Nintendo's Origins and Corporate Identity
Nintendo is one of the most iconic companies in the video game industry, known for its innovation and consistency over the decades. While many companies have drastically changed their approaches to adapt to market trends, Nintendo has managed to maintain its unique identity, based on creativity, quality and a strong commitment to family entertainment. But to understand this philosophy, we need to go back in time and examine the company's origins.
The First Steps: From Letters to Entertainment Giant
Nintendo's history begins on September 23, 1889, when Fusajiro Yamauchi founded the company in Kyoto, Japan. At the time, Nintendo had no involvement in video games—its specialty was the production of Hanafuda cards, a traditional Japanese game that was popular with casual gamers and gamblers.
Hanafuda cards were different from Western cards in that they did not have numbers and used illustrations of flowers and landscapes. At first, they were produced by hand, but demand soon grew and Yamauchi expanded the business.
In the following years, Nintendo stood out for the superior quality of its cards and signed important contracts, such as an agreement with the Yakuza, which used the cards in its gaming houses.
However, the big turning point came in 1956, when then-president Hiroshi Yamauchi, grandson of the founder, visited the United States and realized that the card market was saturated. He concluded that Nintendo needed to diversify its business in order to continue growing.
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