Nintendo Co., Ltd. (任天堂株式会社, Nintendō Kabushiki gaisha Kabushiki gaisha or kabushiki kaisha is a type of business corporation (会社, kaisha?) defined under Japanese law?) is a multinational corporation A multinational corporation or transnational corporation (TNC), also called multinational enterprise (MNE), is a corporation or an enterprise that manages production or delivers services in more than one country. It can also be referred as an international corporation. The International Labour Organization (ILO) has defined[citation needed] an MNC located in Kyoto, Japan Kyoto (Japanese pronunciation: [kjoːto] ( listen)) is a city in the central part of the island of Honshū, Japan. It has a population close to 1.5 million. Formerly the imperial capital of Japan, it is now the capital of Kyoto Prefecture, as well as a major part of the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto metropolitan area. Founded on September 23, 1889[2] by Fusajiro Yamauchi Fusajiro Yamauchi was a Japanese entrepreneur who founded the company that is now known as Nintendo Company Limited. Yamauchi lived in Kyoto, Japan and had a daughter, Tei Yamauchi (who later married future Nintendo president and Fusajiro Yamauchi's successor, Sekiryo Kaneda). Fusajiro has been somehow related to every president of Nintendo except, it produced handmade hanafuda Hanafuda are playing cards of Japanese origin (karuta cards), used to play a number of games. The name literally translates as "flower cards". The name refers to the set of cards and can be used to play any number of variations of games cards.[6] By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel A love hotel is a type of short-stay hotel found in Japan operated primarily for the purpose of allowing couples privacy to have sexual intercourse. Similar establishments also exist in other East Asian countries and regions such as South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong. The same concept also exists in Central and South America,.[7]
Nintendo soon developed into a video game A video game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface to generate visual feedback on a video device. The word video in video game traditionally referred to a raster display device. However, with the popular use of the term "video game," it now implies any type of display device. The electronic systems used to company, becoming one of the most influential in the industry The video game industry is the economic sector involved with the development, marketing and sale of video games. It encompasses dozens of job disciplines and employs thousands of people worldwide and Japan's third most valuable listed company, with a market value of over US$ The United States dollar is the official currency of the United States. The U.S. dollar is normally abbreviated as the dollar sign, $, or as USD or US$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies and from others that use the $ symbol. It is divided into 100 cents85 billion.[8]
Besides video games, Nintendo is also the majority owner of the Seattle Mariners The Seattle Mariners are an American professional baseball team based in Seattle, Washington. Enfranchised in 1977, the Mariners are a member of the Western Division of Major League Baseball's American League. Safeco Field has been the Mariners' home ballpark since July 1999. From their 1977 inception until June 1999, the club's home park was the, a Major League Baseball Major League Baseball is the highest level of play in North American professional baseball. Specifically, Major League Baseball refers to the organization that operates the National League and the American League by a joint organizational structure that has developed gradually between them since 1901 (the National League having been in existence team in Seattle, Washington Seattle (pronounced /siːˈætəl/ see-AT-əl) is the northernmost major city in the contiguous United States, and the largest city in the Pacific Northwest and in the state of Washington. A seaport situated on an isthmus between Puget Sound (an arm of the Pacific Ocean) and Lake Washington, about 100 miles (160 km) south of the Canada – United.[9]
According to Nintendo's Touch! Generations Touch! Generations is a Nintendo brand used for the Nintendo DS and Wii showing games created to appeal to a broader audience than the traditional gamer website, the name Nintendo translated from Japanese to English means "Leave luck to Heaven".[10] As of October 2, 2008, Nintendo has sold over 470 million hardware units and 2.7 billion software units.[11]
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History
Main article: History of Nintendo Nintendo Company, Limited, a Japanese multinational corporation was originally founded to produce handmade hanafuda cards. It eventually became one of the most prominent figures in today's video game industry Former headquarters plate, from when Nintendo was solely a playing card companyAs a card company (1889–1956)
Nintendo was founded as a card company in late 1889, originally named Nintendo Koppai. Based in Kyoto Kyoto (Japanese pronunciation: [kjoːto] ( listen)) is a city in the central part of the island of Honshū, Japan. It has a population close to 1.5 million. Formerly the imperial capital of Japan, it is now the capital of Kyoto Prefecture, as well as a major part of the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto metropolitan area, Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south. The characters that make up Japan's name mean "sun-origin", which is why Japan is, the business produced and marketed a playing card A playing card is a piece of specially prepared heavy paper, thin cardboard, or thin plastic, figured with distinguishing motifs and used as one of a set for playing card games. Playing cards are typically palm-sized for convenient handling game called Hanafuda Hanafuda are playing cards of Japanese origin (karuta cards), used to play a number of games. The name literally translates as "flower cards". The name refers to the set of cards and can be used to play any number of variations of games. The handmade cards soon became popular, and Yamauchi hired assistants to mass produce cards to satisfy demand. Nintendo continues to manufacture playing cards in Japan[12] and organizes its own contract bridge Contract bridge, usually known simply as bridge, is a trick-taking card game of skill and chance . It is played by four players who form two partnerships; the partners sit opposite each other at a table. The game consists of the auction (often called bidding) and play, after which the hand is scored tournament called the "Nintendo Cup".[13]
New ventures (1956–1975)
In 1956, Hiroshi Yamauchi (grandson of Fusajiro Yamauchi) visited the U.S. to talk with the United States Playing Card Company, the dominant playing card manufacturer there. He found that the world's biggest company in his business was only using a small office. This was a turning point, when Yamauchi realized the limitations of the playing card business. He then gained access to Disney's characters and put them on the playing cards to drive sales.
The Nintendo Love TesterIn 1963, Yamauchi renamed Nintendo Playing Card Company Limited to Nintendo Company, Limited. The company then began to experiment in other areas of business using newly injected capital. During this period of time between 1963 and 1968, Nintendo set up a taxi A taxicab, also taxi or cab, is a type of vehicle for hire, with a driver, for a single passenger, or small group of passengers, typically for a non-shared ride. A taxicab conveys passengers between locations of their choice. In modes of public transport, the pick-up and drop-off locations are determined by the service provider, not by the company, a love hotel A love hotel is a type of short-stay hotel found in Japan operated primarily for the purpose of allowing couples privacy to have sexual intercourse. Similar establishments also exist in other East Asian countries and regions such as South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong. The same concept also exists in Central and South America, chain, a TV network and a food company (selling instant rice, similar to instant noodles Instant noodles are dried or precooked noodles fused with oil and often sold with a packet of flavoring. Dried noodles are usually eaten after being cooked or soaked in boiling water for 2 to 5 minutes, while precooked noodles can be reheated or eaten straight from the packet. Instant noodles were invented by Momofuku Andō of Nissin Foods, Japan). All of these ventures eventually failed, and after the 1964 Tokyo Olympics The 1964 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XVIII Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event held in Tokyo, Japan in 1964. Tokyo had been awarded with the organization of the 1940 Summer Olympics, but this honor was subsequently passed to Helsinki because of Japan's invasion of China, before ultimately being canceled, playing card sales dropped, leaving Nintendo with ¥ The yen (sign: ¥; code: JPY) is the currency of Japan. It is the third most-traded currency in the foreign exchange market after United States dollar and the euro. It is also widely used as a reserve currency after the U.S. dollar, the euro and the pound sterling. As is common when counting in East Asia, large quantities of yen are often counted60 in stocks.
In 1966, Nintendo moved into the Japanese toy industry with the Ultra Hand, an extendable arm developed by its maintenance engineer Gunpei Yokoi Gunpei Yokoi, also spelled Gumpei Yokoi (September 10, 1941–October 4, 1997), was a video game designer in Japan. He was a long-time Nintendo employee, creator of the Game Boy, and producer of the long-running Metroid series. Yokoi's games have been seen on every Nintendo video game console, with his earliest work appearing on arcade machines in his free time. Yokoi was moved from maintenance to the new "Nintendo Games" department as a product developer. Nintendo continued to produce popular toys, including the Ultra Machine, Love Tester and the Kousenjuu series of light gun games. Despite some successful products, Nintendo struggled to meet the fast development and manufacturing turnaround required in the toy market, and fell behind the well-established companies such as Bandai Bandai Co., Ltd. is a Japanese toy making and video game company, as well as the producer of a large number of plastic model kits. It is the world's third largest producer of toys. Some ex-Bandai group companies produce anime and tokusatsu programs. Its headquarters is located in Taitō, Tokyo and Tomy Takara Tomy Co., Ltd. is a Japanese toy, children's merchandise and entertainment company created from the merger of two companies: Tomy (founded in 1924 as Tomiyama, changing the name to Tomy in 1963) and long-time rival, Takara (founded in 1955), on 1 March 2006. The company has its headquarters in Katsushika, Tokyo.
In 1973, its focus shifted to family entertainment venues with the Laser Clay Shooting System, using the same light gun technology used in Nintendo's Kousenjuu series of toys, and set up in abandoned bowling alleys. Following 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 found a new market.
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Tue, 07 Sep 2010 01:48:34 GMT+00:00
Download Update - Week of September 6th, 2010 GameZone Nintendo has updated their Wii and DSi Shop Channels with five new games. This time they have even added a Virtual Console game, ... This Week in Nintendo Downloads Nintendo World Report from super sprints to samurai moves and from pool to farm to sea-LIFE! Gamasutra Simply Mahjong, My Exotic Farm and more for DSiWare this week Game Guru (blog) Inside Pulse (blog)
