add-on and SNES/SFC standalone hybrid console began. However, at the last minute Nintendo decided to pull out of the partnership and instead go with Philips, and while no CD-ROM add-on was produced, several Nintendo properties (namely The Legend of Zelda) appeared on the Philips CD-i media console. Upon learning this, Sony decided to continue developing the technology they had into the PlayStation. The exact reason Nintendo left its partnership with Sony has been the subject of speculation over the years, but the most common theory is that Sony either wanted too much of the profits for the machine or the rights to the CD-ROM attachment itself.
In Japan, the Super Famicom easily took control of the gaming market. In the US, due to a late start and an aggressive marketing campaign by Sega (Headed by the Sega Company's new mascot, Sonic The Hedgehog, their answer to Nintendo's Super Mario), Nintendo's market share plunged from 90 to 95% with the NES to a low of approximately 35% against the Sega Genesis. Across several years, the SNES in North America eventually overtook the Genesis, due to franchise games such as Super Mario World, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Street Fighter II, and the Final Fantasy series. Total worldwide sales of the SNES reached 49.10 million units,[32] eclipsing the estimated 40 million unit sales of the Genesis.[37]
As the SNES battled the Sega Genesis, Nintendo had problems caused by its own aggressive marketing behavior. In 1991, Nintendo agreed to a settlement regarding price-fixing allegations brought by the Federal Trade Commission and attorneys general in New York and Maryland. Nintendo had been accused of threatening to cut off shipments of the NES to retailers who discounted the price of the system. The estimated cost of the settlement was just under $30 million.[38]
In 1992, Gunpei Yokoi and the rest of R&D 1 began planning on a new stereoscopic 3D console which became the Virtual Boy. Hiroshi Yamauchi also bought majority shares of the Seattle Mariners in 1992.[39] By May 1993, Nintendo had reportedly become one of the top ten leading companies in the world.[40]
In 1993, Nintendo announced plans to develop a new 64-bit console codenamed Project Reality, capable of rendering fully 3D environments and characters. In 1994, Nintendo also claimed that Project Reality would be renamed Ultra 64 in the US. The Ultra 64 moniker was unveiled in arcades on the Nintendo branded fighting game Killer Instinct and the racing game Cruis'n USA. Killer Instinct was later released on the SNES. Soon after, Nintendo realized Konami owned the rights to the "Ultra" name. Specifically, only Konami had rights to release games for the new system with names like Ultra Football or Ultra Tennis. Therefore, in 1995 Nintendo changed the final name of the system to Nintendo 64, and announced that it would be released in 1996. The system and several games were previewed, including Super Mario 64, to the media and public. Also in 1995, Nintendo purchased part of Rare.
In 1994, after many years of Nintendo's products being distributed in Australia by Mattel since the NES in 1985, Nintendo opened its Australian headquarters and its first managing directors were Graham Kerry, who moved along from Mattel Australia as managing director and Susumu Tanaka of Nintendo UK Ltd.
In 1995, Nintendo released the Virtual Boy in Japan. The console sold poorly, but Nintendo still said they had hope for it and continued to release several other games and attempted a release in the US, which was another disaster.
Also in 1995, Nintendo found themselves in a competitive situation. Competitor Sega introduced their 32-bit Saturn, while newcomer Sony introduced the 32-bit PlayStation. Sony's fierce marketing campaigns ensued, and it started to cut into Nintendo and Sega's market share.
On June 23, 1996, the Nintendo 64 (N64) was released in Japan, with more than 500,000 units sold on the first day.[21] On September 29, 1996, the Nintendo 64 was released in North America, selling out the initial shipment of 350,000.[21] Many said that the advertising onslaught by Sony at this time did not truly begin to take effect until many of the consumers who held out for the Nintendo 64 became frustrated at the lack of software following the first few months after the system's release. Nintendo's extremely competitive climate was pushed by many third-party companies immediately developing and releasing many of their leading games for Nintendo's competitors. Many of those third-party companies cited cheaper development and manufacturing costs for the CD format, versus the cartridge format. On December 1, 1999, Nintendo released the 64DD add-on peripheral to the Nintendo 64 in Japan, although it was never released elsewhere.
Nintendo followed with the release of the Game Boy Pocket, a smaller version of the original Game Boy, designed by Gunpei Yokoi as a final product. A week after the release of the Game Boy Pocket, he resigned from his position at Nintendo. He then helped in the creation of the competing handheld WonderSwan.
In 1995, Pocket Monsters (known internationally as "Pokémon") was released in Japan to a huge following. The Pokémon franchise, created by Satoshi Tajiri, was proving so popular in America, Europe, and Japan, that for a brief time, Nintendo took back their place as the supreme power in the games industry.[citation needed]
In 1997, Gunpei Yokoi died in a car accident at the age of 56.[15] That year, the European Economic Community forced Nintendo to drastically rework its third-party licensing contracts, ruling that Nintendo could no longer limit the number of games a license could release, require games to undergo prior approval, or require third-party games to be exclusively manufactured by Nintendo.[41]
On October 13, 1998, the Game Boy Color was released in Japan, with releases in North America and Europe a month later.
In December 1998, Nintendo sued the owner of the "zelda.com" domain, which linked to pornographic images.[42] In December 1999, magician Uri Geller sued Nintendo for £60 million over his likeness represented in the Pokémon Alakazam.[43][44] The lawsuit was dropped in 2003, and Geller sued multiple times after; in 2020, he apologized for the legal battle.[45] In March 2000, Nintendo made an $80 million USD settlement with the New York Attorney General over hand injuries sustained by children while rotating the N64 joystick in five different mini-games within Mario Party. The company issued game gloves to prevent future injuries.[46] In June, Nintendo announced that they shut down a major Hong Kongese company pirating their games, Apollo Ltd.[47][48]
Nintendo released the Game Boy Advance (GBA) in Japan in March 2001, followed by North America and Europe in June.[49][50] The system played games with a much larger screen and more colors than the Game Boy Color was capable of, and had backwards compatibility with every Game Boy game. In North America, the system was highly successful at launch, becoming Nintendo's fast-selling system at the time, with 500,000 models sold in around a month.[50]
Nintendo's next home video game console, the GameCube, was originally code-named "Dolphin". It was announced at E3 1999, when Nintendo of America president Howard Lincoln declared the console would "equal or exceed anything our friends at Sony can come up with for PlayStation 2". Sony was Nintendo's main competition after the financial failure of the Dreamcast forced Sega out of console manufacturing.[51] The first Sonic the Hedgehog game for a Nintendo system was Sonic Advance for the Game Boy Advance in 2002.[52]
More details on the Dolphin, then renamed GameCube, were revealed at the SpaceWorld event in August 2000.[49][53] At one point, Nintendo built a device separate from the console itself which included an LCD screen and could display stereoscopic 3D.[51] They were able to run the game Luigi's Mansion on the device, but mass-producing it would have been too expensive.[51] The Game Boy Advance was instead used as a second screen for certain games, using the Game Boy Advance link cable.[53]
The GameCube was released in September 2001 in Japan, North America on November, and Europe in May 2002. The system had a more ergonomic controller and included a handle for easy carriage. It used mini-discs to play games, as to prevent piracy and not pay fees to the DVD Forum consortium who made DVD technologies. The lack of a DVD player hurt sales, as the PlayStation 2 included one. The Panasonic Q GameCube that did play DVDs was only released in Japan.[54] The mini-disc format meant a GameCube disc could only store 1.6 gigabytes of data, but the system still had enough power to attract third-party developers back to the system after the comparative weakness of the N64 to the first PlayStation.[51][54] The system had a strong launch[55] — Nintendo claimed it had stronger launches than the PlayStation 2 and Microsoft's Xbox[56] — but its success was unsustainable, partially because Luigi's Mansion was seen as an underwhelming launch title.[51]
In January 2002, Minoru Arakawa resigned as president of Nintendo of America, and Nintendo named Tatsumi Kimishima as his successor.[57] In May, Hiroshi Yamauchi stepped down as the president of Nintendo, naming Satoru Iwata as his successor.[58] In September, Nintendo was removed of Rare, a valuable asset, when Nintendo sold its 49% share in the studio to Microsoft, who used Rare to develop games for their new Xbox console.[51][59] This was likely a part of Nintendo's strategy to not rely on second-party development. Instead, they would better utilize its subsidiaries like HAL Labs, and Yamauchi was building a "war chest" to fund third-party development.[60] Meanwhile, Nintendo and Chinese-American scientist Dr. Wei Yen co-founded iQue to manufacture and distribute official Nintendo consoles and games for the mainland Chinese market under the iQue brand.[61]
Despite the GameCube's technological improvements, third parties generally still kept away from the system. Nintendo was late in giving development kits to third-party developers in the run-up to the system's launch.[51] Nintendo was still targeting its core, family-friendly demographic, while Sony "expertly co-opted anxious teenagers desperate to distance themselves from childish things".[51][62] The handle on the console and the cartoon-like, cel-shaded art style of The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker contributed to the idea that the system was for children. This was another reason third-parties avoided the console.[51][62]
The system did not feature any major "distinguishing features" from to its competitors, except for Nintendo's high-quality, first-party titles like Super Mario Sunshine, Metroid Prime, and Super Smash Bros. Melee.[62] Third-party developer Capcom's Resident Evil 4 was also exclusive to the GameCube,[51] one of the five games that were promised by Capcom in December 2002 to be GameCube exclusives. One month later, the promise was revealed to be some type of "PR miscommuniation", when it was announced the four titles besides Resident Evil 4 were planned to be multi-platform. Resident Evil 4 was eventually released for the PlayStation 2.[63]
Nintendo's aggressive business tactics in Europe caught up to them in October 2002, when the European Commission determined that they had engaged in anti-competitiveprice-fixing business practices, dating at least as far back as the early 1990s. This resulted in a heavy fine being laid against the company — €149 million, one of the largest antitrust fines applied in the history of the commission.[64] The company was kept afloat in this era by its sales from the handheld market,[51] which they had "essentially cornered".[65] In January 2003, an updated version of the GBA, the Game Boy Advance SP, was announced. It released in Japan in February and the U.S. in March.[66] Starting in October, Nokia's N-Gage tried to compete with the GBA, but it was unsuccessful.[67][68]
Production of the GameCube was temporarily stopped for the summer of 2003, as Nintendo needed to sell models that were filling up warehouses. Iwata announced simultaneously that the company would stop developing "increasingly sophisticated and time-consuming games", as a response to the industry-wide decline in game sales for the year of 2002. Nintendo had also started experiencing competition from the Xbox.[69] Nintendo of America allocated $100 million to the GameCube for the 2003 holiday season, dropping the console's recommended price to $99.99, way below the Xbox and PlayStation 2 which were selling for $179.99.[70] Despite this change, the system was still Nintendo's lowest selling console at the time, being far outpaced by the PlayStation 2, which sold 118 million more units than the GameCube at 21 million.[54][62]
In May 2004, Nintendo announced plans to release a new brand of handheld, unrelated to the Game Boy, featuring two screens, one of which was touch-sensitive. The Nintendo DS, released on November 21, 2004, received over three million pre-orders. In addition to the touch screen, the DS can also create three-dimensional graphics, similar to those of the Nintendo 64, although its lack of hardware support for texture filtering results in more pixelated graphics than on the Nintendo 64.
Satoru Iwata reassigned all of Nintendo's software designers under new managers and different division; most of the resources were allocated to Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka and the Nintendo EAD division.
On May 14, 2005, Nintendo opened its first retail store accessible to the general public, Nintendo World Store, at the Rockefeller Center in New York City. It consists of two stories, and contains many kiosks of GameCube, Game Boy Advance, and Nintendo DS games. There are also display cases filled with things from Nintendo's past, including Hanafuda, Nintendo's first product. They celebrated the opening with a block party at Rockefeller Plaza.
At E3 in May 2005, Nintendo displayed the first prototype for their "next-generation" system, codenamed the Nintendo Revolution (now known as the Wii), its controller revealed at the Tokyo Game Show later that year.
On January 26, 2006, Nintendo announced a new version of their Nintendo DS handheld, the Nintendo DS Lite, designed to be smaller and lighter, with a brighter screen. It was launched in Japan on March 2, 2006, and three months later in North America and Europe on June 11 and 23, 2006, respectively.
On May 25, 2006, Reggie Fils-Aimé was promoted to president and CEO of Nintendo of America, Inc. The former president, Tatsumi Kimishima, was promoted to chairman of the board and CEO.[71]
On July 7, 2006, Nintendo officially established a South Korean subsidiary, Nintendo Korea, in the country's capital, Seoul, replacing Daewon Media as the official distributor of Nintendo products in South Korea.[72]
In early August 2006, it was revealed that Nintendo, along with Microsoft, was made the target of a patent-infringement lawsuit. Leveled by the Anascape Ltd., the suit claimed that Nintendo's use of analog technology in their game controllers constituted a violation of their patents. The lawsuit sought to recover damages from both corporations and possibly force them to stop selling controllers with the violating technology.[73] Microsoft settled with Anasacape, while Nintendo went to trial, initially losing and being ordered to pay US$21 million in damages.[74] Nintendo appealed, and on April 23, 2010, the Federal Circuit reversed the ruling.[75] In November 2010, Anascape's appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States was denied.[76]
In September 2006, Nintendo announced launch details for its Wii console, and demonstrated features of the "Wii Menu" GUI.
The system was first released in November in the US, followed by Japan, Australia, and Europe launches in December.[77] The console sold fast and was a big breakthrough for Nintendo,[78] picking up the pace lost from the GameCube. Its success has been attributed to the intended market of the product; while at the time most competitors were focusing on more adult and fan-based games, Nintendo decided to release a console for a larger demographic, one including casual gamers, children and those who wouldn't ordinarily play video games.
Since no other major gaming console was marketing for this image, these other companies were caught mostly unprepared by the success of the Wii system, and it wasn't until 2010 that Sony and Microsoft released consoles targeting the same demographic as the Wii.[79]
In 2007, Nintendo stopped making first-party games for the GameCube.[80]
On September 17, 2007, Nintendo of America closed its official forums, the NSider Forums, indefinitely due to a major overhaul of their site. For months prior, cutbacks in Nintendo of America's online department led to the trimming back of NSider's chat hours and the replacement of their annual Camp Hyrule event — held during August — with a sweepstakes. In the meantime, Nintendo encouraged fans to run their own forums. Nintendo-Europe's forum section of their site was also officially closed down a week later due to a site revamp, however it had been offline citing "security issues" since June of that year. On December 19, 2007, Nintendo opened a forum for technical support only.
In October 2007, Nintendo announced Nintendo Australia's new managing director, Rose Lappin. She is Nintendo's first female head of one of its subsidiaries and worked for Nintendo before it started in Australia as Director of Sales and Marketing for Mattel and had that role until she was announced managing director.
On November 1, 2008, Nintendo released an updated version of the Nintendo DS Lite in Japan; the Nintendo DSi. It includes all features of the Nintendo DS Lite, but it includes a camera on the inside and outside of the system, and newer features. It is the first handheld game system manufactured by Nintendo that allows downloadable gaming content to the system. The Nintendo DSi was released April 2, 2009, in Australia and Asia, April 3, 2009, in Europe, and April 5, 2009, in North America.
Nintendo announced Project Cafe in 2011, revealed later as the Wii U, an HD console with a new controller called the GamePad. That same year, Nintendo released the 3DS, the first Nintendo handheld with autostereoscopic 3D graphics. Nintendo enjoyed continued success in the handheld market, with the 3DS selling 75 million units during its decade-long run. By contrast, the Wii U suffered confusing marketing, a lack of third-party support, and very slow consumer adoption. Thus Nintendo experienced declining revenues throughout the mid-2010s. Nintendo discontinued the Wii U in 2017 as the lowest-selling Nintendo home console with only about 13.5 million sales. On July 11, 2015, Satoru Iwata died from a bile duct tumor at 55. On September 16, Nintendo named Tatsumi Kimishima as his replacement.
During the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U era, Nintendo's profits fell to lows not seen during their history as a video game manufacturer,[81] reporting their first net loss as a video game company in 2012.[82] Though initially claiming that mobile gaming was incompatible with Nintendo's identity,[83] Iwata established a partnership with mobile developer DeNA to create mobile games based on Nintendo properties prior to his death.[84][85]
After beginning the conceptual phase of development in 2012,[86] Nintendo announced in a March 2015 press conference that they were developing a dedicated video game system, codenamed "NX".[87] According to Fils-Aimé, the system was a "make or break" console for the company's success, as it was apparent that the Wii U's lifespan would be considerably shorter than average.[88] In April 2016, they revealed that the NX was set for a March 2017 release.[89] The NX was formally unveiled as the Nintendo Switch in October 2016, a hybrid console able to switch between portable and home console play.[90] In a January 2017 event, Nintendo revealed more details about the Nintendo Switch.[91] The Nintendo Switch was released on March 3, 2017[92][93]—in April 2019, Tencent would receive approval to sell it in mainland China,[94] and the console released in the region that December.[95]
In April 2018, Shuntaro Furukawa succeeded Kimishima as Nintendo President,[101] and in February of the next year, Doug Bowser replaced Fils-Aimé as President and COO of Nintendo of America.[102]ValueAct Capital, a San Francisco-based investment firm, announced in April 2020 that they had purchased US$1.1 billion worth of Nintendo stock, or a 2% stake of the company.[103] In May 2022, the Public Investment Fund of the Saudi government purchased a 5% stake in Nintendo.[104] Furukawa claimed in February 2021 that the Nintendo Switch was "in the middle of its life cycle".[105] In 2021, Furukawa said Nintendo plans to explore animated adaptations of their franchises beyond The Super Mario Bros. Movie.[106] Nintendo announced its acquisition of SRD Co., Ltd. in February 2022, who had worked with Nintendo for over 40 years, primarily as a support studio.[107] In July, Nintendo announced its acquisition of the Japanese animation studio Dynamo Pictures, Inc.,[108] and renamed the studio to Nintendo Pictures Co., Ltd. following the closure of the acquisition in October.[109]
In January 2020, hotel and restaurant development company Plan See Do announced their intent to refurbish the former headquarters of Marufuku Nintendo as a hotel set to open midway through 2021,[110] and in June 2021, Nintendo announced that the Uji Ogura plant in which the company's playing cards were produced would be transformed into a museum titled the "Nintendo Gallery", to be completed by the end of the 2023 fiscal year.[111]
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^Craig Glenday, ed. (2008). Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition 2008. Guinness World Records. section coauthored by Oli Welsh. Guinness World Records Limited. p. 110. ISBN978-1-904994-20-6.
^Retro Gamer staff (2013). "Sonic Boom: The Success Story of Sonic the Hedgehog". Retro Gamer — the Mega Drive Book. London, UK: Imagine Publishing: 31. The game and its star became synonymous with Sega and helped propel the Mega Drive to sales of around 40 million, only 9 million short of the SNES—a minuscule gap compared to the 47 million that separated the Master System and NES.
Gorges, Florent; Isao Yamazaki (2010). The History of Nintendo: 1889-1980 From playing-cards to Game & Watch. Paris, France: pix'n love publishing. ISBN978-2-918272-15-1.
Lead(II) chromate Names Other names see text Identifiers CAS Number 7758-97-6 Y ChEBI CHEBI:86257 N ECHA InfoCard 100.028.951 EC Number 231-846-0 PubChem CID 24460 RTECS number GB2975000 UNII AA3229AOUS Y UN number 3288 CompTox Dashboard (EPA) DTXSID1064792 Properties Chemical formula PbCrO4 Molar mass 323.192 g/mol Appearance orange-yellow powder Density 6.12 g/cm3, solid Melting point 844 °C (1,551 °F; 1,117 K) Solubility in water negligibl...
Yang Diberkati Gabriele Allegra, O.F.M.Sarjana AlkitabLahirGiovanni Stefano Allegra26 Desember 1907San Giovanni la Punta, Catania, ItaliaMeninggal26 Januari 1976Hong Kong Britania, Kekaisaran BritaniaDihormati diGereja Katolik Roma(Ordo Bruder Minor)Beatifikasi29 September 2012, Catania, Sisilia, Italia, oleh Kardinal Angelo Amato, S.D.B., mewakili Paus Benediktus XVIPesta26 Januari Yang Diberkati Gabriele Allegra, O.F.M., adalah seorang bruder Fransiskan dan sarjana Alkitab. Ia paling dikena...
Artikel ini sebatang kara, artinya tidak ada artikel lain yang memiliki pranala balik ke halaman ini.Bantulah menambah pranala ke artikel ini dari artikel yang berhubungan atau coba peralatan pencari pranala.Tag ini diberikan pada Februari 2023. Pegaga Gajah Klasifikasi ilmiah Kerajaan: Plantae Divisi: Magnoliophyta Kelas: Magnoliopsida Ordo: Apiales Famili: Araliaceae Genus: Hydrocotyle Spesies: H. javanica Nama binomial Hydrocotyle javanica Pohon Pegagan Gajah merupakan sejenis pohon r...
بورجو فال دي تارو الإحداثيات 44°29′00″N 9°46′00″E / 44.483333333333°N 9.7666666666667°E / 44.483333333333; 9.7666666666667 [1] تقسيم إداري البلد إيطاليا[2][3] التقسيم الأعلى مقاطعة بارما خصائص جغرافية المساحة 151.49 كيلومتر مربع (9 أكتوبر 2011)[4] ارتفاع 411 متر...
The Art of SeductionPoster untuk The Art of Seduction (2005)Nama lainHangul작업의 정석 Hanja作業의 定石 Alih AksaraJageobui jeongseokMcCune–ReischauerChakŏpŭi chŏngsŏk Sutradara Oh Ki-hwan Produser Choe Yong-bae Ditulis oleh Sin Jeong-goo PemeranSon Ye-jinSong Il-gookPenata musikKim Jun-seokSinematograferLee Suck-hyunPenyuntingKim Sun-minPerusahaanproduksiChungeorahm FilmDistributorShowboxTanggal rilis 21 Desember 2005 (2005-12-21) Durasi100 menitNegara Korea ...
Asociación Latinoamericana de Integración Bandera Situación de Asociación Latinoamericana de Integración Sede Montevideo Ciudad más poblada Brasil Brasil São Paulo Idiomas oficiales español y portugués Tipo Organismo regional Secretario general Sergio Abreu[1] Fundación 12 de agosto de 1980 Superficie • Total 19 521 870 km² Población • Total • Densidad 515.722.72614,6 hab/km2 Gentilicio Latinoamericano/a Sitio web http:...
Kitakyushu北九州市, Kitakyūshū-shi Stad in Japan Situering Eiland Kyushu Regio Kyushu Prefectuur Fukuoka Coördinaten 33° 50′ NB, 130° 50′ OL Algemeen Oppervlakte 491,95 km² Inwoners 945.061 Datum 1 april 2018 Bevolkingsdichtheid 1921 inw./km2 Gemeentenummer 40100-5 Gemeentehuis Burgemeester Koichi Sueyoshi Adres 1-1, Jōnai, KokuraKita-ku, Kitakyūshū-shi Postcode 〒803-8501 Website city.kitakyushu.lg.jp Symbolen Boom Taxus Bloem Azalea, Zonnebloem Detailkaart ■:seir...
PlaytimeGenreAnak-anakPresenterSarwendah TanBetrand Peto Putra OnsuSyanala Kania SalsabilaNegara asalIndonesiaBahasa asliBahasa IndonesiaProduksiDurasi75 menit (Setiap Minggu)Rumah produksiTrans7DistributorTrans MediaRilisJaringan asliTrans7Format gambarDolby Digital HD 16:9Format audioStereoDolby Digital 5.1Rilis asliMinggu, 9 Agustus 2020 –Minggu, 14 Oktober 2020Acara terkaitFun Time dan Dubi Dubi Dam (di RTV)Pranala luar[Akun Instagram: @playtimetrans7 Situs web] Playtime adalah seb...
Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup de 2023 U.S. Open Cup de 2023 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup de 2023 Dados Participantes 100 Anfitrião Estados Unidos Período 21 de março – 27 de setembro Campeão Houston Dynamo (2º título) Vice-campeão Inter Miami ◄◄ 2022 2024 ►► A Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup de 2023 foi a 108ª edição da US Open Cup. É a mais antiga competição em andamento nos Estados Unidos e será disputada por 100 equipes dentro do sistema de ligas de futebol nos Estados Unidos...
New Zealand politician The HonourablePaul GoldsmithMPGoldsmith in 202353rd Minister of JusticeIncumbentAssumed office 27 November 2023Prime MinisterChristopher LuxonPreceded byGinny Andersen18th Minister for State Owned EnterprisesIncumbentAssumed office 27 November 2023Prime MinisterChristopher LuxonPreceded byDuncan Webb7th Minister for Treaty of Waitangi NegotiationsIncumbentAssumed office 27 November 2023Prime MinisterChristopher LuxonPreceded byAndrew Little14th Minister for ...
Species of insect For other insects also called snow fleas, see Snow flea. Snow flea B. hyemalis Scientific classification Domain: Eukaryota Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Arthropoda Class: Insecta Order: Mecoptera Family: Boreidae Genus: Boreus Species: B. hyemalis Binomial name Boreus hyemalisLinnaeus, 1767 Synonyms Boreus hiemalis Boreus hyemalis is an insect, 3 to 4.5 millimetres long from the family of Boreidae. Its common name is snow flea. It has stubby, grey-brown wings with a metalli...
2023 World Wonder Ring Stardom event Stardom Sunshine 2023Promotional poster of the event featuring Mayu Iwatani, Giulia, Utami Hayashishita, Natsuko Tora, Saya Kamitani and Momo WatanabePromotionWorld Wonder Ring StardomDateJune 25, 2023CityTokyo, JapanVenueYoyogi National GymnasiumAttendance1,715[1]Event chronology ← PreviousNew Blood 9 Next →Mid Summer Champions Stardom Sunshine 2023 (スターダムサンシャイン2023, Sutādamusanshain 2023) was a professional wr...
· Airport in Michigan, USGrand Rapids Gerald R. Ford International AirportGerald R. Ford International AirportIATA: GRRICAO: KGRRFAA LID: GRRSummaryAirport typePublicOwnerGerald R. Ford International Airport Authority & Kent CountyOperatorGerald R. Ford International Airport AuthorityServesGrand Rapids, Michigan, USLocationCascade Charter Township, Michigan, USOperating base forAllegiant AirElevation AMSL794 ft / 242 mCoordinates42°52′51″N 85°31′22″W / ...
Form of public torture and humiliation Tarred and feathered redirects here. For other uses, see Tarred and Feathered. German-American farmer John Meints of Luverne, Minnesota, was tarred and feathered in August 1918 during World War I for allegedly not supporting war bond drives.[1] Minnesota historians have cited this incident as an example of nativism and anti-German sentiment in Minnesota during World War I.[2] Tarring and feathering is a form of public torture and punishme...
Kapilavai LingamurthyBorn(1928-03-31)31 March 1928Jinkunta, Mahabubnagar, Hyderabad state (now Telangana), IndiaDied(2018-11-06)6 November 2018[1]Hyderabad, Telangana, -IndiaOccupationPoet, writerSpouseMeenakshammmaChildrenKapilavai Kishore babu, Kapilavai Ashok babuWebsitekapilavailingamurthy.com Kapilavai Lingamurthy; born 31 March 1928) is a Telugu poet and writer from Mahabubnagar District of Telangana, India.[2] Early life and family Kapilavai Lingamurthy was born on 31 M...
French judoka Sofiane MilousPersonal informationBorn (1988-07-01) 1 July 1988 (age 35)OccupationJudokaSportCountryFranceSportJudoWeight class–60 kgAchievements and titlesOlympic Games5th (2012)World Champ.7th (2014)European Champ. (2010) Medal record Men's judo Representing France European Championships 2010 Vienna –60 kg IJF Grand Slam 2011 Moscow –60 kg 2011 Rio de Janeiro –60 kg 2012 Tokyo –60 kg 2014 Baku –60 kg IJF Grand Prix 2013 Rijeka –60 kg 2014 Budapest –6...
هذه المقالة يتيمة إذ تصل إليها مقالات أخرى قليلة جدًا. فضلًا، ساعد بإضافة وصلة إليها في مقالات متعلقة بها. (يونيو 2019) ديك أيرز (بالإنجليزية: Dick Ayers) معلومات شخصية الميلاد 28 أبريل 1924[1][2] أوسينينغ، نيويورك الوفاة 4 مايو 2014 (90 سنة) [1][2] وايت بلينس...
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This article relies largely or entirely on a single source. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. Please help improve this article by introducing citations to additional sources.Find sources: Sand Fastened – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (September 2021)2008 studio album by Fire ZuaveSand FastenedStudio album by Fire ZuaveReleased2008Recorded2007–2008GenreAmericanaLabelunsigned Sand Fastened is the debut album by fi...