Information reaching Kossyderrickent has it that Nintendo turned 134 years old this weekend.
Nintendo was initially based in Kyoto and started its business as a manufacturer of Japanese playing cards called “Hanafuda” or daitoryo. These were famous because each paper was made using the bark of mulberry trees (or mitsu-mata). The cards, decorated with images of flowers, birds and historical figures, became very popular in Japan and were used for popular traditional Japanese card games.
Nintendo, global icon in the video game industry and creator of Super Mario, one of the most iconic characters in the video game world, turns 134 today.
Founded by Fusajiro Yamauchi On September 23, 1889, Nintendo went through an incredible journey of transformation from a manufacturer of playing cards to a giant of the video game industry.
In 1956, Hiroshi Yamauchi, Fusajiro Yamauchi’s nephew, took control of the company. Hiroshi had a bold vision for the company and wanted to diversify Nintendo into new industries.
One of the first steps was entering the toy sector, with the production of games such as “Love Tester” and “Ultra Hand”. A genuinely dystopian email sent by Xbox chief Phil Spencer in mid-2020 reveals that the company was eyeing up Warner Bros Interactive in addition to Bethesda as a potential acquisition. Even more concerningly, the executive talks about buying out Nintendo as a “career moment” and “good for both companies” – and there are even suggestions the Redmond firm may have also been interested in Valve as well. The flagrant casualness of the unprecedented corporate consolidation is startling to read, as Spencer cautions “hostile action” in attempting to acquire Nintendo would be a bad move, but that it’s “playing the long game”. He added: “It’s taking a long time [for Nintendo] to see that their future exists off their own hardware. A long time…” He even added a smiling emoji at the end of the exchange, just to make it seem all the more sinister.
