Nintendo
Nintendo Company, Ltd. (任天堂株式会社, Nintendō Kabushiki-gaisha?) is an entertainment company dedicated to the research, development and distribution of video game software and hardware, and card games, based in Kyoto, Japan. Its origin dates back to 1889, when it began operating as Nintendo Koppai after being founded by the artisan Fusajirō Yamauchi with the aim of producing and marketing playing cards hanafuda. Game 15.
Its products include some of the most influential and successful consoles and titles in the video game industry, including the Nintendo Entertainment System, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, the Wii and the Game Boy, as well as the games Donkey Kong (1981), Super Mario Bros. (1985), The Legend of Zelda (1986), Metroid (1986), Fire Emblem (1990), Star Fox (1993) and Pokémon Red and Blue (1996), which gave rise to to their corresponding franchises.
Nintendo has several subsidiaries in multiple locations both in Japan and abroad, to which it delegates responsibility for producing and distributing its products, as well as business partners such as The Pokémon Company and Warpstar, Inc.. Both the The organization and its staff have received several awards for their achievements, including Technology and Engineering Emmys, Game Developers Choice Awards, and BAFTA Video Game Awards, among others. It is also one of the richest and most valuable Japanese companies in the market, in addition to having one of the "best reputable" social responsibility policies in the world.
History
1889-1929: Background
Nintendo's history dates back to September 23, 1889, when craftsman Fusajirō Yamauchi founded the company Nintendo Koppai —in Chinese characters: 任天堂骨牌— in Kyoto, Japan, with the aim of producing and marketing playing cards Hanafuda, whose main characteristic is that they incorporate illustrations instead of numbers. This feature allowed Yamauchi to market his cards despite the fact that the Japanese authorities had prohibited gambling since 1633. For its manufacture, he used the bark of mulberry trees, which he painted by hand. Demand for the product eventually increased, and Yamauchi had to hire assistants to mass-produce it. Although the term "Koppai" is associated with "cards", there is an inaccuracy in the etymology of "Nintendo". » —「運を天に任せる」—. It is generally considered to be a compound word whose meaning is "leave luck to heaven" or "leave fortune in the hands of fate" -alluding to the ban on gambling in Japan-, although there is a hypothesis that that the sinograms kanjis could also refer to "game of chance".
Nintendo Koppai's initial offering was completed with other decks such as the one dedicated to Hyakunin Isshu; the Daitoryo —«president»— which were the most popular in Kyoto and Western-style cards, the first of their kind in Japan. Despite a favorable start, the company ran into some financial difficulties because the card manufacturing process was slow and expensive, while the prices set by Yamauchi were high. Other risk factors were the limited market niche to which the company belonged, and the long durability of the cards, an aspect that had an impact on sales due to the low replacement rate of the product. As a solution, the businessman reduced prices, he began to produce lower quality cards which he called Tengu and sought to offer his products in other cities such as Osaka, where considerable amounts of money were moved in card games where sums that were bet were wagered. they could become very high, in addition to the fact that the local businessmen of the business could be interested in an almost continuous renewal of their decks, thus avoiding the suspicions generated by reusing cards. According to data from the company itself, its first western deck was placed on the market in 1902, although other documents put the date back to 1907, shortly after the war between Japan and Russia. This warlike context generated notable difficulties for companies in the of the time, especially those in the leisure sector that were subject to new taxes such as the Karuta Zei tax. Despite the above, the company survived and, in 1907, established an agreement with Nihon Senbai—later titled Japan Tobacco & Salt Corporation—to market their cards at various cigarette locations across the country.
Japanese culture stipulated that for Nintendo Koppai to continue as a family business after Yamauchi's retirement, Yamauchi had to adopt his son-in-law as his own son so that he could take over the business. As a result, Sekiryo Kaneda adopted the surname "Yamauchi" in 1907, and a couple of decades later, in 1929, he became the second president of Nintendo Koppai. By then, it was "the largest card game company" in Japan.
1929-1968: Expansion and diversification
In 1933, Sekiryo incorporated the company as a partnership under the name Yamauchi Nintendo Co, Ltd and invested in the construction of a new corporate headquarters located next to the original building, near the Toba train station. -kaidō. His marriage to Yamauchi's daughter did not produce any male children either, so he planned to adopt Shikanojo Inaba, an artist who collaborated in the production of the cards and who was married to his daughter Kimi, with whom he had a son named Hiroshi, born in 1927. However, Inaba abandoned his family and the company, so Hiroshi was to become Sekiryo's successor upon his retirement.
The period of World War II was especially negative for the company since the Japanese authorities once again prohibited the dissemination of foreign card games, while Japanese society reduced its interest in this type of recreational activities to give priority to other necessities. Even so, he managed to get by, partly supported by the financial injection of the young Hiroshi's wedding to Michiko Inaba, who came from a wealthy family. In 1947 Sekiryo founded Marufuku Co. Ltd., with the to mass-produce playing cards and distribute Western-style card games such as pinochle and poker. A couple of years later the company name was changed to Marufuku Karuta Hanbai Co., Ltd.
In 1950, due to Sekiryo's deteriorating health, Hiroshi became president of the Nintendo Company. His first actions implied several important changes in the operation of the company: in 1951 the company name was changed to Nintendo Playing Card Co. Ltd., —while the Marufuku Company adopted the name Nintendo Karuta Company, Ltd.— and, the following year, centralized the production of cards in the factories of Kyoto, which led him to expand the offices. Also, his new line of plastic cards enjoyed considerable success in the country. Accustomed to a more cautious and conservative direction, a part of the company's employees viewed the new measures with concern and the situation of tension between both parties led to a strike call. However, the measure did not have a major impact because Hiroshi resorted to the dismissal of several dissatisfied workers.
In 1959 Nintendo reached an agreement with Walt Disney to incorporate its animated characters into cards, which represented a milestone in the Japanese industry. Likewise, Nintendo developed a distribution system that allowed it to offer its products in toy stores. In 1961, the company sold more than 1.5 million cards and had a high market share, for which it relied on television advertising campaigns. The need for diversification led the company to be listed on the second section of the stock markets. stocks of Osaka and Kyoto from 1962 - in 1964 it obtained income of 150 million JPY -, in addition to becoming a public company and changing its name to Nintendo Company, Ltd., in October 1963. Although the The company was experiencing a period of prosperity and economic bonanza, Disney cards and derived products made it highly dependent on the children's market. This situation worsened because the sales of Hanafuda, more focused on an adult audience, had fallen significantly because Japanese society preferred other pastimes such as pachinko, bowling or nightlife. For this reason, when the sales of Disney decks began to show signs of depletion, Nintendo realized that it had no real alternatives with which to alleviate that situation. Even events like the Tokyo Olympics and its associated products failed to recover sales, and in 1964 the company's market price fell to 60 JPY, the lowest level in its history.
Between 1963 and 1968, Yamauchi invested in various lines of business for Nintendo that were far removed from its traditional market and were mostly unsuccessful. Among these attempts were instant rice packets, love hotel branches, and a taxi service called Daiya. Although this latest effort was better received than previous ones, Yamauchi scrapped this initiative after a series of disagreements with local unions.
1969-1978: Electronic toys and early video games
There was something different about Nintendo [with respect to its competitors]. I had employees who thought about the content of a game. Other companies [dedicated to] import ideas from America to adapt them to the Japanese market, and nothing else made them more economical and small. But Nintendo was interested in [developing] original ideas. —Masayuki Uemura, employee of the Nintendo gaming department. |
The experiences gained from the above initiatives led Yamauchi to increase Nintendo's investment in a research and development department that he left in charge of Hiroshi Imanishi, an employee with extensive experience in other areas of the organization. Gunpei Yokoi eventually joined the team in 1969 as the person responsible for coordinating the various projects in that department. Yokoi's experience in manufacturing electronic devices led Yamauchi to leave him in charge of the company's games department, through the in which his inventions were to be mass-produced. During this period, construction of a new production plant was carried out in Uji City, on the outskirts of Kyoto, and the company distributed classic board games such as chess shōgi, the go board and mahjong, as well as other foreign ones under the Nippon Game brand. The company's restructuring preserved a couple of areas dedicated to the manufacture of Japanese cards.
The early 1970s represented a watershed moment in Nintendo's history as it released the first electronic toy in Japan: the Nintendo Beam Gun, an optoelectronic pistol designed by Masayuki Uemura. In total, more than a million units were sold in the early 1970s. Also, in that period the company began listing on the main section of the Osaka Stock Exchange and inaugurated its new headquarters. Some other characteristic toys of this time were the Ultra Hand, the Ultra Machine, the Ultra Scope and the Love Tester, all designed by Yokoi. Until 1970, more than 1.2 million units of the first of these had been sold.
Increasing demand for Nintendo products led Yamauchi to further expand the offices, acquiring the surrounding land and relocating card production to the original building, a line of business he maintained despite declining sales. Meanwhile, Yokoi, Uemura, and new employees such as Genyo Takeda continued to develop innovative products for the company, such as the Laser Clay Shooting System, which in 1973 surpassed its popularity. in Japan to bowling, which had been the main Japanese pastime since the 1960s; and Wild Gunman, an arcade skeet shooting simulator integrated with a 16 mm image projector with a sensor that detects the beam of light from the player's gun. Both products were successfully exported to Europe and America. Despite the above, Nintendo's production processes were still slow compared to those of other companies such as Bandai, and their prices were high, which led them to discontinue some products. such as Custom, a light gun with a longer range than the originals. These projects were developed by the subsidiary Nintendo Leisure System Co., Ltd., until its closure in 1973, a decision motivated by partly due to the economic impact of the oil crisis of that year.
Motivated by the success of companies such as Atari and Magnavox with their video game systems, Yamauchi acquired the distribution rights to the Magnavox Odyssey system for broadcast in Japan, and reached an agreement with Mitsubishi Electric to develop other similar products. between 1975 and 1978, as the first microprocessor for video game systems; the TV Game 15 and TV Game 6 consoles, from the Color TV-Game series —in Japanese: カラー テレビゲーム—; and an arcade game inspired by Othello. Similarly, Takeda designed the video game EVR Race. It should be noted that in this period Shigeru Miyamoto joined the Yokoi team, with the responsibility of designing the casing for the Color TV-Games. In 1978 the research and development department was separated into two areas that would later be consolidated as Nintendo Research & Development 1 and the Nintendo Research & Development 2, with Yokoi and Uemura as respective managers.
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1979-1989: Arcade and platform era, NES and Game Boy
The year 1979 marked a couple of key events in the company's history: on the one hand, the Nintendo of America subsidiary was inaugurated in New York, and on the other, a new department focused on product development was created arcade. The following year the first portable video game system was released, developed by Yokoi from the technology used in portable calculators —which at that time were overproduced in Japan—, and which it was renamed Game & Watch —Japanese: ゲーム&ウオッチ— became one of Nintendo's most successful products, selling more than 43 million units worldwide during its production period, which lasted until the early 1990s. 1990 and for which sixty video games were created in total.
The rise of arcade games increased in 1981 after the release of Donkey Kong, developed by Miyamoto and one of the first platform videogames that allowed the character to player could jump, in this case Jumpman —who would later become Mario and the company's official mascot; he was named for the similarity he bore to Mario Segale, the landlord of the Nintendo offices located in Tukwila, Washington at the time. After inaugurating a new production plant in Uji and listing on the first section of the Tokyo stock exchange In 1983, Uemura took over the design of a new game console in cartridge format and which incorporated both a central processing unit and a physical processing unit, taking the ColecoVision as inspiration. Finally said system, the Family Computer —or Famicom; in Japanese: ファミリーコンピュータ—was released in Japan in July 1983 along with three games adapted from their original versions for arcade: Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr.. and Popeye. Its success was such that in 1984 it already surpassed Sega's SG-1000 in market share. It should be noted that Nintendo adopted a series of guidelines that meant, for For example, the validation of each game produced for the NES before its distribution in the market; the establishment of agreements with other developers to guarantee that no NES game was adapted to other consoles in a period of two years from its release; or the restriction that prevented a developer from producing more than five games a year for the NES.
At the beginning of the 1980s, various consoles proliferated in the United States, as well as low-quality video games produced by third-party developers, which oversaturated the market and led to the video game crisis of 1983. As a consequence of the above, there was a recession primarily in the US video game market —whose revenues went from more than three billion USD to $100 million USD between 1983 and 1985—, and it also impacted Nintendo and its initiative to launch the Famicom on the continent American. As a strategy that would allow it to differentiate itself from its competitors in America, the company opted to redesign the Famicom as an "entertainment system" compatible with "Game Paks" -an expression to refer to cartridges-, and with a design reminiscent of a VCR. The resulting product was the Nintendo Entertainment System, or NES, which made its first appearance in the US in 1985. Some of the first games available for this console were Excitebike, Super Mario Bros., Metroid, The Legend of Zelda and Punch-Out!!. Production of Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda took place simultaneously and was in charge of Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka. The work of music composer Kōji Kondō also It was decisive in both titles, since it reinforced the idea that musical themes should act as a complement to the game mechanics, and not just as an additional element. As for the console, its production lasted until 1995 in the American continent and 2003 in Japan. In total, around 62 million NES consoles were sold worldwide. To prevent piracy of their video games, in that period Nintendo created the Official Nintendo Seal of Quality, a seal that was added to the brand's products for the customer to recognize their authenticity in the market. It should be noted that by then the network of electronics providers Nintendo had spread to a total of thirty companies, including Ricoh—the Japanese company was its main semiconductor customer—and Sharp.
Meanwhile, in 1988 the Nintendo R&D1 department—headed by Yokoi—conceived the portable Game Boy—Japanese: ゲームボーイ—from the Game & Watch, and it was the first of its kind compatible with interchangeable game cartridges. Its premiere occurred the following year and for its distribution in America it was accompanied by the game Tetris after reaching an agreement with Atari Games. The system was remarkably successful: in its first two weeks of sale in Japan, the initial inventory of 300,000 units sold out, while an additional 40,000 consoles were sold in the US on its first day of release It should be noted that, that year, Nintendo entered into an agreement with Sony to develop the SNES-CD, a peripheral for the Super Nintendo capable of playing CD-ROMs. However, the collaboration did not prosper because Yamauchi preferred to continue developing said technology with Philips—which was to result in the CD-i—and Sony's efforts resulted in the production of the PlayStation console, "a formidable rival to Nintendo in the industry".
In 1988 the first edition of Nintendo Power magazine was also published, which had an annual circulation of 1.5 million copies in the United States. the first time the Nintendo Space World exhibition under the name Shoshinkai (初心会 , ' Shoshinkai'?), for the purpose of carrying out advertisements about its upcoming products, and, later, the first World of Nintendo stores were opened in the United States, with official merchandise from the company. It is estimated that Nintendo's revenues in 1989 amounted to USD 2.7 billion, thanks to the commercialization of more than 250 products —according to information from the company, that year more than 25% of American homes had an NES —.
1990-1998: 16-bit and 64-bit generation, and Game Boy Color
With the appearance of other game systems designed with a 16-bit architecture, such as the PC Engine from NEC Home Electronics and the Sega Genesis from Sega, which allowed them to have graphics and an improved audio system compared to the NES, Uemuera designed the Super Family Computer—Japanese: スーパーファミコン; Super Famicom—launched in late 1990. The first batch of 300,000 consoles sold out within hours. The following year, as with the NES, Nintendo released a modified version of the Super Famicom for the US market., which was titled Super Nintendo Entertainment System —SNES, or Super Nintendo—. Some initial games available for this console were Super Mario World, F-Zero, Pilotwings, SimCity and Gradius III. As of mid-1992, more than 46 million Super Famicom/SNES consoles had been sold, the life cycle of which was it lasted until 1999 in the United States, and 2003 in Japan.
Meanwhile, in March 1990 the first edition of the Nintendo World Championship was held, with participants from thirty American cities in order to obtain the distinction of "best Nintendo player". A few months later, in In June, the offices of the Nintendo of Europe subsidiary were inaugurated in Großostheim, Germany and, three years later, the same thing happened with the subsidiaries in the Netherlands —where Bandai was in charge of distributing the company's products—, France, the United Kingdom Kingdom, Spain, Belgium and Australia. That same year, in 1993, Starwing was distributed, which marked a milestone in the industry by being the first to make use of the new Super FX chip. It should be noted that in 1992 the Japanese company acquired the majority of the shares of the Seattle Mariners baseball team with the intention of avoiding its bankruptcy and transfer to another city; his participation in the team ceased in 2016, when Nintendo sold its shares.
The proliferation of games with graphic violence, such as Mortal Kombat, caused controversy and led to the creation of the Interactive Digital Software Association and the ESRB video game content rating system, in whose development he collaborated Nintendo during 1994. These measures also led Nintendo to abandon its commercial guidelines that it had been requiring since the release of the NES. In terms of commercial strategies, the company implemented the Nintendo Gateway in-flight entertainment service, which was also available for cruise ships and hotels; and the Play It Loud! line consisting of Game Boy consoles with different colored casings. Other technological innovations came from the Advanced Computer Modeling graphics first used by the game Donkey Kong Country for both the SNES and Game Boy; and the Satellaview satmodem for the Super Famicom which enabled digital transmission of data via a communications satellite.
In mid-1993 Nintendo and Silicon Graphics announced a strategic alliance to develop the Nintendo 64—Japanese: ニンテンドウ64; or N64—, in whose technology other companies such as NEC, Toshiba and Sharp also contributed. Commercially, it was considered one of the first consoles designed with 64-bit architecture. As part of an agreement with Midway Games, it was agreed to adapt a couple of Nintendo arcade games to said console: Killer Instinct and Cruis'n USA. Although the N64 was planned to be released in 1995, the production schedule of the games for the console played a role in its delay, and it was finally released in June and September 1996 in Japan and the United States, respectively, and in March of 1997 in Europe. Until the cessation of its production in 2002, around 33 million consoles were sold worldwide, and it is usually listed as one of the most recognized video game systems in history. produced 388 games, of which some have been distinguished as "the best of all time", such as Supe r Mario 64, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and GoldenEye 007.
In 1995, the new console designed by Yokoi, Virtual Boy —in Japanese: バーチャルボーイ— began to be distributed, with virtual reality technology and stereoscopic graphics. However, the reception was unfavorable due to the low quality of its games and Nintendo discontinued it that same year due to poor sales. Given the results of his most recent project, Yokoi formally withdrew from the company. On the other hand, at the end of 1996 Pokémon Red and Blue was released, a game designed by Satoshi Tajiri and produced by Game Freak for the Game Boy handheld, which was the origin of the popular Pokémon franchise. As part of the innovations for the N64, Nintendo distributed the Rumble Pak, an add-on that connects the controller of the console and produces a vibration at certain moments of a game.
In 1998, the portable Game Boy Color was released —in Japanese: ゲームボーイカラー—, which had a similar capacity to the NES, which resulted in certain adaptations of said console for it, such as Super Mario Bros. , in addition to allowing backward compatibility with Game Boy games. Since then, more than 118.6 million Game Boy and Game Boy Color consoles have been sold worldwide.
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1999-2005: GameCube and portable innovations
With the advent of the PlayStation 2, in May 1999 Nintendo announced an agreement with IBM and Matsushita to develop the 128-bit Gekko processor and DVD drive for use in the next console. desktop of the Japanese company. Meanwhile, a series of administrative changes occurred in the year 2000, when the corporate offices of Japan were moved to the Minami-ku neighborhood in Kyoto; and Nintendo Benelux emerged, in charge of the Dutch and Belgian territories.
The following year, 2001, was marked by the introduction of two new consoles to Nintendo's repertoire: on the one hand, the portable Game Boy Advance —in Japanese: ゲームボーイアドバンス; GBA—, whose design by the French Gwénaël Nicolas departed from the characteristic style of its predecessors; and the Nintendo GameCube desktop system —in Japanese: ニンテンドー ゲームキューブ; NGC. During the first week of the handheld's release, in June of that year, 500,000 units were sold, making it the fastest-selling console in the United States of that period. went out of production, more than 81.5 million GBAs had been sold worldwide. As for the GameCube, some of its distinctive features are the miniDVD format of games—including Luigi&# 39;s Mansion and Super Smash Bros. Melee— and Internet connection for a limited number of games. Despite the above, its sales were lower than those of its predecessors and, during its six years of life, 21.7 million consoles were sold worldwide. By way of comparison, one hundred million PS2 systems had been sold as of December 2005. An innovative product developed by the company in this period was the Nintendo e-Reader, a peripheral for the GBA that allowed the transfer of data stored nated in a series of cards to the notebook.
In 2002, Pokémon mini began to be distributed —in Japanese: ポケモンミニ—, whose dimensions are smaller than those of the GBA and weighs 70 g, which makes it the smallest game console in history. In the same year, a new collaboration emerged with Sega and Namco to develop Triforce, an arcade board to facilitate the conversion of titles of that genre to the GameCube console. After the launch of NGC in Europe in May of that year, Yamauchi announced his resignation. as company president and, as successor, Nintendo chose Satoru Iwata. Yamauchi was to remain as an advisor and director of the company until 2005. He died almost a decade later, in 2013. Notably, Iwata's appointment as president ended Yamauchi's succession at the head of the company, a practice that had persisted since its foundation.
The next three years, from 2003 to 2005, brought a series of releases for the portable sector by Nintendo: the first year the Game Boy Advance SP —Japanese: ゲームボーイアドバンス— was released, consisting of an improved version of the GBA by incorporating "a folding design, front-lit screen and rechargeable battery", of which 43.5 million units had been sold up to 2010; and the Game Boy Player peripheral, which allows you to view GB and GBA games on the tv. In 2004, the Nintendo DS appeared -in Japanese: ニンテンドーDS- with certain innovations such as the use of a double screen -one of which is touch screen- and a wireless connection for multiplayer mode. Throughout its life period, According to a 2016 report, more than 154 million units of said system had been sold, making it the most successful portable game console and the second best-selling console in history, only surpassed by the PlayStation 2 — 155 million units until 2012. Finally, in 2005, Nintendo introduced the Game Boy Micro —in Japanese: ゲームボーイミクロ—, the last console in the Game Boy series characterized by having a screen backlit. Despite this, its sales did not meet the company's expectations when 2.5 million units were sold until 2007. In the middle of this year the Nintendo World Store was inaugurated in New York.
2006-2015: The impact of the Wii and 3DS, and the failure of the Wii U
The conception of Nintendo's next home console dates back to 2001, although design work began in 2003 taking inspiration from the portable DS. Finally, the Wii was available from November 19, 2006 with a total of 33 games have been supported since its launch. With this product, Nintendo sought to reach a broader demographic than its seventh-generation competitors, with the intention of reaching the "non-consumer" sector as well. To this end, it invested in an expensive advertising campaign in which the filmmaker Stephen Gaghan collaborated. Some of its innovations compared to its predecessors include the Wiimote remote, equipped with a system of accelerometers and infrared sensors that allow you to detect your position in a three-dimensional environment with the help of a sensor bar; the Nunchuk peripheral that includes an analog controller as well as an accelerometer; and the Wii MotionPlus expansion whose function is to increase the sensitivity of the main controller with the help of gyroscopes. As of 2016, more than 101 million Wii consoles had been sold worldwide, making it the most successful video game console of that generation, surpassing the figures of Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, a milestone Nintendo hadn't achieved since the SNES in the early 1990s.
Between 2007 and 2010 several games came out for the Wii, such as Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree, Super Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Wii Fit, Mario Kart Wii and New Super Mario Bros. Wii, as well as accessories for the console, such as it was the case of the Wii Balance Board and the Wii Wheel; and improvements like the WiiWare download service. In 2009 Nintendo Ibérica S.A. extended its commercial operations to Portugal through a new office in Lisbon, and in 2010 the corporate celebrated the 25th anniversary of Mario's first appearance, for which certain allusive products were put on sale. to the event including the game Super Mario All-Stars 25th Anniversary Edition and special editions of Nintendo DSi XL and Wii. It should be added that in 2009 the company had a market share of 68, 3% in the portable video game segment.
Following an announcement made in March 2010, the following year the portable Nintendo 3DS—Japanese: ニンテンドー3DS—was released, capable of producing stereoscopic effects without the need for 3D glasses. As of 2018, more than 69 had been sold million 3DS worldwide, a figure that increased to 75 million units at the beginning of 2019. In mid-2011, the 25th anniversary of The Legend of Zelda was celebrated, for which organized the symphony orchestra concert tour The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses and the game The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword was released. The next couple of years, 2012 and 2013, were marked by the introduction of two new video game consoles by Nintendo: on the one hand, the Wii U desktop system —in Japanese: ウィー・ユー— which involved the incorporation of high-definition graphics and the Gamepad controller with near-field communication technology in contrast to its predecessor; and on the other, the Nin laptop tendo 2DS —ニンテンドー2DS—, which has similar technical characteristics to the 3DS but lacks the clamshell design of the company's previous notebooks, as well as the stereoscopic effects of the 3DS. With a total of 13.5 million Wii U consoles sold in the world, this console is Nintendo's least successful in its entire history, followed by the GameCube. In 2014, a new line of products emerged consisting of figures of the company's characters and that are called amiibos. To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Super Mario Bros., the Let's Super Mario campaign was implemented in 2015 in which players could send videos alluding to the character.
At the end of 2013 Nintendo acquired part of the shares of Pux Corporation, a subsidiary of Panasonic, to develop facial, voice and text recognition programs for its video games, primarily for the DS. Due to a 30% decrease in the company's revenue between April and December of that same year, Iwata announced a temporary cut in both his salary and that of some executives starting in 2014. In January 2015, the company issued a statement announcing the cessation of its operations in the Brazilian market due in part to high import tax rates. Although this did not affect the rest of Latin America due to the alliance with the company Juegos de Video Latinoamérica, two years later an agreement was reached with NC Games for the Japanese company's products to return to Brazilian territory. a new advertising strategy, as of 2014 Nintendo replaced its conferences at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) with video broadcasts in which it announces its news for gaming platforms.
In July 2015 Iwata passed away from bile duct cancer, and Tatsumi Kimishima was appointed as his successor as head of the organization, after a couple of months in which Miyamoto and Takeda were in charge of its operations. As part of a management restructuring, the latter were given the responsibilities of creative advisor and technology advisor, respectively.
2015-present: Foray into mobile, Switch and other products
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The financial losses caused by the sales of the Wii U and Sony's intention to adapt its video games to other entertainment systems, such as smart televisions, from 2014, motivated Nintendo to rethink its main strategy focused on production of video consoles and virtual games. As a result, in early 2015 it formalized a couple of agreements with DeNA and Universal Parks & Resorts to extend its presence to smart devices and theme parks, respectively. In March 2016, Miitomo, the first mobile application for the iOS and Android operating systems, was released. Since then the company has produced other similar applications, such as Super Mario Run, Fire Emblem Heroes, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, Mario Kart Tour and Pokémon Go, this the latter developed by the American Niantic, Inc. —thanks to this latter application, in 2016 Nintendo generated additional revenue of 115 million USD.
Other relevant events that occurred in 2016 had to do with the replacement of the Club Nintendo loyalty service by My Nintendo. At the end of that year, the NES Classic Edition was released —in Japanese: ニンテンドークラシックミニ ファミリーコンピュー—, which It consists of a redesigned version of the NES with new features such as support for the HDMI interface and its compatibility with the Wiimote to play Wii and Wii U games from the Virtual Console. Almost a year later, in September 2017, the SNES was released. Classic Edition -in Japanese: ニンテンドークラシックミニ スーパーファミコン-, with a similar operation to its predecessor, but this time focused on the catalog of titles for the SNES. As of June 2018, around six million units of both consoles had been marketed in the world.
The product that replaced the Wii U in the eighth generation of game consoles, Nintendo Switch —in Japanese: ニンテンドースイッチ—, began shipping in March 2017. Some of its main features are the hybrid console-like design of desktop and laptop; the independent functionality of its Joy-Con controls, which in turn incorporate their respective accelerometer and gyroscope; and the simultaneous wireless connection of up to eight consoles. To expand its catalog of games, the Japanese company established alliances with several third-party and independent developers and, as of February 2019, there were more than 1,800 games for this platform. Likewise, the number of consoles sold up to March 2020 exceeded 55 million units worldwide. In April 2018, a new product line called Nintendo Labo began to be marketed - in Japanese: ニンテンドーラボ - consisting of accessories for cardboard that interact with the Switch and its Joy-Con. According to information from the company, in its first year on the market, more than one million products of one of the three product kits of this brand had been sold.
Between 2018 and 2019 there were a couple of organizational changes at Nintendo: Shuntaro Furukawa replaced Kimishima as corporate president, while Doug Bowser did the same at Nintendo of America, replacing Reggie Fils-Aime, respectively. Starting in 2019, the organization launched a business expansion strategy in China, through an alliance with Tencent Holdings, for the distribution of the Switch in the Asian country, which was completed in December of the same year. Although the COVID-19 pandemic caused the delay in the production and distribution of some of the company's products, this situation "had a limited impact on its business results." In the digital section, thanks mainly to the contribution of the Nintendo Switch Online service, an increase of 75% in revenue was reported in 2019 compared to the previous fiscal year. On the occasion of the 35th anniversary of the launch of Super Mario Bros. , in 2020 multiple products inspired by the Nintendo mascot were distributed, among which are the Game & Watch: Super Mario Bros. and the games Super Mario 3D All-Stars, Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit and Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury.
In early 2021 Nintendo acquired the Canadian developer Next Level Games, the same year in which the 35th anniversary of the release of The Legend of Zelda was commemorated and which, similarly to the event of Super Mario Bros, featured the reissue of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword and the commercialization of the Game & Watch: The Legend of Zelda. The inauguration of the Super Nintendo World park, located at the Universal Studios Japan facilities, occurred in March of the same year after several delays in the construction phase as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The company also announced that the production plant located in Uji would have to be remodeled as a "gallery" and its inauguration to the public is expected to occur between 2023 and 2024. It is estimated that a second will be inaugurated in 2023. Super Nintendo World park at Universal Studios Hollywood and, two years later, another at Universal Orlando Resort.
In mid-2022, the Japanese company announced the acquisition of the Dynamo Pictures studio to reinforce its diversification strategy through the development of visual productions. In April 2023, the premiere of an animated film based on the Mario characters is scheduled, whose voice cast includes actors Chris Pratt, Anya Taylor-Joy, Seth Rogen, Jack Black, and Charlie Day as Mario, Peach, Donkey Kong, Bowser, and Luigi, respectively.
Products
Nintendo's main business is the research and development, production and distribution of entertainment products, primarily video game software and hardware, and card games, and its main markets are Japan, America and Europe, although more than 70% of its total sales come from the latter pair.
Game Consoles
Since the release of its first game console, the Color TV-Game 6 in 1977, Nintendo has produced and distributed various video game platforms, including desktop, handheld, dedicated, and hybrid game consoles—that is, systems with features desktops and laptops. It is worth mentioning that each console is compatible with a variety of accessories and controllers; For example, the Nintendo Zapper, Super NES Mouse, Expansion Pak, Memory Cards, Wii MotionPlus, Wii U Pro Controller, and Switch Pro Controller are some add-on products for each of the home consoles, as well such as the Game Boy Camera and the Rumble Pak for the Game Boy and DS handhelds, respectively.
Nintendo consoles are listed below with their release date, lifespan and, when applicable, the different variations or existing models:
| Console | Premiere date | Life period | Model(s)/Variation(s) | Source(s) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| About me | Color TV-Game | 1 June 1977 | 1977-1980 |
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| NES | 15 July 1983 | 1983-2003 |
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| SNES | 21 November 1990 | 1990-2003 |
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| N64 | 23 June 1996 | 1996-2002 |
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| NGC | 14 September 2001 | 2001-2007 |
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| Wii | 19 November 2006 | 2006-2013 |
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| Wii U | 18 November 2012 | 2012-2017 | - | ||
| Hybrid | Switch | 3 March 2017 | 2017-vigent |
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| Portables | Game & Watch | 28 April 1980 | 1980-1991 | - | |
| GB | 21 April 1989 | 1989-2003 |
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| Virtual Boy | 21 July 1995 | 1995 | - | ||
| GBC | 21 October 1998 | 1998-2003 | - | ||
| GBA | 21 March 2001 | 2001-2010 |
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| Pokémon Mini | 16 November 2001 | 2001-2002 | - | ||
| DS | 21 November 2004 | 2004-2011 |
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| 3DS | 26 February 2011 | 2011-2020 |
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Video Games
The first video games produced by Nintendo belong to the arcade genre and, although EVR Race (1975) was one of the company's first electromechanical titles while Computer Othello and Block Fever were in the Color TV-Game's initial release catalog in 1978, Donkey Kong (1981) is considered to be It is the first platform in the history of both the organization and video games.
Since then, both Nintendo and other developer companies have produced and distributed an extensive catalog of video games for the company's different platforms —see the table below for more information— including Super Mario Bros. (1985), Tetris (1989), Super Mario World (1990), Super Mario 64 (1996), Pokémon Gold and Pokémon Silver (1999), Super Smash Bros. Melee (2001), Pokémon Ruby and Pokémon Sapphire (2002), New Super Mario Bros. (2006), Wii Sports (2006), Mario Kart 7 (2011), Mario Kart 8 (2014) and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (2017), which are some of the games that have registered the most commercialized copies. It should be noted that the games exist both in physical format and in digital - for this last format, there are distribution services such as Nintendo eShop and Nintendo Network.
The following table shows the number of games released by Nintendo in physical format only:
| Console | Nintendo | Third | Total General | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JPN | AME | EUR | JPN | AME | EUR | JPN | AME | EUR | TOTAL | ||
| About me | NES | 49 | 72 | 88 | 998 | 607 | 263 | 1047 | 679 | 351 | 2077 |
| SNES | 30 | 52 | 73 | 1368 | 667 | 471 | 1398 | 719 | 544 | 2661 | |
| N64 | 43 | 53 | 55 | 153 | 244 | 193 | 196 | 297 | 248 | 741 | |
| NGC | 55 | 48 | 47 | 220 | 504 | 406 | 275 | 552 | 453 | 1280 | |
| Wii | 76 | 55 | 64 | 387 | 1210 | 1213 | 463 | 1265 | 1277 | 3005 | |
| Wii U | 40 | 41 | 40 | 73 | 131 | 120 | 113 | 172 | 160 | 445 | |
| Hybrid | Switch | 49 | 62 | 63 | 800 | 984 | 972 | 1176 | 1407 | 1417 | 4000 |
| Portables | GB | 63 | 106 | 135 | 1183 | 859 | 817 | 1246 | 965 | 952 | 3163 |
| GBA | 107 | 71 | 75 | 679 | 950 | 846 | 786 | 1021 | 921 | 2728 | |
| DS | 132 | 98 | 117 | 1713 | 1639 | 2022 | 1845 | 1737 | 2139 | 5721 | |
| 3DS | 94 | 111 | 124 | 575 | 386 | 426 | 669 | 504 | 551 | 1724 | |
Others
Proposing ideas in the wider field of entertainment is part of what makes Nintendo unique, and I think generating a new value is a company directive for Nintendo. The question was raised as to whether we are planning to become a kind of gigantic and for-profit conglomerate organization, but we would prefer to increase profits as a result of continually challenging ourselves to generate value rather than investing capital to expand our business [... However] we are discussing a variety of other developments that would make active use of our intellectual property. —Shigeru Miyamoto in 2018. |
In addition to the consoles, video games and their respective accessories —whose income until 2008 represented 90% of the amount of its sales—, Nintendo has developed other types of products based on its line of business with the purpose of making "a more active use" of its intellectual property, "expand it and build a new business hub" as well as "increase opportunities for consumers around the world to interact with our intellectual property".
Although their video games usually have musical themes created by some composers such as Kōji Kondō, Hirokazu Tanaka, David Wise, Kenta Nagata, Kazumi Totaka and Mahito Yokota, only a few soundtrack compilations have been released, among which including Super Mario Galaxy: Original Soundtrack, Donkey Kong Returns Original Sound Track, Super Smash Bros. For Nintendo 3DS / Wii U (A Smashing Soundtrack) , and The Legend Of Zelda: 25th Anniversary, which in certain cases were distributed as part of a promotion for the purchase of the corresponding video game.
Since 2013, the company continues to produce and occasionally distribute its lines of traditional decks and Japanese playing cards —within the latter category are the Hanafuda, Kabufuda and Hyakunin Isshu— with themes related to Pokémon, the Mario video games and The Legend of Zelda, although there is also the option that the client can customize their cards from their own designs. Other similar products include the board games Shōgi, go, and Mahjong, the latter under the Yakoman trademark since 1964.
Nintendo publications include instruction manuals and Nintendo Power magazine. Since the release of the NES, Nintendo produced printed manuals with instructions on the game mechanics of its titles, in addition to other guides such as the Nintendo Buyers' Guide. The transition from print to digital for these publications took place during the life of the Wii U. In turn, the content of Nintendo Power dealt with information from Nintendo video games and its circulation lasted from 1988 to 2012; five years later, the magazine was adapted as a podcast. A similar effort happened with the Mexican magazine Club Nintendo, whose print editions were available from 1991 to 2014, while its digital distribution ceased in 2019.
While Nintendo's toy line is extensive and dates back to its early days as a video game developer, a couple of notable mentions are amiibo figures and cards, and Nintendo Labo. The former are modeled after some characters from their video games and allow the player to access additional content in the games with which they are compatible; according to 2018 figures, more than ten million of these figures are sold annually worldwide. On the other hand, Nintendo Labo products consist of cardboard accessories that interact with the Switch and its Joy-Con; in April 2019 the VR Kit model went on sale, the fourth model in this line., the company collaborates with other Japanese companies to disseminate information about its technology to students, while certain subsidiaries have alliances with organizations such as the Starlight Children's Foundation.
Although the company refused to produce games for smartphones, in 2014 it ventured into this business sector, and since then has produced applications such as Super Mario Run, Fire Emblem Heroes and Pokémon Go. Per year, the company plans to produce between two and three mobile games annually. The diversification strategy also extended to the creation of a thematic area at Universal Studios Japan, Super Nintendo World. Similarly, the company made a deal with Illumination Entertainment to produce an animated film about Mario.
Organization
Nintendo maintains five offices in Japan: three located in Kyoto and two in Tokyo. The original central building, opened in 1889 and demolished in 2004, was located in eastern Kyoto, on the banks of the Kamo River, on Shomen Dori. In 1959, the headquarters were moved to a new building in the Higashiyama district. ku, and two years later the offices in the Chiyoda neighborhood of Tokyo opened their doors. As of the year 2000, the headquarters is located at 11-1 Hokotate-cho, Kamitoba, in the Minami-Ku district, in Kyoto, Japan, In 2014 a Nintendo research and development center began operating, near from the Kyoto headquarters, and in 2022 an area adjacent to these offices was acquired in which a second research and development center will be built, scheduled to open in December 2027.
Nintendo's board of directors is made up of ten directors, four of whom are on the audit and oversight committee—and of these, three are executives from outside the organization. Only the members of the audit committee are elected every two years, while the responsibilities of the rest of the council are renewed annually, decisions that rest with the shareholders of the company. The council is responsible for the election of the president and CEO of the company. company as well as the executives in charge of each division or department, and the corresponding subsidiaries, although the latter respond to the authority of the presidency. There is also an executive management committee that issues recommendations to the president, as well as a compliance committee whose main function is to validate the activities of divisional executives. The internal audit is carried out by the department of the same name. In 2015 Nintendo Entertainment Planning & Development from the merger of the divisions Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development —Nintendo EAD— and Nintendo Software Planning & Development —Nintendo SPD—, which is chaired by Shinya Takahashi. Some of those who have worked for Nintendo are Gunpei Yokoi, Masayuki Uemura, Satoru Iwata, Reggie Fils-Aimé, Satoru Shibata, Shigeru Miyamoto, Takashi Tezuka, Yoshiaki Koizumi, Katsuya Eguchi, Eiji Aonuma, Yoshio Sakamoto, Genyo Takeda, Hisashi Nogami, Kōji Kondō, and Tōru Minegishi. Nintendo's most recent president and CEO is Shuntaro Furukawa, who took office in April 2018.
Nintendo owns a total of twenty-eight subsidiaries, of which five are located in Tokyo and the rest are foreign. The existing subsidiaries outside Japan are in charge of distributing the parent company's products —such as Nintendo of America and Nintendo Ibérica—, although in certain cases they are responsible for producing video games. In the latter category are Nintendo Software Technology, iQue and Retro Studios. In contrast, only one of the Japanese subsidiaries is in charge of managing sales, and the others are exclusive developers: NDcube, 1-UP Studio, Inc., Monolith Soft, and Mario Club Co. On the other hand, their business partners are The Pokémon Company —owner of the Pokémon brand—, Warpstar, Inc. —responsible for managing intellectual property and producing animations— and PUX Corporation —developer of software technology —, all of them based in Japanese territory. Between 1983 and 2022 the company was listed on the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, and since then it has been listed on the main or largest capitalization section, in accordance with the restructuring of the Japanese stock market.
Nintendo's workforce is made up of 6,717 employees as of July 2022, of which around 38% are from the Japanese parent offices, 20% are Nintendo of America employees, 14% are from Nintendo of Europe GmbH, 1.5% of the Australian headquarters and the rest are part of the other subsidiaries of the organization.
Financial Information
Here is some financial data from Nintendo:
| Year Fiscal prosecutor | Income Gross | Income net | BPA | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | 4017 | 629 | 0.90 | |
| 1998 | 4304 | 645 | 0.90 | |
| 1999 | 3987 | 774 | 0.90 | |
| 2000 | 3475 | 726 | 0.90 | |
| 2001 | 4168 | 800 | 1.05 | |
| 2002 | 4197 | 560 | 1,17 | |
| 2003 | 4899 | 316 | 1.33 | |
| 2004 | 4812 | 816 | 2.52 | |
| 2005 | 4348 | 840 | 3,33 | |
| 2006 | 8183 | 1477 | 5,85 | |
| 2007 | 16 724 | 2573 | 12.60 | |
| 2008 | 18 761 | 2847 | 14,69 | |
| 2009 | 15 423 | 2458 | 10,00 | |
| 2010 | 12 221 | 935 | 5,42 | |
| 2011 | 7898 | -526 | 1.21 | |
| 2012 | 6759 | 75 | 1.06 | |
| 2013 | 5550 | -225 | 1.78 | |
| 2014 | 4581 | 348 | 2.94 | |
| 2015 | 4464 | 146 | 1.21 | |
| 2016 | 4366 | 915 | 7.62 | |
| 2017 | 9959 | 1316 | 10.96 | |
| 2018 | 10 914 | 2270 | 14.68 | |
| 2019 | 12 115 | 3345 | 20.1 | |
| 2020 | 15 990 | 6193 | 36,66 | |
| 2021 | 14 011 | 5573 | 33,44 |
| Platform | Consoles | Video games | Total General | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JPN | AME | EUR | JPN | AME | EUR | Unid. | Games | ||
| About me | NES | 19,35 | 34,00 | 8,56 | 225,86 | 230.85 | 43,29 | 61,91 | 500.01 |
| SNES | 17.17 | 23,35 | 8,58 | 194,85 | 135,00 | 49,22 | 49.10 | 379.06 | |
| N64 | 5,54 | 20,63 | 6.75 | 39.75 | 142,06 | 43.16 | 32,93 | 224,97 | |
| NGC | 4.04 | 12,94 | 4.77 | 27,54 | 138.48 | 42,55 | 21.74 | 208,57 | |
| Wii | 12,75 | 48,64 | 40,23 | 75.94 | 502,53 | 343,38 | 101.63 | 921.85 | |
| Wii U | 3,34 | 6.49 | 3,74 | 15,82 | 56.40 | 31,26 | 13,56 | 103.48 | |
| Hybrid | Switch | 25,23 | 42,03 | 40,39 | 154.36 | 369.27 | 298,55 | 107.65 | 822.18 |
| Portables | GB | 32,47 | 44,06 | 42.15 | 157.06 | 190.61 | 153.44 | 118.69 | 501,11 |
| GBA | 16,96 | 41,64 | 22,91 | 73.11 | 217,24 | 87.06 | 81.51 | 377,42 | |
| DS | 32,99 | 59.93 | 61.10 | 213,82 | 399.20 | 335.72 | 154.02 | 948.74 | |
| 3DS | 25,26 | 26.90 | 23,78 | 138.41 | 133.41 | 116.73 | 75.94 | 388.55 | |
Technology used
Since its foray into the video game industry, Nintendo has invested resources in its own areas of software and hardware research and development. Originally these attributions fell on four departments —R&D1, R&D2, R&D3 and R&D4—; As of the 2015 restructuring, the divisions responsible for the technological development of Nintendo products are Nintendo Entertainment Planning & Development and Nintendo Platform Technology Development, in Japan as well as Nintendo Software Technology and Nintendo European Research & Development, in America and Europe, respectively.
While certain products are manufactured by third-party companies such as Foxconn and Hosiden in the case of the Switch platform, whose production is overseen by Nintendo representatives and must be consistent with Nintendo's social responsibility policies, their efforts they have produced technologies such as the analog and D-pad controls; the battery backup of NES cartridges that allow game progress to be saved instead of password systems; the camera for the Game Boy; the Rumble Pak haptic device; the layout of four controller ports on consoles for local multiplayer; interaction with a video game based on a movement detection system; and Virtual Boy, one of the first virtual reality consoles.
In recent years, Nintendo has focused its efforts on research and development of information storage and display technologies—such as liquid crystal displays, in addition to electronic components including sensors, touch screens, wireless communication, cloud computing, virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality, deep learning, and microdata analytics. For such purposes, its priorities are focused on the durability, safety, quality and performance of its product catalog, the design and production of accessories, cost reduction and energy conservation.
Work philosophy and themes
Nintendo staff are entitled to a series of benefits in addition to their remuneration, including transportation expenses, a couple of annual salaries, constant salary increases, medical insurance and educational programs, among others. In recent years, one of the priorities of its recruiting areas has been the hiring of young people with the "span of concentration... Those who truly understand what they have accomplished through their college years. If we see an artist who was very focused and determined to create a large-scale project on his own, and he did it for several years, or if we see a person who worked on a single film from the beginning to the end of its course. That kind of person needs a lot of determination and knowledge to achieve such a thing." According to a 2018 report, the median age of employees was 38 years, while the median seniority ranged from 13.5 years.
People always ask us if we take risks on purpose. But, in our view, we really don't take risks but we keep trying new things [...] The thought that guides us is: what can we do to pleasantly surprise the players? It is not that we are trying to innovate consciously; we try to find ways to make people happy. As a result, we do things that others have not done. —Shinya Takahashi, CEO of Nintendo. |
Nintendo's social responsibility policy has one of the "best reputations" in the world, and since 2015 has been centered around the mission statement "put smiles on everyone's faces". Its lines of action are related to the innovation and safety of its products, occupational health and safety, the diversity and human development of the staff, the sustainable development of its operations in accordance with the ISO 14001 certification, charity work and the structure organizational. Service centers as well as repair and maintenance of their products; the online forms and the annual social responsibility report are some examples of its customer service, while the Deming methodology is part of its operating procedures. The social responsibility policy is also applicable to any company that maintains ties commercial or productive with Nintendo. Despite its efforts for environmental protection —by prohibiting the use of phthalate, and PVC in the wiring of its consoles; and establishing an "environmental committee" and a corresponding policy in 2011—the company is one of the least sustainable compared to others in the electronics sector, according to a report released in 2010 by Greenpeace. In terms of humanitarian work, As part of an agreement with the Starlight Children's Foundation, in 1992 the Starlight Fun Center units were created for younger hospital patients and included different forms of multimedia entertainment. Until 1995 there were a thousand units in this category.
During his tenure at the helm of the company, in the transition stage to video games, Hiroshi Yamauchi stressed to the staff the importance of their consoles "being easy to program and capable of doing all kinds of things that I have dreamed of a designer". For this, it implemented certain strategies aimed at linking Nintendo's corporate image with the quality and innovation of its products, without this necessarily entailing the development of new and sophisticated technologies; for example, it sought to recruit to "video game artists" who "can develop excellent games that everyone wants [to play]" and "invest all resources to produce one or two major games a year, instead of several minor [consecutive] hits". It is considered that part of the good reception of the first Nintendo consoles was due to the titles developed by third parties with which the Japanese company established agreements, among which Capc is included. om, Konami, Tecmo, Square, Koei, and Enix. Starting with the Switch, this strategy has been extended to independent developers. As for Nintendo's organizational goals, these are "long-term and continuous growth, operational stability, and maximized profitability".
Nintendo maintained a strict policy towards the content and video game licenses of its consoles for several years. For example, although it allowed graphic violence in its content, it prohibited the inclusion of elements of nudity and/or sexuality because it was thought that this type of material could affect its corporate image. The subsidiary Nintendo of America stipulated that, in addition to According to the previous contents, their games should not have racist or sexist allusions, insults, blood, drugs or political or religious messages, with the exception of obsolete symbols such as those of Greek mythology. However, the impact they have had these criteria in Nintendo's business performance has also been unfavorable; for example, the Super Nintendo version of Mortal Kombat (1992) sold fewer copies than the Sega Genesis edition. The difference between both versions lay essentially in the censorship of blood and other elements of graphic violence by the developer Acclaim, at the request of the Japanese company. Similarly, to ensure that their licensed products for the NES complied with their guidelines had the option of blocking its authentication chips. Faced with this situation, Nintendo has since adopted greater flexibility in complying with its policy, which became evident for example with the release of Mortal Kombat II (1993), for the same console as its predecessor, without any censorship and with a warning to the player, printed on its packaging. After the establishment of the Interactive Digital Software Association and the ESRB video game content rating system, Nintendo abandoned most of its censorship policies that it had been requiring since the release of the NES as long as the public made their own choices. of contents. In more recent years, the main modifications in this aspect are made directly by the developer, and rarely at the request of Nintendo. It should be added that there are games whose distribution is prohibited in the American market, which are distinguished by their "Adults Only" classification -by its acronym: AO; in Spanish: “solo para adultos”— by the ESRB.
In general, production processes begin with the analysis and discussion of ideas by one or more small groups of developers and engineers of both software and hardware, whose conclusions lead to the definition of both the design and the purpose of the product. For example, in the case of the title 1-2-Switch, the intent was to "create a socializing game where players don't have to look at the screen, but instead look at each other." In turn, for the Nintendo Labo line, the company turned to an "outdated" product instead of sophisticated technology to meet its goals. Another similar example is the inferior graphical performance of the Wii in contrast to the interface of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, an aspect that did not prevent the console from being an unprecedented success for the company. Teamwork is also a relevant aspect of his philosophy; Pokémon Stadium was the first game in which teams from multiple locations collaborated. It should be noted that the protection of its intellectual property is an important aspect for the company, which discourages emulation of its titles without prior authorization, as well as the production of any content that makes use of any variation of their intellectual property. To reduce these practices, the US and European subsidiaries usually incorporate the "Seal of Quality" seal along with the statement "Official Nintendo Licensed Product" on any company product to distinguish them from those not officially recognized by Nintendo.
As for the themes offered by Nintendo products, these tend to come from various sources of inspiration. For example, in the case of Miyamoto with Super Mario Bros., the plot and designs are based on folklore, literature and pop culture such as Star Trek and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland as well as her "way of experiencing the world" and her memories. In the case of The Legend of Zelda: «When I was a child, during an excursion I came across a lake. It was a surprise for me to run into it. As I traveled the country without a map, trying to make my way, and encountering amazing things as [my journey] continued, I realized what it felt like to have an adventure." In his opinion, adult audiences enjoy playing Mario titles because "they bring back memories of their childhood" and "it's a trigger to go primitive again as a way of thinking and remembering [...] An adult is a child who It has more ethics and morals. That's all. When he was a child, what he created was not a game. I was in the game. [So] the game is not for children, but for me. For that adult who still has the essence of a child." In general, their consoles offer the possibility of activating a parental control that restricts the content of the software according to the guidelines of the ESRB system, and the results of seminars that the company continuously conducts in some prefectures of Japan.
Impact
Almost in all generations, Nintendo has led a burden of innovation that has radically changed the world of games. These innovations have not always been well received, but Nintendo's fingerprints are so firmly recorded in our industry, that the company is possibly the most important figure of it. - Ben Reeves, from Game Reporterin 2011. |
It is considered that Yamaushi's strategic decisions, including Nintendo's foray into video games, not only ensured the company's success but also the survival of that industry segment, since they "restored public confidence in the video games after the dismal crash of the US market in the early 1980s. In 1991 it was already the most successful company in Japan and, since then, its products "have redefined the way we play" as well as its business model that prioritized software sales strategies in instead of the consoles, as the wholesale distributors of video games usually did.
Its social responsibility policy as well as the work philosophy focused on the quality and innovation of its products have led Nintendo to be classified as "a manufacturer focused on the consumer", a couple of characteristic features that have allowed it to distinguish itself of its historical competitors, Sony and Microsoft. Since 2013 the American publication Forbes has included Nintendo in its lists of "Best Employers in the World" by taking into account its work environment and the diversity of the staff; while, in 2018, Time classified it as one of the "genius companies of the year" considering that "resurrection has become a habit" in reference to the success of Switch in contrast to the result obtained by the Wii U. Its capital exceeded JPY 10 billion and its net sales exceeded JPY 1 billion—or USD 9 billion, mostly from the American market which provides about 42% of this amount—in 2020, which turns it into one of the wealthiest companies in Japan and one of the "most valuable" in the country.
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Both his characters and some of his video games have had an impact on contemporary popular culture; for example, Mario went from being the corporate mascot to a "cultural icon" as well as one of the most famous characters in video games. In the opinion of John Taylor of Arcadia Investment Corp.: “[Mario] is by far the biggest video game property out there. [... It's] where you start to scale the size of the global market for games." Other notable characters from the company are Princess Peach, Pikachu, Link, Donkey Kong, Kirby, Samus Aran, and Ness. On the other hand, the influence of games such as Donkey Kong (1981), Super Mario Bros. (1985), The Legend of Zelda (1986), Metroid (1986), Tetris (1989), Fire Emblem (1990) Star Fox (1993) and Pokémon Red and Blue (1996) gave rise to the consolidation of their respective franchises. For example: Super Mario Bros. "popularized the concept of platform video games by creating a world full of secrets and memorable enemies, while providing enhanced control over the main protagonist's physics"; Tetris, whose "deceptively simple design made the title enormously accessible and fiendishly compelling, and inspired a new generation of abstract puzzle titles"; The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time which "with its abundant animated world, multi-layered narrative threads, diverse interactions, and playful spirit, is effectively a school for game design and a workshop for ideas on player agency, delight, and discovery"; and Metroid, "[a game] dark and solemn, with a looming sense of isolation and a powerful alien feel." already mentioned, critics have cataloged some others as "the best in history", such as Super Mario World (1990), Super Mario Kart (1992), EarthBound (1994), Yoshi's Island (1995), GoldenEye 007 (1997), Animal Crossing (2001), Super Smash Bros. Melee (2001), Metroid Prime (2002), Super Mario Galaxy (2007) and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (2017).
In addition, some of its game consoles have marked a milestone in the industry, as was the case with the SNES, whose success "cemented Nintendo as the leader in home consoles" and encouraged other companies to venture into the video game industry, seeing how Nintendo "enjoyed in the market without worrying about the [absence of] competition". Similarly, the Wii's motion detection system allowed the production of games and accessories that contribute to the physical and therapeutic conditioning of the user.. In turn, the Game Boy and its various complementary products —such as the Game Boy Camera, the Game Boy Printer, and the Game Link Cable— "combine game mechanics with real-world adventures [...] adding extra functionality that would allow handheld games to jump to home devices.” According to a report published by the company in 1995, almost half of the users of this laptop were women, unlike the predecessor systems, whose female market was less than 30% of the population.
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In addition to the various recognitions obtained by its products - which include a pair of Emmy Awards for Technology and Engineering for the Wii and DS consoles; two more for Nintendo Labo in the category of "Innovation" from the Game Developers Choice Awards and the 2019 BAFTA Video Game Awards; or his recognitions at the 2017 Game Critics Awards for Super Mario Odyssey and Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle—, some of its collaborators have earned various distinctions for their work. For example, in 2010 the British Academy of Film and Television Arts recognized Miyamoto with a Lifetime Achievement Fellowship; similarly to Iwata and Aunuma, who were honored in 2015 and 2016 with a Lifetime Achievement Fellowship. Golden Joystick; or Takeda, which in 2018 won a DICE award for the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences; the same year that Charles Martinet received Guinness record accreditation for providing his voice to Mario in more than a hundred products.