The History of Nintendo (Full)

in the video game industry countless companies have come and gone but one company has managed to outlast its competition at nearly every turn Nintendo for over three decades Nintendo has beaten its rivals by pursuing its own singular vision of bold Hardware innovations and games of unmatched creativity it hasn't always been smooth sailing though along the way Nintendo's choices as a company have thrilled and baffled gamers but through all their ups and downs Nintendo's impact on the industry simply cannot be overstated amazingly Nintendo might never have been so successful if it weren't for one character Popeye yes that Popeye [Music] in the late 19th century in Kyoto Japan artist Musa Jiro Yamauchi had developed great skill at the making and painting of Hana Fuda Japanese playing cards that were intricately detailed with beautiful and colorful imagery by 1894 Yamaguchi opened up his own Hana Fuda manufacturing business he called his new company Nintendo Co Pi Nintendo roughly translates as leave luck to heaven a great expression when playing games of chance the company's cards became so popular that Yamaguchi had to hire assistants to help him move from handmade hanafuda to mass production in 1929 Yamaguchi son-in-law stuck hero took over the business one of Seguros most important acts was the creation of Nintendo's own distribution network a vital piece of the puzzle that would serve the company well over the next several decades by 1949 his great-grandson Hiro she took over and began to move it into the modern era while business for the company was going smoothly something happened to Yamaguchi during a visit to the United States that changed in Tendo forever author Jeff Ryan's 2011 book super Mario how Nintendo conquered America provides an in-depth account of Nintendo's beginnings as the book describes Yamaguchi took a meeting with Disney executives to license their characters from intend o cards seeing the vastness of Disney's Empire firsthand revealed just how huge a global entertainment company could become Yamaguchi knew he would never settle for less than worldwide success in an interview with machinima author Jeff Ryan explains that Yamaguchi's coming-of-age as Japan lost the Second World War gave the man a hard edge one that would drive him in business for the rest of his life he came out of World War two and he was from the Japanese side so he was one of those it was the whole Greatest Generation thing mixed in with the fact that his side had lost and he was running his grandfather's company and he needed to make a lot of tough decisions and for about 30 years he was making decisions that didn't quite play out but every time he tried something he would learn from the failure mostly he would learn well we don't do that again in 1963 the businesses name changed to simply the Nintendo Company Limited a move reflecting its expansion into other ventures however the company's cardmaking experience helped it break into one business toys author Jeff Ryan explains how Nintendo transitioned from cards to toys with the help of its existing distribution network trading cards kept on making money but it was a small amount of money he realized that there is a distribution network that was valuable beyond just the cards that they were selling because that allowed him if he wanted to make a toy he could get it into every toy store in Japan which was something that a normal toy manufacturer starting from scratch can do its first toy was the ultra hand an extendable arm invented by gunpei Yokoi a maintenance worker from Nintendo's card making factories the coy had originally created the ultra hand for his own amusement but Yamauchi saw yokoi's potential the toy went to market in 1970 selling 1.2 million units Nintendo was officially in the toy business other products followed yokoi's creativity leading the charge the 10 billion barrel was an innovative marble puzzle while the love tester was an electronic passion measuring device that could only come from Japan through the 70s Nintendo also tested Japan's video game market releasing arcade games and pong clone TV consoles in 1979 they scored their biggest hit radar scope a space invaders imitator in 1980 Nintendo released another yokoi invention the handheld game and watch inspired by the LCD screens of pocket calculators yokoi's invention was simple but addictive and kept nintendo heading towards the electronic entertainment business that year Yamaguchi sought expansion into America to set up Nintendo's American branch the Chairman tapped son-in-law Minoru Arakawa who was living in Vancouver with Yamaguchi's daughter Yoko the our call was set up shop at a warehouse in Elizabeth New Jersey to get the ball rolling their first game would be their Japanese hit RadarScope 3000 cabinets shipped from Japan Eric how his attempts to sell the game didn't go well he only managed to move a third of their supply leaving about two thousand machines sitting in the warehouse worse RadarScope wasn't scoring well with the arcade owners who preferred games from proven names like Namco or the arcade King Atari the fledgling Nintendo of America had only broken even on the venture so far they needed a new inexpensive game and soon while his father-in-law looked at his staff in Kyoto for ideas the hour cow has moved back to the Pacific Northwest Yamaguchi was no fool he knew better than to commit too many resources to what was turning into a losing proposition so instead of pulling one of Nintendo's proven designers from other projects he solicited ideas from his entire company hoping to make an unexpected discovery within his company discover he did Shigeru Miyamoto a 29 year old staff artist piqued Yamaguchi's interests Miyamoto was teamed with compile oi who would help turn the new designers ideas into reality the two would use a conversion kit to transform those unsold radar scopes into something new but before they began they hit a snag Yamaguchi's wanted to base a game on a popular character to spur sales it just so happened that a new hollywood movie based on Popeye was in production and 20 years earlier Nintendo had released a ramen product based on the spinach Iain Saylor Yamaguchi believed acquiring the rights would be a cinch but weren't available after all Miyamoto was undeterred already on course for a great new game all he had to do was tweak the characters a bit olive oil was made into the generic lady while Bluto devolved into the giant stubborn ape he always resembled and Popeye would leave the Navy and become a carpenter that love triangle featured in Popeyes cartoons and comic strips informed these new characters and set players off on a quest to rescue the damsel in distress the story of the new game was a great hook but no one would pump quarters into a game that didn't play well fortunately Miyamoto happened to be a game designing genius a fact no one not even himself had realized until he'd gotten the job gone was radar scopes derivative alien shooting mechanic this new game wouldn't have any shooting at all instead players would have to direct the in-game avatars safely up a construction site to rescue the kidnapped lady jumping over barrels and finding scattered hammers to clear away threats this new junkman as Miyamoto called him offered a new way to play and the development team knew it would be special as for the game's title Miyamoto looked to Japan and America shared history of gigantic movie monsters King Kong of course was the biggest ape around but this was no king this ape was not only stubborn but like Bluto pretty stupid more like an ass or a donkey Donkey Kong had a name but they still needed names for the other two characters lady would be named Pauline in thanks to their kind warehouse manager Don James whose wife's name was Polly the game's hero however was named after the warehouses owner James's hot-headed boss Mario Siegel horikawa and his small team started hand converting RadarScope cabinets to Donkey Kong machines in 1981 Arakawa put the test machines in two seattle bars and they took off like RadarScope never did the machines earned more than $30 a day in quarters prompting Arakawa to install more machines soon enough the cabinets each made Nintendo $200 a week our cow and his team converted the rest of the 2000 RadarScope cabinets by hand and began manufacturing hundreds of new Donkey Kong machines to keep up with the growing demand soon enough there were 60,000 Donkey Kong machines in operation throughout North America that year Nintendo had arrived and it was all thanks to the inspiration of Popeye the sailorman and Miyamoto's genius Nintendo exploded onto the arcade scene and brought success Yamauchi had known would one day be his but in addition to growing into a bigger business Nintendo had also grown into a bigger target as 1981 drew to a close over 60,000 Donkey Kong arcade cabinets dotted North America by 1982 Nintendo manufactured up to 50 cabinets per day in its first year in the u.s. Donkey Kong earned 180 million dollars for Nintendo in its next year the barrel throwing ape earned another 100 million launching Nintendo into the videogame stratosphere in July 1982 Nintendo of America bought 27 acres in Redmond saying goodbye to the warehouse in Tukwila Washington that was owned by junk man's namesake Mario Siegel riding high on Donkey Kong's success Nintendo was gearing up to bring the arcade into customers homes but not only would they soon face monkey business in the court room Nintendo would once again face an uphill battle to sell America on its latest product soon their success in the States would seem like nothing more than a pipe dream but sometimes as Donkey Kong guzzled quarters across America in 1981 its creator Shigeru Miyamoto set up to work on a sequel in 1982 Nintendo released Donkey Kong jr. a follow-up as unconventional as its predecessor instead of keeping Mario in the position of the hero Miyamoto decided to cast him as the villain having cruelly locked Donkey Kong in a cage at the top of the screen playing the role of the hero this time was Donkey Kong's son who climbed vines and chains while dodging toothsome enemies to save his father despite the potentially blasphemous switcheroo of making Mario the antagonist Miyamoto had scored again Donkey Kong jr. managed to sell over 30,000 cabinets Donkey Kong was a force to be reckoned with the brand's success paved the way for another lucrative opportunity for nintendo licensing and Merchandising console maker Coleco gained the rights to make a home version of the game and outside of video games nintendo found that Donkey Kong's face looked good on everything board games stuffed animals and more but to MCA Universal the movie studio behind 1976 is King Kong feature-film Donkey Kong simply looked like an ever-growing dollar sign after countless threats of legal action and after scoring multi-million dollar settlements with nearly every dog Kong license Universal filed suit against Nintendo on June 26 1980 to the studio alleged that Donkey Kong infringed on their King Kong copyright the video game maker however refused to budge the case went to trial in early 1983 and Nintendo prevailed with ease its lawyers led by attorney John Kirby established the many differences between the conflicting Kong's but if this weren't enough for the judge kirby proved that in fact Universal hadn't a legal leg to stand on in 1975 the studio had sued previous King Kong picture maker RKO Pictures and had itself proven that King Kong was in the public domain the result of the 75 case cleared the way for Universal 76 film remake it also caused the judge to throw the suit against Nintendo out of court in 83 Nintendo had taken on the powerhouses of American entertainment and emerged victorious while Nintendo of America defended itself in court Nintendo in Japan had released its next big product the Nintendo family computer or the Famicom according to Jeff Ryan's Super Mario how Nintendo conquered America Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi had the Famicom in the works for years the 8-bit home console featured two wired controllers with raised directional pads and two face buttons a design that had originated with gunpei yokoi's Game and Watch in July 1983 the Famicom was released in Japan with ports of Nintendo's American Hits Donkey Kong Donkey Kong jr. and the game that finally realised Yamaguchi's vision Popeye a title that shared plenty in common with what else Donkey Kong Nintendo finally wrangled the rights to the sailorman who had inspired Nintendo's biggest hit that year Nintendo have sold over a half a million Famicom's the next year it shattered that number by moving three million consoles Nintendo had another hit on its hands and the next step was to bring it to the US but there was one problem in 1983 the American video game market had crashed a consequence of too many overpriced in underwhelming systems competing with each other game developers sprang up like mushrooms creating an authorized and often lousy games for the many consoles on the market by 1984 the idea of a home video game system was anathema to American audiences and retailers alike once again Nintendo of America's president when Nauru Arakawa had an uphill battle selling the systems in the States the fact that by 1985 the Famicom had sold over 19 million units in Japan didn't impress American retailers still smarting over the money they've lost on video games so recently so instead of trying to sell a game system why not try to sell a toy Nintendo tried to hide the consoles true nature packaging it with a toy robot the robotic operating buddy or Rob along with games gyromite and stack up no one was fooled and the plan didn't work demoed she ordered how a cow and his team to sell the system's to New York toy stores personally Arakawa followed Yamaguchi's bidding but went a step further according to Ryan's book perikala went over Yamaguchi's head assuring retailers that they could get full refunds on any unsold systems a gutsy move that could have cost Nintendo dearly fortunately our cows gamble paid off and 50,000 units sold in New York similar rollouts in other major cities over the next few months yielded the similar results by 1986 Nintendo was finally able to release the Famicom now named the Nintendo Entertainment System nationally it didn't hurt that it came packed from the most incredible games yet Shigeru Miyamoto's super mario brothers before nintendo devoted most of its resources to the Famicom and NES Miyamoto kept working on arcade games he had spun Mario off into his own game in 1983 Mario Brothers took place in a pipe filled sewer where the pair worked together to knock out as many turtles and crabs as they could when Miyamoto was promoted to make famicom games he took Mario with him the result was like nothing seen before a whole kingdom full of secrets growth inducing mushrooms warp zones stoppable enemies and of course lots of pipes Super Mario Brothers 1985 debut was a massive success driving the system sales and hooking American gamers in ways the Atari and ColecoVision never could today Super Mario Brothers is said to have sold more than 40 million copies worldwide holding the record for the best-selling video game for a full 18 years Miyamoto kept working creating another masterpiece inspired by his childhood spent roaming the woods and caves in Kyoto February 1986 is The Legend of Zelda a questing game featured even deeper exploration than Super Mario Brothers clearly Zelda's grand scope and massive dungeons touched something within gamers and Nintendo had another hit other now legendary games followed like the lonely a haunting space adventure Metroid designed by a COI that title blew people's minds with the end of game revelation that its silent protagonist Samus Aran was actually a woman however a console can't survive on first party games alone third-party developers were contracted to develop new titles for the NES but Nintendo's new machine featured a lockout ship that only Nintendo could supply the chip drove up the costs of production and games lacking the chip wouldn't play Nintendo had control while the chips ensured quality NES games the way Nintendo lorded them over its third party developers guaranteed an unhealthy relationship in fact a 1988 chip shortage led to just that author Jeff Ryan explains how Nintendo handled the shortage Nintendo decided to ration the chips which was why the only thing they could do there's there's not enough supply to meet the demand so therefore you only give some to everyone now they gave themselves as many chips in the world but for something like Konami or Capcom they wouldn't make more than a hundred thousand copies of the game and this is a game that could sell millions and if Konami or Capcom complained Nintendo would would maybe cut their order even more so they'd only have 90,000 despite Nintendo's strained relationship with third parties its relationship to gamers was only getting stronger thanks largely to Shigeru Miyamoto's continued brilliance though he wasn't infallible in fact his 1986 follow-up to the original Super Mario Brothers never saw release in the United States as it was deemed too challenging it had all the familiar hallmarks of the original game but harder some mushrooms made Mario super but some mushrooms actually killed him Nintendo of America thought it was more sadistic than satisfying but Super Mario needed a sequel so Miyamoto oversaw production on converting another game Yumiko Jo Doki Doki Panic into a new mario title gone was the Mushroom Kingdom and Bowser in their place with subcon a dream world players had to free from the clutches of wart an evil frog and instead of jumping on enemies to stop them players could ride them pick them up and toss them and other bad guys besides the picture on the box there wasn't much tying the game in with Super Mario fortunately for Nintendo fans were more than happy to explore the world of subcon Super Mario Brothers 2 sold over 7 million copies in its 1988 North American debut Miyamoto still wanted a proper sequel though his next project was a true continuation for Super Mario that would both bring the game back to its roots while moving the series forward by leaps and bounds the result was Super Mario Brothers 3 players encountered the familiar mechanics of jumping and stomping that made the original game so great while contending with new powers and abilities Super Mario Brothers 3 was everything people loved about the first game but better and in 1989 as its North American debut drew near Nintendo of America was approached by Universal Pictures the same studio that had sued them over Donkey Kong's alleged copyright infringement the studio's plans for a big-screen version of The Jetsons was delayed and they needed a project to appeal the kids around the holidays the result was the wizard a movie starring Fred Savage and Christian Slater depicting two brothers journeys across the country on a quest to win a video game tournament and the game featured at the tournament itself none other than Super Mario Brothers 3 which made its North American debut in multiplexes across the country while the wizard isn't remembered as much more than an afterthought Super Mario Brothers 3 is release in February 1990 found its place in the history books it was Nintendo's biggest hit yet selling 18 million copies and achieving the record for the best-selling video game not bundled with a system as it began the 1990s Nintendo had been transformed since tentative entrance into the video game market a decade before instead of simply being a player in the industry Nintendo practically owned it the company seemed invincible but soon enough Nintendo would discover the price for not playing well with others by the late 1980s Nintendo seemed to have sewn up the video game industry across the globe the Nintendo Entertainment System was a staple of the American family room and Super Mario was a household name starring in three hit games several cartoons and appearing on every product Nintendo could license but in 1987 NEC released the PC engine in Japan a 16-bit competitor to Nintendo's 8-bit Famicom a year later in 1988 Sega released their 16-bit Mega Drive console Nintendo couldn't rest on its laurels and remained the dominant force in video games ironically in tendo's next big idea was a bit on the small side gunpei yokoi's handheld game and watch LCD toys was one of Nintendo's earliest successes in the video game industry but the future was clearly consoles and Yokoi had been working on a portable version of the Famicom for years replicating the bright colorful animation of most home consoles would require a backlight and a big drain on the device's battery life not to mention pricey manufacturing costs to keep costs down and batteries up the system would skip color altogether yokoi's final design was finished and released as the game boy in April 1989 the 8-bit to button console took four double A batteries that lasted for at least ten hours all for about $90 while the game boys monochromatic greenish display wasn't much to look at and couldn't be seen at all in the dark it gave consumers one of the most successful pack and titles yet Tetris an addictive Russian puzzle game for which Nintendo had purchased the console rights it proved to be so addictive in fact that Nintendo sold out of its initial run of a million Gameboy units in mere weeks of its release likely on the strength of Tetris alone estimates peg Tetris sales on the Gameboy at over 30 million copies to date a few months later in September Atari released its rival handheld the backlit full-color 16-bit links it didn't stand a chance the links may have been more powerful but as Yoko knew that power came at a cost the link says six double-a batteries could only provide power for roughly half the time of the Gameboy while selling for more than twice as much ringing up at $190 the choice for consumers was clear and the Gameboy was a massive success though Sega's 8-bit game gear released a year later had fared better than the Lynx the Gameboy was already a runaway train that couldn't be caught it easily outlasted its competition selling nearly 119 million units in its unprecedented 14 year lifecycle the fact that the Game Boy boasted in tendo's exclusive properties only solidified its position as the handheld leader shortly after the system's debut Nintendo published Super Mario Land a new title produced by a Koi himself mario left the Mushroom Kingdom for a place called sera salon instead of rescuing Princess Toadstool from king koopa mario fought a mysterious space man named tatanga to rescue princess daisy but of course the differences didn't matter Mario jumped and stopped his way to 18 point 4 million sales other famous names appeared on the Gameboy Yokoi brought his lonely space adventurer back for Metroid 2 the return of Samus in 1992 and Shigeru Miyamoto is the legend of zelda links awakening was published a year later but not every Game Boy star came from the NES first in 1992 a Nintendo sponsor developer Hal laboratory created a new platformer called Kirby's Dreamland which starred a flying pink puffball who could swallow up enemies like a vacuum cleaner and just as mario is named after Nintendo's landlord Kirby was named for John Kirby the Ace Attorney who defended the company in universals 1983 Donkey Kong lawsuit even though Nintendo was handily winning the battle for handhelds the home console war was heating up though the Famicom was king in Japan by 1990s Sega's 16-bit Genesis the American name for the Mega Drive was making serious waves Sega had taken advantage of their competitors adversarial relationship with third-party developers for years Nintendo had held developers hostage by rationing out lockout chips without which games wouldn't play on the famicom or nes because nintendo sought absolute control over its products it transformed itself into little more than a tyrant Jeff Ryan author of Super Mario how Nintendo conquered America explains how Sega leveraged Nintendo's bad behavior to their benefit when Sega came up with the Genesis so many third-party developers flocked to them just because Sega was treating their developers well a Nintendo was not and Nintendo was able to do that because they were the only game in town made something like 92 percent market share but when the Genesis came around and the Genesis started to gain speed people realized oh finally there's another heavyweight contender out there there's someone else who can take on the Goliath Sega turned out arcade ports and secured exclusive third-party releases a side effect of a clause in Nintendo's contracts forbidding developers from making games for other consoles one of the most important turned out to be the very first console version of Electronic Arts as new sports franchise Madden NFL football which earned huge sales during Christmas 1990 and in the following summer Sega released their own homegrown killer app a new high-speed platformer called Sonic the Hedgehog suddenly Sega had their own Mario but one with wild hair a 90s tude and the remarkable ability to finally threaten Nintendo stranglehold on the American console market but of course Nintendo had long been working on the NES a successor the 16-bit follow-up was released in the fall of 1990 in Japan as the Super Famicom and in summer 1991 in America as the Super Nintendo Entertainment System the console came with Shigeru Miyamoto's most expansive and best-looking game yet Super Mario World once again Nintendo's packin title helped move systems according to Ryan's book Super Mario World sold 3.5 million copies in Japan while in the States gamers bought 17 million three days after its US launch retailers had sold out of the Super Nintendo console the SNES was a hit but unlike its predecessor it faced some fierce competition despite super mario world's brilliance Sonic's rush onto the scene had suddenly made Nintendo's seem uncool Sega seemed to represent everything that was hip and new and video games while Nintendo looked safe stodgy and downright old even though 1991 s SNES was technologically superior to 1988 s-- genesis in every way by 1992 sources estimate the genesis had a roughly 55 percent market share over its competitor by 1993 crack started appearing in Nintendo's public image a big-budget Hollywood movie based on Super Mario Brothers starring Bob Hoskins John Leguizamo and Dennis Hopper was released that summer to abysmal reviews and performance what should have been Nintendo's ultimate triumph was a universally reviled public embarrassment today's Super Mario Brothers holds a place in cinematic history as not only one of the worst video game movie adaptations but simply as one of the worst movies period that wasn't the only problem Nintendo faced that year in September acclaimed published SNES and Genesis ports of Midway's ultraviolent arcade fighter mortal kombat but despite being 16-bit versions of the same game the ports were anything but equal the genesis version featured just about every blood splattering hit-and spine ripping fatality from the original the SNES port however was heavily modified to reflect Nintendo's family-friendly policy fatalities were out tamer finishing moves were in absurdly brutal hits didn't result in sprays of blood but sprays of greyish sweat it's estimated that the genesis version outsold Nintendo's by roughly 4 to 1 and the move did seemingly irreparable damage to Nintendo's reputation with gamers as the company continues to fight the perception that it just makes games for kids but the final tally of the first true console war between the Genesis and the SNES didn't seem to account for Nintendo's missteps those Sega never released data estimates tally the Genesis worldwide sales at about 29 million worldwide not quite 2/3 of the super Nintendos 49 point 1 million global sales when all is said and done the SNA simply had the better games Sega's ascendance forced Nintendo to allow multi-platform games from third parties but Mortal Kombat aside the super Nintendos superior Hardware meant that most of the time games looked sounded and played better Nintendo could also claim the support of one of Japan's top developers Squaresoft whose final fantasy series The Secret of Mana and Chrono Trigger were SNES exclusives and helped popularize the RPG genre in America and besides Super Mario World the SNES had an impressive roster of first party games that became industry legends familiar titles like The Legend of Zelda a Link to the Past and Super Metroid appeared not to mention launch title f-zero the super FX chip powered Star Fox and the genre spawning Super Mario Kart and that wasn't all the company's decision to buy a 49% stake in British developer rareware in 1994 proved to be nothing short of genius as was releasing one of Nintendo's oldest properties from its closely guarded vault that year rare and Nintendo released Donkey Kong Country a platformer that had more in common with Super Mario Brothers than the 1981 arcade classic but visually Donkey Kong Country was like nothing else on the market its developers that animated pre-rendered 3d graphics as 2d sprites the effect was a game that looked far more technologically advanced than it actually was Donkey Kong Country sold over 8 million copies worldwide becoming the second best-selling SNES game of all time Donkey Kong had come full circle having regained his rightful place as one of Nintendo's most recognizable and profitable characters and like Donkey Kong Nintendo was also regaining its position as top banana in the videogame industry its reputation for first-class products and its first-class ego had seemed well earned with the SNES success but Justices howdy prideful attitude with third parties had allowed Sega to swoop in Nintendo's tradition of arrogant business decisions would prove that what goes around comes around by the mid-1990s Nintendo had won the 16-bit console war against Sega but that victory came at a cost its reputation faltered when censored SNES ports of the ultraviolent and ultra popular Mortal Kombat more importantly Nintendo lost singular hold on third-party developers Sega wooed many a way to make games for their Genesis a seduction made easy by Nintendo's years of bullying developers into lopsided contracts Nintendo's bad behavior led to the first major threat to its industry dominance since Donkey Kong catapult the company to the top of the video game market and more of Nintendo's misdeeds would come back to haunt them as a former business partner would threaten all they had built Nintendo would soon learn since 1988 Nintendo had been working with electronics giant Sony on a console that would play cartridges and CDs a true multimedia game machine but when the joint venture began Nintendo was still the biggest fish in the relatively small video game pond as the partnership progressed it became clear that Nintendo didn't want to cede its complete control and wanted even less to split the profits despite the unhappy marriage work continued on the new device culminating in a presentation at the Consumer Electronics Show in June 1991 the presentation showed off what had been dubbed the Nintendo PlayStation on that day in June Sony's future in the market looked bright what a difference a day makes a day after the PlayStation presentation Nintendo announced it was breaking its contract with Sony opting to go with its rival Philips instead Philips had been working on its own CD based game machine the CDI since 1984 bringing it to market later in 1991 Philips would make the CD based add-on device for Nintendo's 16-bit consoles not Sony little did Nintendo know but it had created a monster sources say that Nintendo broke its contract with Sony because the two companies could never agree on how to divide the never-ending stream of cash the partnership would have made perhaps when the contract between the companies was signed in 1988 no one could predict how ubiquitous and important the CD based medium would truly become signing a deal giving Sony more control and profit over CD based manufacturing and sales with Nintendo keeping control only over cartridges may have seemed harmless at the time but by 1991 it was clear that CDs and their enormous storage capacity were the future of media given control of manufacturing and distribution of CDs to Sony would have made Sony the heavy hitter in the relationship Nintendo couldn't play second fiddle Sony fumed at the betrayal and threatened lawsuits but there were reasons to keep the attorneys at bay for instance Sony had supplied the Super Famicom with its sound chip eventually cooler heads prevailed but the years of work that had gone into the PlayStation would not be wasted company president nori Olga insisted that the company continued its foray into the video game market Sony had a competitor to crash meanwhile Nintendo's new partnership with Philips didn't quite pan out it's been speculated that Nintendo's about-face was an attempt to strong-arm Sony into a revised contract that would benefit Nintendo more and Philips it seemed wanted its CDI media format to be the universal standard for all game playing machines an idea that didn't jibe with Nintendo's preference toward proprietary formats worse Nintendo feared the ease of CD piracy another potential revenue loss Nintendo pulled out of that partnership - but not without paying a price as part of its agreement with philips nintendo licensed some of its trademark characters to appear in CDI games the result hotel mario linked the faces of evil zelda the wand of gamilon and Zelda's adventure are known as some of the worst games to feature these characters in fact they're regarded as some of the worst games to feature any characters needless to say the experience reinforced one valuable lesson for Nintendo keep control while Nintendo dithered between partners never releasing the CD plain expansion it had planned on since 1988 Sega had no such problems the mega CD expansion for the Mega Drive console was released in Japan in late 1991 with the Sega CD hitting North America the next year then in 1994 Sega released the 32x another add-on to expand the capabilities of the Genesis but neither of these peripherals did much for Sega the genesis hits come up short to the SNES as the underwhelming and underselling Sega CD proved the world wasn't ready for CD based gaming after all an American consumers knew that the Sega Saturn a true 32-bit console already a hit in Japan in 94 was set for a fall 1995 release so they largely ignored the 32x but when Sega made a surprise III announcement that the Saturn would launch in May customers retailers and developers scratched their heads most developers were preparing for a fall launch so there weren't that many games to buy meanwhile Sony took the opportunity to cut the September launching Playstations price to $300 leaving the $400 Saturn to languish on the store shelves Sega's four-month Head Start resulted in a mere 80,000 units sold while the much-hyped PlayStation sold over 100,000 units in its first weekend all the while Nintendo waited their own next-gen console the ultra 64 had been in development since 1993 but by 1995 it wasn't ready yet what was ready however was the Virtual Boy a 32-bit portable device that offered gamers full 3d visuals and also completely read visuals gunpei Yokoi had been developing the device with his team since 1991 throughout that time the Gameboy inventors struggled with the virtual boys design and was reluctant for it to go to market according to Jeff Ryan's book Super Mario how Nintendo conquered America yokoi wanted to wait until including full-color visuals was more affordable Nintendo's president Hiroshi Yamauchi however wanted a new product on the market while the ultra 64 matured the Virtual Boy launched in the summer of 1995 it was quietly discontinued less than a year later having only moved seven hundred and seventy thousand units worldwide the failure made you coy a pariah with the Nintendo yokoi helped develop the Gameboy pocket then retired from the company and began consulting however Nintendo would never benefit from McCoy's genius again in 1997 he was killed in a tragic car accident it's not clear whether Nintendo's troubles truly began with you quois departure or if your koi exit was merely a symptom of Nintendo's bigger problems but when Nintendo released its next-generation console now called the Nintendo 64 in 1996 it wasn't the dominating force its predecessors have been the n64 launched two very strong sales in four months in North America it sold 400,000 units far outstripping the Saturn's dismal performance it's $200 launch price was a full hundred dollars less than Sony's PlayStation but the n64 s affordability was diminished due to the high cost of its games a whopping $70 per cartridge fortunately one of the system's best loved and most successful launch titles Super Mario 64 was more than worth the price of admission Nintendo's resident genius Shigeru Miyamoto had done it again reinventing Mario in a way that was both brand new and comfortably familiar for the first time Mario existed in a deep fully three-dimensional world freed from the flatlands of 2d side-scrolling Miyamoto had packed 13 enormous levels full of exploration taking a page out of the Zelda playbook to complete the game players routed through every nook and cranny in an effort to find all the stars and coins that they could but Miyamoto's game was part of the reason the n64 was delayed a year originally he'd wanted to include 40 levels in the game in fact some of the elements he couldn't fit into Super Mario 64 appeared in the Legend of Zelda of the Ocarina of Time which was released two years later in 1998 both games were considered masterpieces as were many of the other first party games Nintendo published starfox 64 and Mario Kart 64 were enormous expansions of the original SNES titles while new franchises like Super Smash Brothers and Mario Party found popularity of their own and rare the studio behind the SNES smash Donkey Kong Country delivered another critical hit for the system in 1997 Goldeneye double-oh-seven which sold more than eight million copies and offered what seemed impossible a great first-person shooter on a console Goldeneye paved the way for the torrent of console first-person shooters that have followed and best of all goldmine was an n64 exclusive but amid Nintendo's successes there was a critical piece of the puzzle missing third parties the reason cartridges as game makers continued to up the ante with cinematic visuals and sound it was apparent that CDs were the best medium for the job they were inexpensive to manufacture and held tons of data while cartridges could load more quickly they held a fraction of the date of discs Sega and Sony understood the C's benefits while Nintendo only saw drawbacks none more frightening than piracy developers didn't share Nintendo's fears and started pulling their support in search of easier development and higher profits the Avalanche started with squaresoft which had previously enjoyed a lucrative partnership with Nintendo on the SNES console while the two companies had thrived together Square was expanding its scope and its next project Final Fantasy 7 was shaping up to be epic but such a large game would never fit on a cartridge the choice for square was clear in 1997 Final Fantasy 7 launched for the Sony Playstation the game was a monster hit selling over 10 million copies popularizing the RPG genre among American gamers and making plenty of money for Sony soon most third-party developers had flocked to the PlayStation leaving Nintendo fans to wait for more appearances from Mario and the rest of the gang Nintendo stubbornness had finally taken its toll when the smoke cleared the n64 was certainly a very popular console having sold 32.9 three million units worldwide by the end of its lifecycle it had easily trounced longtime rival Sega whose Saturn only ever sold 9.5 million units but neither could touch the PlayStation which sold over 102 million consoles worldwide becoming the first video game console to break the hundred million Marc Nintendo was no longer number one having been relegated to a distant second and with the release of their next console a distant second might have looked pretty good the 1990s concluded with Nintendo feeling triumphs and defeat its n64 console easily trounced the Sega Saturn system in sales and popularity but both systems had their clocks cleaned by the hundred million selling Sony Playstation a system that owed its existence to Nintendo having commissioned its creation and Sony's thirst for revenge after Nintendo's backhanded business dealings and while Nintendo's Super Mario 64 was hailed as nothing short of revolutionary third-party developers had left for Sony's greener pastures leaving the n64 with mostly first party hits as the new millennium approached Nintendo would struggle to reclaim its status at the top of the industry an industry that was getting pretty crowded soon a fourth participant in the console war would enter the fray leaving Nintendo feeling while the n64 wasn't a runaway hit Nintendo maintained a firm grip on the handheld market with the 8-bit Game Boy thanks in large part to another trademark first party franchise but it wasn't Mario Zelda or even Donkey Kong it was Pokemon and it was a worldwide phenomenon Pokemon was the brainchild of Satoshi Tajiri who had learned the ways of simple yet addictive game design from Nintendo's resident expert Shigeru Miyamoto released in 1995 in Japan Pokemon's premise was summed up in its catchphrase gotta catch them all players roamed the land searching for every single type of over a hundred different pokémon battling rival trainers or collectors along the way the kids of Japan took the slogan to heart and within two years pokemons sold ten point four million copies it spawned an anime series as well which made global headlines in 1997 when over 600 Japanese kids were admitted to hospitals after suffering seizures apparently induced by a Pokemon episode's flashing colors the bizarre incident was enough to keep Pokemon from reach in America in 1998 just as they had dominated in Japan the game and show found near instantaneous success in the United States and managed to sell almost 10 million copies even though Gameboy had been around for nearly a decade the console flourished with a whole new generation of kids in 1998 Nintendo finally released the Game Boy Color two years later Pokemon sequels transfixed kids again but by 2001 the Gameboy had begun to show its age Nintendo took the next step releasing a 16-bit upgrade the Game Boy Advance the first version of the console had survived for 12 years before it was replaced and even hung around for another two years before finally racking up almost 120 million units sold in the mean time competitors had come and gone The Game Gear Lynx turbo graphic Express Neo Geo pocket color and the wonderswan a band I made system that owed its creation to game boys own inventor the late gunpei Yokoi all fell before the game boys might if only Nintendo's other videogame ventures were so mighty meanwhile Sega's newest console the Dreamcast was released in November 1998 to a tepid response in Japan it's American launch in September of the following year on the other hand was a smash selling over half a million consoles in just two weeks Sega finally had another hit on its hands until of course Sony released its own next-gen console the PlayStation 2 in 2000 just as the first PlayStation wiped the floor with its competition Sony's ps2 erupted onto the scene moving nearly a million units in Japan in one day the Dreamcast's one year headstart didn't matter third parties pulled Dreamcast support flocking to the ps2 but by March 2001 Sega threw in the towel announcing their exit from the console business to focus exclusively on software in fact later that year too Sega games would be launch titles for Nintendo's newest console but if consumers mourn the loss of Sega in 2001 they didn't grieve long Nintendo's newest system the Gamecube would launch on November 18th and if that weren't enough another tech giant was barging into the video game market to take Sega's place Microsoft's Xbox was scheduled to launch a mere three days before the Gamecube the latest console war had begun Sony's PlayStation 2 was the clear front-runner considering its growing catalogue of hit games after a year on the market a built-in DVD player and its backwards compatibility with the original Playstations game library the new challenger Microsoft's Xbox had plenty to offer as well like its own DVD player an internal hard drive and an integrated Ethernet adapter for high-speed online gaming the gamecube came in purple or black and had a little handle so you could carry it in many ways this was an unfair fight Microsoft had the capital to brute-force its way into the console market a move Sony used a generation before with the PlayStation Sony and Microsoft both had enough money pouring in through their other divisions to offset the costs of entering the video game market cold even selling feature packed consoles at a loss was manageable for Nintendo's competitors Nintendo by contrast made only games how could it hope to compete against two big-spending tech giants with virtually unlimited wallets the GameCubes North American launch still managed to impress however priced a hundred dollars lower than the competition the Gamecube moved over a half a million units in its first week on shelves but Microsoft kept pace with Nintendo the Xbox sold out of its supply of 300,000 units after its first week when it came to playing actual games not DVDs the Gamecube was on a pretty level playing field with the PlayStation 2 and Xbox and having learned how toxic cartridges had become to developers Nintendo made the switch to disks while the Xbox and ps2 ran on full size 12 centimeters CDs and DVDs with capacity upwards of 8.5 gigabytes of data Nintendo commissioned Panasonic to create special proprietary mini DVD discs like the n64 cartridges the mini DVD format was company president Hiroshi Yamauchi solution for foiling would be game pirates the discs measured at 8 centimeters but only offered 1 point 5 gigabytes of data capacity for many game makers this was plenty of space but for developers pushing the generations technical limits the mini DVD presented problems bigger games require more than one disc to play and some cross-platform titles required video and audio to be more compressed or for some features to be emitted from the GameCube ports entirely while these technical limitations may not have been enough to doom the console the actual system's physical design seemed a clear signal to gamers the purple hue the lunchbox handle the bazaar controller with bean shaped buttons and the baby sized game disk signified that Nintendo wasn't making real games for real gamers Nintendo had reinforced its reputation as safe kid-friendly and extremely uncool of course the Gamecube still boasted some amazing titles that couldn't be found anywhere else at launch LucasArts and factor 5 offered up Star Wars rogue leader a space combat game set around the classic Star Wars trilogy that blew gamers away with fantastic visuals and top-notch action a few weeks after game cubes launch Nintendo released its latest Shigeru Miyamoto title a new real-time strategy franchise called Pikmin it quickly established itself as a Nintendo staple selling over a million copies a month after the consoles launched Nintendo released super smash brothers melee the sequel to its homegrown fighter that pitted its trademark characters in 4-way combat melee became the GameCubes best-selling title with over seven million copies and in 2002 Nintendo ported a late cycle Japanese n64 game Animal Crossing to the Gamecube a decision that won tons of critical praise and establishing yet another lucrative franchise for the company's family of consoles and in 2002 Nintendo released Metroid Prime a radical reworking of gunpei yokoi's side-scrolling franchise created by retro studios a second-party developer in Austin Texas Metroid Prime helped combat Nintendo's kids-only vibe by reinventing a series as a thrilling first-person shooter the new direction was a critical hit feeling at once familiar and utterly brand new prime is remembered as one of the best most highly praised games of the generation but there were glaring omissions from the GameCubes lineup for one where was Mario for the first time ever Nintendo's home console didn't have a game featuring Mario at launch what consumers got instead was luigi's mansion which ditched the running jumping and stomping in their place was a vacuum cleaner that sucked ghosts but despite praise from critics long-time nintendo fans thought that the vacuum wasn't all that sucked about Luigi's Mansion Mario did finally get his own game about a half a year later Super Mario Sunshine was released in summer 2002 and like Luigi's Mansion gave Mario a contraption that augmented the familiar mechanics fans have grown to love instead of a ghost sucking vacuum Mario had a water spraying hose with which he cleaned up graffiti on a tropical island once again critics praised Super Mario Sunshine but some wondered why Nintendo was gusting up there mascots with all the gimmicky gadgets other longtime Nintendo franchises got similarly reworked pushing hardcore gamers away in droves starfox adventures in 2002 was a third-person action game bringing Fox McCloud out of the stars and on to the ground though developed by Nintendo's hit maker rare starfox adventures didn't have nearly the impact of Donkey Kong Country and Goldeneye double-oh-seven even worse Microsoft shelled out a cool 375 million dollars to purchase rare outright a mere one day after starfox adventures North American release that wasn't all though when the new installment of Miyamoto's other long-running franchise was unveiled many fans considered it the final nail in the coffin in 2003 Nintendo released the Legend of Zelda The Wind Waker it was as good as Elda game as any if not the best one yet but visually winwaker once again reinforced claims that the gamecube was merely a toy link and the kingdom of hyrule were rendered in cel-shaded style a visual effect that made games look like interactive cartoons the revelation was made worse by the fact that in 2009 Tendo showed off a demo reel featuring a dark and gritty version of zelda windwaker was a hit among critics and fans who remain loyal to nintendo selling 4.6 million copies but if the company was trying to fight its families first image this didn't help in the end the GameCube wasn't a failure for Nintendo but it was the closest that company had come to defeat since entering the video game market two decades earlier the PlayStation 2 was the unquestionable king of the hill having sold 141 million units worldwide though the final tally for the Xbox and the Gamecube revealed that they finished neck-and-neck the Xbox still be the industry veteran selling 24 million to Nintendo's 22 million Nintendo had slipped from its second-place status to a dismal third some believe this was the end of Nintendo's console making days why not leave consoles to the big boys why not just make great games for other systems like Sega was doing the argument made a certain sense but on the other hand Nintendo's successes came by following its own path no the secret to reclaiming success wasn't as elusive as it seemed for its next console Nintendo would take its cues from the consumers it sought to reclaim if you don't like what you're playing there's one simple solution change the game all was not well in the house of mario nintendo 'he's latest home video game console the gamecube failed to find the same kind of dominance the company had joined in the 80s and early 90s while the company's name was once synonymous with video games Nintendo's missteps and inability to change with the times had left it with a battered reputation it was seen as out of touch and geared only towards Pokemon loving kids gamers who consider themselves serious or hardcore turned their noses up at Nintendo's offering and the result was a severely reduced market share their one-time rival Sega left the console business altogether to focus on software a business shift many critics thought Nintendo should follow but reinvention was a part of Nintendo's DNA though it may have had a tin ear when it came to listening to fans Nintendo always heard the beat of its own drummer loud and clear soon the company would outsell its competition and find its way back into the good graces and living rooms of gamers the world over Hiroshi Yamauchi had been the president of Nintendo since 1949 molding and shaping the company for more than half a century under Yamaguchi's leadership in Nintendo grew from a regionally successful playing card company into a global entertainment powerhouse but shortly after the GameCubes 2001 launch Yamaguchi knew it was time to step down his son-in-law Minoru Arakawa retired as president of Nintendo of America in 2002 though many thought our Cowell would succeed his father-in-law it seemed the former Nintendo of America president was happy to leave the industry altogether after 22 years these two men shaped Nintendo's two-decade transformation and whoever followed would have their work cut out for them by 2002 the Gamecube was running third in the latest console war beaten in worldwide sales by Sony's PlayStation 2 and Microsoft's first video game effort the Xbox for the vacancy to the top of Nintendo of America Yamaguchi appointed Tatsumi Kimi Shima the former head of the company's Pokemon division though Tatsumi would be supplanted by Reggie fils-aime a mere four years later for his own replacement Yamaguchi appointed Satoru Iwata the president of Nintendo second party developer Hal laboratories since acquiring a majority stake in the studio Nintendo enjoyed a healthy relationship with Hal which was responsible for some of Nintendo's biggest franchise successes Kirby earthbound and Super Smash Brothers all came from Hal laboratories and proved to be worthy additions to Nintendo's lineup in 2000 yea Malucci brought owatta over from Hal to become Nintendo's head of corporate planning unbeknownst to a wada Yamaguchi had hired him to see if he could be a worthy successor in 2002 after stepping down as president but staying on as chairman of Nintendo's board of directors demo who she kept a close watch on owada to see if he was right the one his first true test came in November 2004 the company was rolling out a new twist on an old favorite the handheld DS console standing for dual screen the DS took its design cues from a popular iteration of compiled quois old game and watch LCD toys which featured two screens packaged in a hinged clamshell design but instead of simply giving players a case of double vision the DSS bottom half was actually a touchscreen this opened the door for developers to create all new ways to interact with games an innovation devised by Yamaguchi before his exit the DES included a Wi-Fi adapter meaning that gamers could play online and even browse the web at Wi-Fi hotspots after years of flirting with online connectivity with the original Famicom the SNES is japan-only satellaview and the limited GameCube broadband adapter Nintendo finally went all-in the DSS solid core features and its new wave of casual minded games like Shigeru Miyamoto smash-hit Nintendogs helped make the DS a tremendous success among longtime gamers businessmen with time-to-kill and most significantly girls and women it proved to be a true successor to the Gameboy brands legacy despite competition from Sony's handheld 2005's PSP the DS has sold over 152 million units worldwide to date but dominating the handheld market was simply Nintendo maintaining the status quo after all the game boy managed to last for over 12 years with barely a threat to its place in gamers pockets the true battle for videogame supremacy was being waged at home in the fall of 2005 Microsoft launched its second console the Xbox 360 selling out initial shipments due to overwhelming consumer demand Sony which had gotten the years had start with the PlayStation 2 to dominating effect was planning to release the PlayStation 3 in November 2006 meanwhile Nintendo would be launching its own new console codenamed the revolution a few days after that history it seemed would be repeating itself and even worse as gamers and journalists learned more details about the console it's simple remote it's gimmicky motion controls and it's baffling new name though we'd the reaction wasn't revolution but confusion but as the weeds released a drew near excitement about Nintendo's new console began to grow among the gaming media the system promised a brand new way to play video games a claim Nintendo had already fulfilled once with the DS and its unique touch screen while Microsoft and Sony pushed the technological envelope in terms of audio-visual spectacle the we stripped the gaming experience down to basics every console generation to this point seemed to slap more buttons and analog sticks onto an increasingly convoluted controller the idea of actually playing a game was lost amid the complexity speaking of complex Sony's PlayStation 3 was suffering for the reasons its predecessor had excelled the system didn't just play games and DVDs it included an expensive built-in blu-ray player and online connectivity it's beefy hardware specs were powerful and impressive but resulted in sticker shock costing 499 dollars for the most basic model the we was puny by comparison but with an equally puny price of two hundred and forty nine dollars to match not to mention always-on Wi-Fi capability of its own the we also boasted backwards compatibility with the GameCubes library as well as a robust online store full of classic titles from its earlier systems not to mention plenty of games from the Sega Genesis and any C's turbo graphics 16 though its online gaming options weren't nearly as sophisticated as those found in the ps3 and the Xbox 360 that we offered enough bells and whistles for the casual gamers just looking to have fun by the time the Wii and the ps3 launched in November 2006 people had received Nintendo's message loud and clear the we've sold out immediately and became that year's hottest holiday gift four months after its release the Wii was difficult to find all around the world despite the company manufacturing 1.6 million units a month throughout 2007 by 2008 Nintendo began manufacturing 2.4 million units a month in an effort to keep up with how quickly the system was selling out worldwide Nintendo was simply unable to meet the overwhelming demand that had emerged for the console which was finding its place in living rooms and Senior rec centers all around the country the Wii was being touted by the media as a new way to stay active and healthy somewhat dubious claims Nintendo never promised but never dispelled either by September 2007 not even a year after its release the we overtook the Xbox 360 in worldwide sales boasting 9 million units sold to Microsoft's 8.9 million meanwhile the ps3 lived up to its name taking third place with 3.7 million units sold the we had quickly turned in tendo's fortunes around transforming what was once perceived as Nintendo's weakness an emphasis of a family fund into a strength anyone could pick up a Wii Remote and figure out how to play the concept was best illustrated in the Wiis pack in title Wii Sports which featured five different motion controlled sports inspired mini-games ranging from bowling to boxing to baseball to swing the bat all you had to do was swing the remote to return a serve in tennis just do your best Serena Williams impression these were video games people could understand intuitively no complicated instructions required Wii Sports was so successful that it broke the record for highest selling video game of all time I title previously held by Super Mario Brothers for 18 years to date we sports has sold nearly 80 million copies but while the Wii was undoubtedly a hit with a newly emerging class of casual gamer many hardcore gamers were placated with another launch title The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess finally Nintendo made good in its long unfulfilled promise of a more mature Zelda it also featured motion controls for attacks the innovative controls were a hit and Twilight Princess sold five point eight million copies by 2011 earning several Game of the Year awards was Nintendo just for kids and moms partly Mario took his time showing up on the week finally appearing in Super Mario Galaxy a year after the system's launch but it was worth the wait galaxy was an instant smash like Super Mario 64 had done before it galaxy brought a new and exciting gameplay mechanic to the franchise the action was set in space on small interconnected planets each with their own gravitational pulls and best of all there wasn't a water hose in sight Super Mario Galaxy sold over 10 million copies by March 2012 and earned several game of the Year awards in 2007 but as popular is that we had become with gamers and old folks alike developers weren't all quite as enamored as the system ensured it became clearer that only Nintendo fully understood the secret recipe that made the Wii so appealing many third-party games couldn't figure out how to successfully utilize the consoles motion controls other games didn't even bother and the Wii was plagued with endless shovelware and half-baked under power ports of other titles one developer working at EA famously announced at the Game Developers Conference in 2007 that the we was nothing more than quote 2 GameCubes stuck together with duct tape but no matter how upset developers might have been the numbers didn't lie by September 2012 the we had sold 97.1 8 million units while the ps3 and xbox360 were neck-and-neck with roughly 70 million units sold for each the system was a hit and Nintendo was back on top the we never could stand up to the horsepower of the xbox360 and ps3 but neither competitor could boast the Wiis intuitive and unique motion controls though they tried in 2010 both Sony and Microsoft launched their own takes on the Wiis motion based gaming the PlayStation Move and the Xbox Kinect once again Nintendo had transformed the industry and its rivals were scrambling to keep up Nintendo was king of the hill once more after five years of enjoying its reclaimed market dominance the company planned to wow the world again with its latest device a giant leap and handheld gaming technology over its wildly successful TS console what could go wrong in a word everything the Wii was a return to form for Nintendo rocketing the company's straight to the top of the video game market it easily outpaced the competition in sales racking up nearly 100 million in console sales over the course of 6 years it also featured some of the company's most exciting and innovative first party games yet but for every great Nintendo made Wii game there were at least 3 forgettable third-party titles the system was plagued with inferior ports low selling exclusives or straight-up shovelware Nintendo had captured the hearts and living rooms of families around the globe while the we left a bad taste in the mouths of so-called real video gamers so how could intend o keep the casual audience that had won with the Wii but recapture the hardcore gamers who felt buyer's remorse could the two factions come together once more even before a Nintendo success with the Wii console the company had dominated the handheld market for two decades the Gameboy was the champion of mobile gaming for over 10 years while the Gameboy Advance and DS systems kept Nintendo's hot streak alive so when its next handheld gaming system was unveiled at e3 in 2010 it seemed like a surefire winner the 3ds was exactly what it sounded like a more powerful version of the DS console with 3d visuals without the use of annoying glasses a year before in 2009 James Cameron's big-budget spectacle avatar had ushered in a frenzy of interest in 3d movies and television electronics manufacturers cranked out 3d capable TVs while blockbuster movies were converted for 3d screenings the 3d s's promise of glasses-free 3d visuals seemed like the perfect gadget at the perfect time when the system launched in the spring of 2011 it seemed as though Nintendo had done it again the 3ds sold out of its initial shipment of 400,000 during its release in Japan Nintendo of America announced that the 3ds US launch had set a record for the highest first day sales of any of the company's previous devices but soon after interest in the 3ds slowed to a crawl Nintendo had hoped to ship at least four million consoles by the end of March but fell short with only three point 6 1 million by June sales in Japan finally crossed the 1 million mark a shocking reversal of fortune considering the DS had managed the feat in a mere four weeks only a few months after its launch developers were announcing delays for their 3ds games citing slow system sales what have gone wrong to start Nintendo overestimated the public's hunger for a 3d enabled gaming system the 3ds has high launch price of 250 dollars didn't help either and despite the promises of three-dimensional Rob's through familiar Nintendo titles there are only three first party launch games Pilotwings resort steel diver and in ten dogs and cats but above all there was one unseen factor that stalled the 3d s's sales the iphone Apple's take on smartphones revolutionized the mobile technology industry sure in the mid-2000s everyone had a cell phone but they also had separate mp3 players GPS navigators cameras and gaming machines when the iPhone hit in 2007 it sent shockwaves through the tech world condensing all those devices and more into one sleek fashionable guy smartphones weren't for businessman anymore they were for everyone an Apple secret weapon the App Store full of colorful addictive games ranging in price from $3 to $1 to flat-out free pudding in Mario when he play Angry Birds on the bus while the 3d s was a huge leap forward for Nintendo's handhelds it's $40 games and inability to make phone calls made it seem like a throwback with the 3ds stalling out only months after its launch suddenly Nintendo's success with the Wii appeared less like a return to form and more like a temporary fluke once again critics analysts and even Nintendo's investors pressured Nintendo to leave the hardware game and bring Mario and Pokemon to mobile phones once again Nintendo in its own way but not before taking some drastic steps in July 2011 Nintendo announced a dramatic 3d s price cut dropping over 30 percent from 250 dollars to 170 dollars after only 5 months on the market even worse the slow sales forced Nintendo to cut that year's profit projections by over 80 percent the announcement caused Nintendo's stock price to tumble 12 percent on July 29th former Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi the company's largest stockholder lost over 300 million dollars in one day nothing like this had ever happened during his half-century as president his successor Satoru Iwata took full responsibility for the dire turn of events giving himself a 50% pay cut to many this looked like the end amazingly though it wasn't when it was first announced the price cut looked like a desperate move to temporarily delayed Nintendo's imminent collapse but sales of the 3ds actually did begin to climb soon first party games like Mario Kart 7 Super Mario 3d Land and Kid Icarus Uprising started to appear delayed third party games made their way to stores as 3ds ownership grew across the world by September 2012 the 3d esses sales had reached 22 point one nine million keeping close pace with the sales of its predecessor for the same period of time it turned out that people were perfectly happy with Mario staying off the iPhone as long as the price was right meanwhile Sony followed up its PSP in early 2012 with the PlayStation Vita like the 3d assets first few months on the market were rough but unlike the 3ds its $250 plus price tag remained the same spending the majority of its first year struggling to find its audience even still the damage to Nintendo was done it ended its fiscal year 2011 with its first ever full-year loss while it would be easy to blame the three es a slow start and the money lost in its price cut the reality wasn't so simple external factors like Japan's back-to-back natural disasters and an unusually strong yen to dollar amplified Nintendo's financial woes but the point had been made Nintendo could still sell a handheld system even in the face of Apple's unstoppable iPhone so could it sell a home console to casual fans and hardcore gamers at the same time to find out a Nintendo devise to follow up to its mega popular Wii console called the Wii U first unveiled during e3 2011 the Wii U finally brought high-definition visuals to Nintendo's games and it utilized one of the company's more successful innovations the dual screen and touch control dynamics from the DS handheld the Wii U also took advantage of predecessors huge install base including backwards compatibility with not only Wii games but also we remotes but that wasn't all the gamepad featured traditional button layouts two analog sticks built-in accelerometers a microphone a front-facing camera speakers it seemed like the new device promised to do everything but your taxes the HD visuals represented Nintendo embracing the future the Wii compatibility represented Nintendo's commitment to casual gamers and families but the gamepad that was a mystery the Wii U's announcement wasn't embraced with the enthusiasm the Nintendo needed journalists were mystified by what they saw a result of the consoles physical similarities to the original Wii the new name didn't help was the Wii U just an add-on for the we did the gamepad connect with the old system what kind of leap forward was a touch screen controller anyway investors were similarly nonplussed Nintendo's stock tip nearly 10% two days after the we use III debut while the company's fortunes improved over the next few months with the 3ds price cut the Wii U remained a question mark in the year leading up to the consoles late 2012 release but as journalists had a chance to try out the new system many started singing its praises the Wii U's potential to transform video games new dynamics between players immersive interactive mechanics started to seem less like promises and more like reality the opinion among developers remain divided however some derided the new system in its current gen visual and processing specs other developers though were fully on board Ubisoft was releasing Wii U exclusive titles like zombiu & Rayman legends that seemed to take full advantage of the gamepad and gearbox software's Randy Pitchford said quote this is the best controller Nintendo's ever made for making an FPS this is the best controller Nintendo has ever given us for playing hardcore games the Wii U was released in North America on November 18 2012 selling out of its initial shipment of 400,000 units in its first week on the shelves by all accounts the Wii U would be another hit but then the original Wii and 3ds both enjoyed red-hot launches with deeply divergent results it's not yet clear what the future holds for the Wii U with its price starting at $300 Nintendo was selling the console at a loss another first for the company though Nintendo of America president Reggie fils-aime claimed that the sale of a console and one game made the device profitable by the end of 2012 Nintendo's future seemed unclear the 3ds was at the top of the handheld market and for the first time since the launch of the original Nintendo Entertainment System the company was first to market with a next-generation console will the Wii U be another Dreamcast destined to enjoy a brief victory before getting crushed under the competition or has Nintendo once again changed the game industry into something new and unpredictable looking at Nintendo's competition did offer up some clues about its impact on the industry in 2012 Microsoft introduced smart glass an app designed to integrate gamers smartphones and tablets with the aging Xbox 360 hardware similarly Sony began talking up the cross-platform functionality between the Vita and the ps3 like the we having inspired the Kinect and PS move it seemed as though Nintendo's Wii U encouraged its rivals to imitate its innovations once again no matter what happens with the Wii U Nintendo has had a greater influence on the video games industry than any other company before or since it entered the industry in terms of business Nintendo's first home console created a business model the industry has embraced and internalized and though it didn't invent the video game medium Nintendo perfected it and the games it creates blazed trails of innovation and creativity that have never been matched the proof is in the record books Super Mario Brothers held the record for the highest selling video game of all time for a staggering 18 years and when the record did finally fall it was due to what else another Nintendo game Wii Sports from its humble beginnings as a playing card manufacturer in Kyoto over a hundred years ago - its status today as a worldwide symbol of games and fun Nintendo will undoubtedly find a way to live on for generations to come Super Mario linked Pokemon and the rest aren't merely mascots for a video game company they're modern icons that represent new realms of excitement to explore for over 30 years in the video game market Nintendo has left luck to heaven and will likely never stop making plenty of luck on its own

Channel: GoldenGladiatorGaming

Views: 2,802,136

Rating: 4.7738562 out of 5

Keywords: Nintendo (Video Game Developer), History Of Nintendo (Business Operation), Video Game Culture, Video Game (Industry)

Id: H2CGmCcERrE

Length: 76min 39sec (4599 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 26 2015

Reddit Comments

[u/milvardea]

Nintendo and the Ottoman Empire existed at the same time. Crazy.

[u/nevercomindown]

Powerhouse? Don't get me wrong, I love nintendo, but the only powerhouse they're showing right now is the giant artificial shortage they've made for both the NES Classic and the Switch.

[u/ThatSentenceSucks]

Gaming powerhouse it was, in the 80's and 90's.