Did you know that Nintendo was founded in 1889 as a trading card company? It wasn’t until 1956 that the Nintendo company explored new markets and products. Their risky business ventures during this time included a taxi company, a chain of love hotels, a TV network, and a brand of instant rice packets that were similar to Ramen. All of these failed, until 1966 when Nintendo began to produce toys based off of a series of Light Gun games.
This opened the door to Nintendo securing rights to distribute the Magnavox Odyssey home video game console. It was in 1977 Nintendo hired Shigeru Miyamoto, a student product developer. His release of the Donkey Kong arcade game in 1981 finally turned the tables for the Nintendo company, precluding the gigantic success of Game & Watch and their first real video game console, the NES, in 1985.
Nintendo is now the longest surviving video game console manufacturer to date and even own the majority of the Seattle Mariners. The company never truly lost touch with its original product, however, and they still host contact bridge tournaments in Japan to this day, referred to as the Nintendo Cup.
Tue, Oct 20, 2009
Video Games