The Nintendo story: from the Switch and DS to games like Mario and Pokémon, how the 131-year-old company became a video gaming giant
- Founded in 1889, Nintendo is one of the most famous brands in video gaming, with its consoles and characters loved by fans the world over
- The Japanese company started out as a maker of playing cards that were popular with ‘yakuza’ organised crime groups, who used them for illicit gambling games
The global pandemic and economic slump of the last 18 months have been a disaster for the vast majority of businesses around the world. But for Nintendo, the need for people to stay at home and avoid restaurants, bars, sporting events, cinemas and other large social occasions has been a huge and unexpected bonus.
In May, the Kyoto-headquartered multinational revealed that its profit for the financial year ending in March had soared 86 per cent, largely on demand for its Switch handheld games machine.
Mario, Zelda and the brand’s other franchises – most notably Animal Crossing – have been put through their electronic paces during lockdowns, earning the company an annual profit of 480.4 billion yen (US$4.4 billion), up from 258.6 billion yen one year previously and significantly better than the 400 billion yen that Nintendo had forecast.
“The Switch unit was already successful before the pandemic, but it has really come into its own over the last year or so as everyone has been homebound and had to find ways to entertain themselves,” says Dan Sloan, author of Play to Wiin: Nintendo and the Video Game Industry’s Greatest Comeback, published in 2011.
“Right from its very early years, Nintendo has set out to be a people-pleaser, with good ideas, appealing games and fun characters,” Sloan adds. “It helps that they have also positioned their products at a reasonable price point, making them accessible to everyone, and it is clear that they are thriving in this present situation.”
