About

Nintendo is a Japanese video game company originally founded in 1889 as a hanafuda card manufacturer. They are most famous for their video game franchises and consoles such as NES, Wii U, and DS as well as their company mascot Super Mario.

History

Pre Video Game Era (1889- 1974)

In late 1889, Nintendo was founded as a playing card company by Japanese entrepreneur Fusajiro Yamauchi in Kyoto, Japan. In 1956, Yamauchi's grandson Hiroshi acquired licenses to use Disney character likenesses on Nintendo playing cards. In 1963, Nintendo launched the taxi company Daiya, a love hotel chain, a TV network and an instant rice food company. In 1973, Nintendo abandoned many of its ventures to focus on their family entertainment Laser Clay Shooting System devices.

Retro Era (1974 – 2001)

In 1974, Nintendo obtained the rights to distribute the Magnavox Odyssey game console in Japan. In 1977, Nintendo began producing and distributing the Color TV-Game video game consoles. In 1983, Nintendo released the Family Computer (Famicom) video game console in Japan. In 1985, a variation of the console named the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) was launched in North America. In 1988, the Game Boy handheld system was released. In 1990, the Super Famicom was released in Japan, followed by the Super Nintendo (SNES) in North American the next year. In 1996, the Nintendo 64 console, named for its 64-bit central processing unit, was released in North America and Japan. In 1998, the Game Boy Color was launched.

Modern Era (2001 – Present)

In 2001, Nintendo released the Game Boy Advance handheld system and the GameCube console. In 2004, the Nintendo DS handheld device was launched. In 2006, the company released the Wii home video game console. In 2011, Nintendo released the Nintendo DS handheld device. In 2012, the Wii U video game console was launched.

Nintendo Switch

On October 20th, 2016, after months of speculation regarding Nintendo's upcoming console known as the "Nintendo NX," Nintendo announced the Nintendo Switch. In a trailer (shown below), Nintendo demonstrated that the Switch is a hybrid console featuring a tablet that can dock for living room gaming and be moved for portable gaming. It also features two controllers known as "Joy Cons" that can be detached from the side of the tablet, and there is optional "pro" controller support as well. The Switch will play DS-like gaming cartridges instead of discs. It comes out in March of 2017.^[18]

Reception

E3 2013

In April 2013, Nintendo announced^[1] that they would not be holding a keynote press conference at Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). As the event drew closer, Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime confirmed^[2] via the Nintendo Facebook page^[3] the company would be holding a Nintendo Direct conference online, relying on the company's official Facebook, YouTube and Twitter accounts to announce their new releases.

At 7 AM PST on June 11th, the Nintendo Direct live stream began, during which they announced new games including Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze and Super Mario 3D World (shown below, left), a new Fairy type for October's Pokemon X and Y and a Wii U edition of the Super Smash Brothers series (shown below, right). While the main event introduced two new characters for Super Smash Brothers, Mega Man and Animal Crossing's default Villager, an event later in the day revealed the Wii Fit trainer avatar would be joining the game as well.

That day, Nintendo was mentioned more than 390,000 times on Twitter according to Topsy Analytics^[4], peaking at 130,737 mentions during the hour of 7 a.m. EST. A discussion thread of Nintendo's events was started in the /r/Games subreddit^[5], gaining more than 2,900 upvotes, 1,600 points overall and more than 1,800 comments within 13 hours. Additionally, many of the announcements yielded a number of screen captures, GIFs and fan art on Tumblr under the tags Pokemon X and Y^[6], The Villager^[7], Wii Fit Trainer^[8], Mega Man^[9] and Nintendo.^[10]

Online Relevance

Fandom

Leaked Document Generator

On June 6th, 2015, artist Brian Lee tweeted^[12] a link to his website^[11] which generates a fake announcement list for the Nintendo Digital Event at the upcoming Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). The following day, the tech news blogs Destructoid^[13] and Kotaku^[14] published articles about the generator. Meanwhile, threads about the generator were submitted to the NeoGAF,^[15] /r/wiiu^[16] and /r/nintendo.^[17]

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Highlights

Satoru Iwata

Satoru Iwata is the Executive CEO of Nintendo who gained a significant online following since becoming an executive in 2002, similar to fellow Nintendo employees Shigeru Miyamoto and Reggie Fils-Aime.

Reggie Fils-Aime

Reggie Fils-Aime is the president of Nintendo^[1] of America, and a regular speaker at the E3 Entertainment Expo^[2]. Most of his popularity has spawned from notable lines he has said during his E3 conferences, as well as unpopularity from fans of the video game series Mother.

Shigeru Miyamoto

Shigeru Miyamoto is a Japanese video game producer, and manager of Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development. He is well-known for producing the Super Mario, Legend of Zelda, Star Fox, Donkey Kong, F-Zero and Pikmin franchises, some of the most popular, influential, and critically acclaimed in the industry.

Nintendium

Nintendium is an Internet myth which refers to a chemical element supposedly discovered by Nintendo and used in all of Nintendo’s console systems. The fictional substance can be seen as a tongue-in-cheek observation about the reputed durability of Nintendo video game consoles, similar to customer reviews of the Indestructible Nokia 3310 and Huge Like XBox.

It Prints Money

"It prints money!" is a catchphrase referring to the Nintendo DS portable gaming system often used in GIFs and image macros with the CEOs of Nintendo.

Notable Subcultures

Super Mario

Super Mario (also known as “Super Mario Brothers” or just Mario) ^[1] is a critically acclaimed video game franchise developed by Nintendo. The games typically feature Nintendo’s mascot Mario and his brother Luigi as playable characters that venture through different areas in the fictional land known as the “Mushroom Kingdom.”

The Legend of Zelda

The Legend of Zelda is a fantasy adventure video game series published by Nintendo. The games revolve around the playable hero, Link. In many of the games, Link is tasked with rescuing Princess Zelda from the main antagonist, Ganon.

Pokémon

Pokémon is a media franchise spawned from a role-playing video game series developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo beginning in 1996. The title is a portmanteau formed by combining the Japanese words “Poketto Monsutā” (ポケットモンスター), “Pocket Monsters” in English. The games and other media surrounding it revolve around the capturing different types of these creatures, the titular Pokémon, and using them in battle.

Metroid

Metroid is a series of science fiction adventure video games created by Nintendo. Since the series’ creation, it has received a large online following with many of fan-created websites.

Kirby

Kirby (Japanese: 星のカービィ, Hoshi no Kābī; lit. “Kirby of the Stars”) is a fantasy video game franchise starring a pink-skinned spherical creature as the eponymous protagonist created by Masahiro Sakurai, developed by HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo. Since the release of the original title in 1992, Kirby has grown into one of Nintendo’s most widely recognized video game characters with nearly 20 sequel titles and cross-media adaptations into comics, manga and anime series.

Fire Emblem

Fire Emblem is a strategy RPG video game series developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo. Fire Emblem has a large online following, spawning fan art and fiction, among other things.

Search Interest

External References