Nintendo

Nintendo is a consumer electric company based in Japan. While they are best known for there hit video gaming consoles such as the Super Nintendo, Nintendo 64, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, and the Nintendo Wii. Nintendo’s roots date back to 1889 where it originally produced handmade playing cards.

It wasn’t till 1974 that Nintendo finally made a foray into Video Games and the home video console market. Their first venture was obtaining the redistribution rights for the Magnavox Odyssey video game console in Japan, it would be another three years before Nintendo would finally begin manufacturing their own hardware. There first attempt was the Colour TV-Game, while 6 versions were released they were all variations of the same game, Light Tennis.

Nintendo’s  success in the games industry however did not come till the 1980 with the launch of their first handheld video game console, the Game & Watch. These only featured one specific game that was tied to the hardware unlike Nintendo’s future handhelds that implemented to swap in and out cartridges. The next 20 years would see Nintendo further entrench themselves as a company to watch out for in the games industry with loveable franchises and hugely successful consoles.

Over the 20 years consumers would see the release of several consoles that are firmly entrenched as a part of gaming history. 1985 saw the release of the  Famicon which was also known as the Nintendo Entertainment System(NES). The Famicon was released alongside ports of Nintendo’s arcade games. They also introduced the practice of bundling games helping make Super Mario Bros as one of the best selling video games of all time.

1989 was the year for the Game Boy to take the stage. The handheld console was born from merging the idea of the Game & Watch with the NES’s ability to interchange cartridges.The Game Boy managed to kick start Nintendo’s dominance over the handheld console market, a dominance that has managed to last many years to come. The success was again partly thanks to Nintendo’s bundling strategies, with the Game Boy’s bundling of 3rd party game Tetris being an instant success.