Nintendo of America

Lore & Background

The history of Nintendo began when craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi founded the company in 1889 to produce handmade hanafuda playing cards. After venturing into various lines of business and becoming a public company, Nintendo began producing toys in the 1960s, and later video games. Nintendo developed its first arcade games in the 1970s, with its first arcade game being EVR Race (1975) and its first major arcade hit being Radar Scope (1980). The company became internationally dominant in the 1980s after the arcade release of Donkey Kong (1981) and the Nintendo Entertainment System, which launched outside of Japan in 1985; Super Mario Bros. was not a launch title but was released later that year (October in North America). Since then, Nintendo has produced some of the most successful consoles in the video game industry, including the Game Boy (1989), the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (1991), the Game Boy Advance (2001), the Nintendo DS (2004), the Wii (2006), and the Nintendo Switch (2017). It has created or published numerous major franchises, including Mario, Donkey Kong, The Legend of Zelda, Pokémon, Super Smash Bros., Animal Crossing, Splatoon, Metroid, Kirby, and Star Fox. The company's mascot, Mario, is among the most famous fictional characters.

In Their Own Story

The fluorescent lights hummed softly in the conference room as the team reviewed the latest localization notes for a new adventure. Maps were spread across the table, highlighting changes made to ensure the hero's journey felt authentic to players thousands of miles away. It was more than translation; it was about preserving the magic while making it accessible, a delicate balance that defined their mission. Somewhere in that room, a translator was fighting to keep a squirrel’s foul-mouthed rant intact—because sometimes, preserving the magic means not sanitizing the chaos.

Reader's Guide

Nintendo's game consoles have sold over 860 million units worldwide as of May 2025, for which more than 5.9 billion individual games have been sold. The company has numerous subsidiaries in Japan and worldwide, in addition to second-party developers including HAL Laboratory, Intelligent Systems, and Game Freak. It is one of the wealthiest and most valuable companies in the Japanese market.

Did You Know?

• Nintendo was founded in 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi to produce handmade hanafuda playing cards.
• The company's first arcade game was EVR Race (1975), and its first major arcade hit was Radar Scope (1980).
• Nintendo's mascot Mario is among the most famous fictional characters.