Nintendo is a well-known company that pretty much salvaged much of the gaming industry and made it relevant back in the 80s and up until the 90s. While the company is now playing catch-up in terms of technological advancements with Microsoft and Sony, Nintendo can more than hold its own against both gaming giants.
This is the universe of Nintendo, a trailblazer in the gaming industry. Nintendo’s compelling history is an incredible blend of risks, resilience, and creativity. From its humble beginnings in the 1880s as a playing card company to its status as a global gaming giant, Nintendo’s journey is packed with fascinating turns. The company’s knack for inventing and reinventing gaming experiences has cemented its place in the hearts of millions of gamers around the world.
With the recent death of their CEO, Satoru Iwata, it’s time to dig out a few skeletons out of the closet and present a few interesting facts about Nintendo; the Japanese Gaming Giant!
10 – You Have Nintendo To Thank For Sony’s Playstation
Back in the 1980, the Sony and Nintendo collaborated to develop an add-on device for the SNES that made the use of compact disks for video games possible. But, when negotiations fell through, Sony went on to develop the technology on their own and released the Playstation in the early 1990s. In hindsight, Nintendo could definitely have handled this whole thing better.
09 – Nintendo Is Filthy Rich
Many leading companies are rich, but Nintendo is in a league of its own. While many companies can’t afford to suffer from one yearly financial loss to another, Nintendo can afford a yearly loss of a quarter billion dollars until about 2052 before they go bankrupt.
08 – Nintendo Owes A Factory Worker For The Game Boy (Among Other Things)
Gunpei Yokoi may be a known commodity among gamers today, but back in the 1960s, Yokoi was a relatively unknown. In fact, he was only a factory worker where then-president, Hiroshi Yamauchi, noticed a toy he made during his spare time for his own amusement. He’d later on become the creative mind behind the Game & Watch handheld systems, the D-pad or cross pad used in many video game controllers today and most notably, the Nintendo Gameboy.
07 – Nintendo Ripped Mario Off of Popeye
Back during the earlier years of gaming, Nintendo was asked to produce an arcade game based on Popeye. But, they’d lose the license and to recover from this, game designer Shigeru Miyamoto borrowed ideas off of Popeye to create the original Donkey Kong game. Apparently, Pluto was the Ape or Donkey Kong, Olive was Princess Peach and Popeye, or at least his courage, became Mario.
06 – Nintendo Intentionally Made Their Games Hard To Beat
Because of the limitations of the consoles and the technology back in the 1980s and 1990s, most games couldn’t be as long as many developers would like. To compensate for this lack of actual length, they’d make the games much harder to beat. This way, gamers would spend a lot more time playing the game, making it look like that the game was actually longer than it seemed.
05 – Nintendo Owns Two Of The Best-Selling Franchises Ever
Nintendo is already rich enough as it is, with the company pumping out one successful console and game after another. But, it seems that much of its wealth is probably because of two franchises – The Mario Franchise and the Pokemon Franchise. Both franchises combined are worth almost as much as the other 8 of the 10 most profitable franchises ever.
04 – Nintendo as a Playing Card Company
Initially, Nintendo was a company that manufactured and sold playing cards back in 1889, a product that they still sell today. It was only in 1978, almost a century later the company was founded, that they actually made their first video game.
03 – Nintendo Actually Owns Rights Two P*rn Films About Mario
Ron Jeremy, a p*rn star, once said that Nintendo bought rights of two adult film parodies of Super Mario named “Super Hornio Brothers” and “Super Hornio Brothers II”. This was so as to prevent the two films from ever seeing the light of the screen. There exists, though, “Brassiere’s Castle”, so you may want to look that up if you’re really jonesing for some Mario p*rn.
02 – Nintendo Owns Bragging Rights To The First Video Game Console To Be Played in Space
The Nintendo Game Boy holds the distinction for being the first ever video game console to ever be played outside of Earth. Aleksandr Serebrov took the video game console with him on one of his space trips and played Tetris whenever he got bored.
01 – Nintendo Means To Throw a Hail Mary
Well, not exactly, but the word Nintendo translates to “Leave luck to Heaven” in Japanese. And, judging by the company’s fortune, it seems that heaven is smiling down on Nintendo.
The Console Conundrum: Sony vs. Nintendo
There’s an intriguing tale that revolves around Nintendo and another tech giant – Sony. This story starts in the early 1990s, when both companies initially sought to join forces to produce a CD-ROM attachment for the Super Nintendo.
This cooperative venture held much promise. Nintendo was ruling the console market with its cartridge-based system, while Sony, a household name in electronics, was making strides in the realm of CD technology. The pairing seemed perfect, a combination of strength and innovation.
However, Nintendo grew wary. They were concerned about Sony’s contract terms, which essentially would have given Sony control over any games produced on the CD-ROM format. Fearing a potential monopoly, Nintendo took a drastic step that would shake the gaming world.
Without prior warning to Sony, Nintendo announced at the Consumer Electronics Show in 1991 that they had instead chosen to partner with Philips, Sony’s competitor in the CD-ROM market. This sudden betrayal left Sony humiliated and furious. However, this event ignited a spark that would lead to the creation of Sony’s PlayStation, a console that would redefine the gaming industry.
Ironically, Nintendo’s decision to sever ties with Sony led to the emergence of a fierce competitor. Sony leveraged its expertise in technology and entertainment, along with the lessons learned from its aborted venture with Nintendo, to launch the PlayStation. Today, the PlayStation series stands as one of the most successful gaming consoles, competing head-to-head with Nintendo’s own systems.
This tale serves as a striking reminder of how corporate decisions can sometimes have unexpected consequences, shaping the course of an industry.