120-647: Nintendo Entertainment Analysis & Development Division , commonly abbreviated as Nintendo EAD and formerly known as Nintendo Research & Development No.4 Department (abbreviated as Nintendo R&D4 ), was the largest software development division within the Japanese video game company Nintendo . It was preceded by the Creative Department , a team of designers with backgrounds in art responsible for many different tasks, to which Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka originally belonged. Both served as managers of
240-541: A ROM cartridge format for video games as well as both a central processing unit and a picture processing unit . The Family Computer , or Famicom, was released in Japan in July 1983 along with three games adapted from their original arcade versions: Donkey Kong , Donkey Kong Jr. and Popeye . Its success was such that in 1984, it surpassed the market share held by Sega 's SG-1000 . That success also led to Nintendo leaving
360-430: A niche market , the slow and expensive manufacturing process, high product price, alongside long durability of the cards, which impacted sales due to the low replacement rate. As a solution, Nintendo produced a cheaper and lower-quality line of playing cards, Tengu , while also conducting product offerings in other cities such as Osaka , where card game profits were high. In addition, local merchants were interested in
480-545: A 28% stake in PUX Corporation, a subsidiary of Panasonic , to develop facial , voice , and text recognition for its video games. Due to a 30% decrease in company income between April and December 2013, Iwata announced a temporary 50% cut to his salary, with other executives seeing reductions by 20%–30%. In January 2015, Nintendo ceased operations in the Brazilian market due in part to high import duties . This did not affect
600-480: A 75% increase in income compared to the previous fiscal year, mainly contributed by the Nintendo Switch Online service. The year saw some changes to the company's management: outside director Naoki Mizutani retired from the board, and was replaced by Asa Shinkawa; and Yoshiaki Koizumi was promoted to senior executive officer, maintaining its role as deputy general manager of Nintendo EPD. By August, Nintendo
720-552: A Nintendo EAD studio in Tokyo , appointing Takao Shimizu as manager of the branch. The studio was created with the goal of bringing in fresh new talent from the capital of Japan who wouldn't be willing or able to travel to Kyoto. Their first project was Donkey Kong Jungle Beat for the GameCube which made use of the DK Bongos, initially created for Donkey Konga . On September 30, 2003, as
840-703: A Tokyo branch in Chiyoda, Tokyo , and sold more than 1.5 million card packs, holding a high market share , for which it relied on televised advertising campaigns. In 1962, Nintendo became a public company by listing stock on the second section of the Osaka Securities Exchange and the Kyoto Stock Exchange. In the following year, the company adopted its current name, Nintendo & Co., Ltd. and started manufacturing games in addition to playing cards. In 1964, Nintendo earned ¥150 million . Although
960-615: A director. The phenomenal sales of Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda fueled the expansion of the department with young game designers such as Hideki Konno , Katsuya Eguchi , Kensuke Tanabe , Takao Shimizu, who would later become producers themselves. In 1989, one year before the Super Famicom was released in Japan, the R&;D4 department was spun-off and made its own division named Nintendo Entertainment Analysis & Development (commonly abbreviated as Nintendo EAD ). The division
1080-519: A financial crisis for the company. To try to find a more successful game, they put Miyamoto in charge of their next arcade game design, leading to the release of Donkey Kong in 1981, one of the first platform video games that allowed the player character to jump. The character Jumpman would later become Mario and Nintendo's official mascot . Mario was named after Mario Segale , the landlord of Nintendo's offices in Tukwila, Washington . Donkey Kong
1200-609: A homage to Nintendo's previous name - Marufuku. In April 2020, Reuters reported that ValueAct Capital had acquired over 2.6 million shares in Nintendo stock worth US$ 1.1 billion over the course of a year, giving them an overall stake of 2% in Nintendo. Although the COVID-19 pandemic caused delays in the production and distribution of some of Nintendo's products, the situation "had limited impact on business results"; in May 2020, Nintendo reported
1320-499: A hybrid design as a home and handheld console, Joy-Con controllers that each contain an accelerometer and gyroscope, and the simultaneous wireless networking of up to eight consoles. To expand its library, Nintendo entered alliances with several third-party and independent developers; by February 2019, more than 1,800 Switch games had been released. Worldwide sales of the Switch exceeded 55 million units by March 2020. In April 2018,
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#17330858921671440-562: A long-time employee of the company. Yokoi was moved to the newly created department and was responsible for coordinating various projects. Yokoi's experience in manufacturing electronic devices led Yamauchi to put him in charge of the company's games department, and his products would be mass-produced. During this period, Nintendo built a new production plant in Uji , just outside of Kyoto, and distributed classic tabletop games such as chess , shogi , go , and mahjong , and other foreign games under
1560-827: A million units were sold. Nintendo partnered with Magnavox to provide a light gun controller based on the Beam Gun design for the company's new home video game console, the Magnavox Odyssey , in 1971. Other popular toys released at the time included the Ultra Hand , the Ultra Machine , the Ultra Scope, and the Love Tester , all designed by Yokoi. More than 1.2 million units of Ultra Hand were sold in Japan. The growing demand for Nintendo's products led Yamauchi to further expand
1680-456: A new department focused on arcade game development was created. In 1980, one of the first handheld video game systems , the Game & Watch , was created by Yokoi from the technology used in portable calculators. It became one of Nintendo's most successful products, with over 43.4 million units sold worldwide during its production period, and for which 59 games were made in total. Nintendo entered
1800-416: A partnership with The Walt Disney Company to incorporate its characters into playing cards, which opened it up to the children's market and resulted in a boost to Nintendo's playing card business. Nintendo automated the production of Japanese playing cards using backing paper, and also developed a distribution system that allowed it to offer its products in toy stores. By 1961, the company had established
1920-464: A producer, there were a series of promotions in the division: starting with long-time Miyamoto colleague Takashi Tezuka , as deputy general manager, as well as promoting several senior directors like Eiji Aonuma , Hideki Konno , Takao Shimizu, Tadashi Sugiyama and Katsuya Eguchi to producers overseeing their own development teams in the division. Nevertheless, after the promotion, Miyamoto still went on to produce some games. In 2002, Nintendo opened
2040-665: A public company, Nintendo distributed its first console, the Color TV-Game , in 1977. It gained international recognition with the release of Donkey Kong in 1981 and the Nintendo Entertainment System and Super Mario Bros. in 1985. Since then, Nintendo has produced some of the most successful consoles in the video game industry , such as the Game Boy , the Super Nintendo Entertainment System ,
2160-463: A result of a corporate restructure Nintendo was undergoing, in which several members of the Nintendo R&;D1 and R&D2 were reassigned under Nintendo EAD, the department was consolidated into a division and began welcoming a new class of managers and producers. Hideki Konno, Katsuya Eguchi, Eiji Aonuma, Hiroyuki Kimura, and Tadashi Sugiyama were appointed project managers of their own groups within
2280-467: A strategic alliance to develop the Nintendo 64 . NEC , Toshiba , and Sharp also contributed technology to the console. The Nintendo 64 was marketed as one of the first consoles to be designed with 64-bit architecture. As part of an agreement with Midway Games , the arcade games Killer Instinct and Cruis'n USA were ported to the console. Although the Nintendo 64 was planned for release in 1995,
2400-553: A three-dimensional environment with the aid of a sensor bar; the Nunchuk peripheral that includes an analog controller and an accelerometer; and the Wii MotionPlus expansion that increases the sensitivity of the main controller with the aid of gyroscopes . By 2016, more than 101 million Wii consoles had been sold worldwide, making it the most successful console of its generation, a distinction that Nintendo had not achieved since
2520-516: Is a motocross racing video game developed and published by Nintendo . In Japan, it was released for the Famicom in 1984 and then ported to arcades as VS. Excitebike for the Nintendo VS. System later that year. In North America, it was initially released for arcades in 1985 and then as a launch game for the Nintendo Entertainment System later that year, becoming one of the best-selling games on
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#17330858921672640-449: Is a Japanese multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto . It develops, publishes and releases both video games and video game consoles . Nintendo was founded in 1889 as Nintendo Koppai by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produced handmade hanafuda playing cards. After venturing into various lines of business during the 1960s and acquiring legal status as
2760-411: Is commonly assumed to mean "leave luck to heaven", but the assumption lacks historical validation; it has also been suggested to mean "the temple of free hanafuda ", but even descendants of Yamauchi do not know the true intended meaning of the name. Hanafuda cards had become popular after Japan banned most forms of gambling in 1882, though tolerated hanafuda. Sales of hanafuda cards were popular with
2880-552: Is for the Japan-only Satellaview peripheral for Super Famicom . As a remake of Excitebike , the human racers have been replaced by Mario , Luigi , Princess Peach , Wario , Toad , and some of Bowser 's Koopa Troopas . The concept was unchanged except for a "SUPER" mode where the player has unlimited turbo, and coins spread across the courses to increase top speed. Excitebike can be unlocked in Excitebike 64 , which
3000-493: Is one of the wealthiest and most valuable companies in the Japanese market. Nintendo was founded as Nintendo Koppai on 23 September 1889 by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi in Shimogyō-ku, Kyoto , Japan, as an unincorporated establishment, to produce and distribute Japanese playing cards , or karuta ( かるた , from Portuguese carta , 'card') , most notably hanafuda ( 花札 , 'flower cards') . The name "Nintendo"
3120-523: Is the Nintendo Entertainment System , or NES, which was released in North America in 1985. The landmark games Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda were produced by Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka . Composer Koji Kondo reinforced the idea that musical themes could act as a complement to game mechanics rather than simply a miscellaneous element. Production of the NES lasted until 1995, and production of
3240-692: The Nintendogs and Mario Kart series; Katsuya Eguchi , producer of the Wii and Animal Crossing series; Eiji Aonuma , producer of The Legend of Zelda series; Hiroyuki Kimura , producer Big Brain Academy , Super Mario Bros. , and Pikmin series; and Tadashi Sugiyama , producer of the Wii Fit , Steel Diver and Star Fox series. The department was managed by veteran Nintendo game designer Katsuya Eguchi . As such, Hisashi Nogami later succeeded him as
3360-661: The 128-bit Gekko processor and the DVD drive to be used in Nintendo's next home console. Meanwhile, a series of administrative changes occurred in 2000 when Nintendo's corporate offices were moved to the Minami-ku neighborhood in Kyoto, and Nintendo Benelux was established to manage the Dutch and Belgian territories. In 2001, two new Nintendo consoles were introduced: the Game Boy Advance , which
3480-704: The 1973 oil crisis caused both a spike in the cost of plastics and a change in consumer priorities that put essential products over pastimes, and Nintendo lost several billion yen. In 1974, Nintendo released Wild Gunman , a skeet shooting arcade simulation consisting of a 16 mm image projector with a sensor that detects a beam from the player's light gun . Both the Laser Clay Shooting System and Wild Gunman were successfully exported to Europe and North America. However, Nintendo's production speeds were still slow compared to rival companies such as Bandai and Tomy , and their prices were high, which led to
3600-578: The CD-i , and Sony's independent efforts resulted in the creation of the PlayStation console . The first issue of Nintendo Power magazine, which had an annual circulation of 1.5 million copies in the United States, was published in 1988. In July 1989, Nintendo held the first Nintendo Space World trade show with the name Shoshinkai to announce and demonstrate upcoming Nintendo products. That year,
3720-556: The Family Computer home console (abbreviated to Famicom, known as the Nintendo Entertainment System in North America, Europe, and Australia). Hiroshi Ikeda's creative team had many video game design ideas but was lacking the necessary programming power to make it all happen. Toshihiko Nakago, and his small company Systems Research & Development (SRD), had its expertise in computer-aided design (CAD) tools and
Nintendo Entertainment Analysis & Development - Misplaced Pages Continue
3840-637: The Game Boy Advance SP , an improved version of the Game Boy Advance with a foldable case, an illuminated display, and a rechargeable battery. By the end of its production cycle in 2010, over 43.5 million units had been sold worldwide. Nintendo also released the Game Boy Player , a peripheral that allows Game Boy and Game Boy Advance games to be played on the GameCube. In 2004, Nintendo released
3960-515: The Game Boy Color was released. In addition to backward compatibility with Game Boy games, the console's similar capacity to the NES resulted in select adaptations of games from that library, such as Super Mario Bros. Deluxe . Since then, over 118.6 million Game Boy and Game Boy Color consoles have been sold worldwide. In May 1999, with the advent of the PlayStation 2 , Nintendo entered an agreement with IBM and Panasonic to develop
4080-491: The Nintendo 2DS , a version of the 3DS that lacks the clamshell design of Nintendo's previous handheld consoles and the stereoscopic effects of the 3DS. With 13.5 million units sold worldwide, the Wii U is the least successful video game console in Nintendo's history. In 2014, a new product line was released consisting of figures of Nintendo characters called amiibos . On 25 September 2013, Nintendo announced its acquisition of
4200-1147: The Nintendo DS , the Wii , and the Nintendo Switch . It has created or published numerous major franchises, including Mario , Donkey Kong , The Legend of Zelda , Metroid , Fire Emblem , Kirby , Star Fox , Pokémon , Super Smash Bros. , Animal Crossing , Pikmin , Xenoblade Chronicles , and Splatoon , and Nintendo's mascot, Mario , is internationally recognized, as well as other characters like Donkey Kong , Link , Samus Aran , Kirby , and Pikachu . The company has sold more than 5.592 billion video games and over 836 million hardware units globally, as of March 2023. Nintendo has multiple subsidiaries in Japan and abroad, in addition to business partners such as HAL Laboratory , Intelligent Systems , Game Freak , and The Pokémon Company . Nintendo and its staff have received awards including Emmy Awards for Technology & Engineering , Game Awards , Game Developers Choice Awards , and British Academy Games Awards . It
4320-570: The Nintendo DS , which featured such innovations as dual screens – one of which is a touchscreen – and wireless connectivity for multiplayer play. Throughout its lifetime, more than 154 million units were sold, making it the most successful handheld console and the second bestselling console in history. In 2005, Nintendo released the Game Boy Micro , the last system in the Game Boy line . Sales did not meet Nintendo's expectations, with 2.5 million units being sold by 2007. In mid-2005,
4440-469: The Nintendo Entertainment System and Super NES to be released for the 3DS on a tech demo called Classic Games at E3 2010 . It allows the player to save up to 32 custom created tracks that can be played in either 2D or 3D. Excitebike is one of the 30 games available on the NES Classic Edition , released by Nintendo on November 11, 2016. Excitebike was released on the Nintendo Switch in
4560-645: The Nintendo Labo line was released, consisting of cardboard accessories that interact with the Switch and the Joy-Con controllers. More than one million units of the Nintendo Labo Variety Kit were sold in its first year on the market. In 2018, Shuntaro Furukawa replaced Kimishima as company president, and in 2019, Doug Bowser succeeded Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aimé . In April 2019, Nintendo formed an alliance with Tencent to distribute
4680-643: The Nintendo World Store was inaugurated in New York City. Nintendo's next home console was conceived in 2001, although development commenced in 2003, taking inspiration from the Nintendo DS. Nintendo also considered the relative failure of the GameCube and instead opted to take a " Blue Ocean Strategy " by developing a reduced performance console in contrast to the high-performance consoles of Sony and Microsoft to avoid directly competing with them. The Wii
4800-826: The Nintendo eShop in September 2018, by Hamster Corporation as part of the Arcade Archives series. In Japan, Game Machine listed VS. Excitebike on its January 15, 1985, issue as the fifth most-successful table arcade unit of the month. In North America, the game was number 13 on the RePlay arcade software charts in December 1985. It ended the year as America's second highest-grossing arcade system game of 1985, below Nintendo's Hogan's Alley . The game has received generally positive reviews. Allgame gave Excitebike its highest possible rating of five stars. The review referred to
4920-609: The Sharp Corporation . In 1988, Gunpei Yokoi and his team at Nintendo R&D1 conceived the Game Boy , the first handheld video game console made by Nintendo. Nintendo released the Game Boy in 1989. In North America, the Game Boy was bundled with the popular third-party game Tetris after a difficult negotiation process with Elektronorgtechnica . The Game Boy was a significant success. In its first two weeks of sale in Japan, its initial inventory of 300,000 units sold out, and in
Nintendo Entertainment Analysis & Development - Misplaced Pages Continue
5040-735: The Super FX chip technology for the SNES, first used in Star Fox in 1993. This venture allowed the Technology Development Department to become more prominent in the 3D era, where they programmed several of Nintendo EAD's 3D games with SRD. F-Zero , released in 1990, was the first video game fully programmed at the division. Prior to that, most programming was outsourced to SRD Co. Ltd. In 1997, Miyamoto explained that about twenty to thirty employees were devoted to each Nintendo EAD title during
5160-587: The Taishō era dated to 1915 indicates that the business was named Yamauchi Nintendo but still used the Marufuku Nintendo Co. brand for its playing cards. Japanese culture stipulated that for Nintendo to continue as a family business after Yamauchi's retirement, Yamauchi had to adopt his son-in-law so that he could take over the business. As a result, Sekiryo Kaneda adopted the Yamauchi surname in 1907 and headed
5280-508: The Wii and Wii U Virtual Consoles , and Nintendo Switch Online . Excitebike is a side-scrolling racing game in which the player takes control of a motocross racer. The two gameplay modes are Selection A as a solo race run, and Selection B against computer-controlled opponents. The objective of the game is to finish in third place or higher in a preliminary race to qualify for the Excitebike championship race. The A button accelerates
5400-525: The Wii U Virtual Console on April 26, 2013. 3D Classics: Excitebike was released on the Nintendo 3DS as a launch game for the Nintendo eShop in America , Japan and Europe ; the game was initially offered for free for a period but then was sold at £5.40 / €6.00 for European markets and $ 5.99 in the US. It features 3D stereoscopic support and analog control support. This release was featured among other games from
5520-413: The arcade market dwindling, Nintendo R&D1 's former focus, the department concentrated most of their software development resources on the emerging handheld video game console market, primarily thanks to the worldwide success of Nintendo's Game Boy . This catapulted the R&D4 department to become the lead software developer for Nintendo home video game consoles , developing a myriad of games for
5640-414: The arcade video game market with Sheriff and Radar Scope , released in Japan in 1979 and 1980 respectively. Sheriff , also known as Bandido in some regions, marked the first original video game made by Nintendo, was published by Sega and developed by Genyo Takeda and Shigeru Miyamoto . Radar Scope rivaled Galaxian in Japanese arcades but failed to find an audience overseas and created
5760-450: The iOS and Android systems, Miitomo , was released. Since then, Nintendo has produced other similar apps, such as Super Mario Run , Fire Emblem Heroes , Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp , Mario Kart Tour , and Pokémon Go , the last being developed by Niantic and having generated $ 115 million in revenue for Nintendo. In March 2016, the loyalty program My Nintendo replaced Club Nintendo . The NES Classic Edition
5880-423: The natural environment and regional culture of Sonobe , popular culture influences like Westerns and detective fiction , along with folk Shinto practices and family media . These would each be seen in most of Nintendo's major franchises which developed following Miyamoto's creative leadership. Two key events in Nintendo's history occurred in 1979: its American subsidiary was opened in New York City, and
6000-450: The yakuza -run gaming parlors in Kyoto. Other card manufacturers had opted to leave the market not wanting to be associated with criminal ties, but Yamauchi persisted without such fears to become the primary producer of hanafuda within a few years. With the increase of the cards' popularity, Yamauchi hired assistants to mass-produce to satisfy the demand. Even with a favorable start, the business faced financial struggle due to operating in
6120-697: The "Play It Loud!" advertising campaign for Game Boys with different-colored casings. The Advanced Computer Modeling graphics used in Donkey Kong Country for the Super NES and Donkey Kong Land for the Game Boy were technologically innovative, as was the Satellaview satellite modem peripheral for the Super Famicom, which allowed the digital transmission of data via a communications satellite in space. In mid-1993, Nintendo and Silicon Graphics announced
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#17330858921676240-537: The 1970s, when Nintendo was still predominantly a toy company, it decided to expand into interactive entertainment and the video game industry . Several designers were hired to work under the Creative Department, which, at the time, was the only game development department within Nintendo. Among these new designers were Makoto Kano , who went on to design various Game & Watch games, and Shigeru Miyamoto , who would create various Nintendo franchises. In 1972,
6360-616: The 1990s with the Super NES. Several accessories were released for the Wii from 2007 to 2010, such as the Wii Balance Board , the Wii Wheel and the WiiWare download service. In 2009, Nintendo Iberica S.A. expanded its commercial operations to Portugal through a new office in Lisbon . By that year, Nintendo held a 68.3% share of the worldwide handheld gaming market. In 2010, Nintendo celebrated
6480-465: The 25th anniversary of Mario's debut appearance, for which certain allusive products were put on sale. The event included the release of Super Mario All-Stars 25th Anniversary Edition and special editions of the Nintendo DSi XL and Wii. Following an announcement in March 2010, Nintendo released the Nintendo 3DS in 2011. The console produces stereoscopic effects without 3D glasses. By 2018, more than 69 million units had been sold worldwide;
6600-569: The EARD studios and were credited in every game developed by the division, with varying degrees of involvement. Nintendo EAD was best known for its work on games in the Donkey Kong , Mario , The Legend of Zelda , F-Zero , Star Fox , Animal Crossing , Pikmin , and Wii series. Following a large company restructuring after the death of company president Satoru Iwata , the division merged with Nintendo's Software Planning & Development division in September 2015, becoming Nintendo Entertainment Planning & Development . During
6720-660: The Entertainment Analysis & Development Division in Kyoto volunteered to relocate to Nintendo's Tokyo Office to expand development resources. These twenty volunteers were primarily from the Super Mario Sunshine team. Management saw it as a good opportunity to expand and recruit several developers who were more comfortable living in Tokyo than relocating to Kyoto. Takao Shimizu (original manager and producer) and Yoshiaki Koizumi (director) began hiring several recruits in Tokyo coming from several established companies like SEGA, Koei, and Square-Enix. Shimizu and Koizumi jointly spearheaded their first project, Donkey Kong Jungle Beat . This
6840-464: The European release of the GameCube in May 2002, Hiroshi Yamauchi announced his resignation as the president of Nintendo, and Satoru Iwata was selected by the company as his successor. Yamauchi would remain as advisor and director of the company until 2005, and he died in 2013. Iwata's appointment as president ended the Yamauchi succession at the helm of the company, a practice that had been in place since its foundation. In 2003, Nintendo released
6960-403: The Famicom in America was also impacted. To differentiate the Famicom from its competitors in America, Nintendo rebranded it as an entertainment system and its cartridges as Game Paks, with a design reminiscent of a VCR . Nintendo implemented a lockout chip in the Game Paks for control on its third party library to avoid the market saturation that had occurred in the United States. The result
7080-495: The Famicom lasted until 2003. In total, around 62 million Famicom and NES consoles were sold worldwide. During this period, Nintendo created a copyright infringement protection in the form of the Official Nintendo Seal of Quality, added to their products so that customers may recognize their authenticity in the market. By this time, Nintendo's network of electronic suppliers had extended to around thirty companies, including Ricoh (Nintendo's main source for semiconductors ) and
7200-503: The Famicom release. It is similar to its Famicom Disk System counterpart, though this version lacks the Design option, has three difficulty levels, and has other minor differences. The second was released for the Famicom Disk System peripheral in 1988. The graphics and core gameplay are still the same, and the FDS version has several distinctive features that the NES and arcade versions lack: Excitebike: Bun Bun Mario Battle Stadium , also known as Mario Excite Bike or BS Excitebike ,
7320-430: The Famicom. In the early 1980s, several video game consoles proliferated in the United States, as well as low-quality games produced by third-party developers , which oversaturated the market and led to the video game crash of 1983 . Consequently, a recession hit the American video game industry , whose revenues went from over $ 3 billion to $ 100 million between 1983 and 1985. Nintendo's initiative to launch
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#17330858921677440-429: The GameCube, even with such distinguishing features as the miniDVD format of its games and Internet connectivity for a few games, its sales were lower than those of its predecessors, and during the six years of its production, 21.7 million units were sold worldwide. The GameCube struggled against its rivals in the market, and its initial poor sales led to Nintendo posting a first half fiscal year loss in 2003 for
7560-404: The Japanese arcade market in late 1985. At this time, Nintendo adopted a series of guidelines that involved the validation of each game produced for the Famicom before its distribution on the market, agreements with developers to ensure that no Famicom game would be adapted to other consoles within two years of its release, and restricting developers from producing more than five games per year for
7680-610: The NES. In response to the competition, Uemura designed the Super Famicom , which launched in 1990. The first batch of 300,000 consoles sold out in hours. The following year, as with the NES, Nintendo distributed a modified version of the Super Famicom to the United States market, titled the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Launch games for the Super Famicom and Super NES include Super Mario World , F-Zero , Pilotwings , SimCity , and Gradius III . By mid-1992, over 46 million Super Famicom and Super NES consoles had been sold. The console's life cycle lasted until 1999 in
7800-565: The Nintendo Switch in China starting in December. The theme park area Super Nintendo World opened at Universal Studios Japan in 2021. In early 2020, Plan See Do, a hotel and restaurant development company, announced that it would refurbish the former Nintendo headquarters from the 1930s as a hotel, with plans to add 20 guest rooms, a restaurant, a bar, and a gym. The building is owned by Yamauchi Co., Ltd., an asset management company of Nintendo's founding family. The hotel later opened in April 2022, with 18 guest rooms, and named Marufukuro in
7920-511: The Nippon Game brand. The company's restructuring preserved a couple of areas dedicated to playing card manufacturing. In 1970, the company's stock listing was promoted to the first section of the Osaka Stock Exchange, and the reconstruction and enlargement of its corporate headquarters was completed. The year represented a watershed moment in Nintendo's history as it released Japan's first electronic toy—the Beam Gun , an optoelectronic pistol designed by Masayuki Uemura . In total, more than
8040-456: The Software Development Department; Shimizu was appointed project manager of the Tokyo Software Development Department, and Keizo Ota and Yasunari Nishida were appointed project managers of their own groups in the Technology Development Department. In 2013, Katsuya Eguchi was promoted Department Manager of both Software Development Departments in Kyoto and Tokyo. As such, he left his role as Group Manager of Software Development Group No. 2 , and
8160-531: The United Kingdom, Spain, Belgium, and Australia. In 1992, Nintendo acquired a majority stake in the Seattle Mariners baseball team, and sold most of its shares in 2016. On July 31, 1992, Nintendo of America announced it would cease manufacturing arcade games and systems. In 1993, Star Fox was released, which marked an industry milestone by being the first video game to make use of the Super FX chip. The proliferation of graphically violent video games, such as Mortal Kombat , caused controversy and led to
8280-448: The United States, and until 2003 in Japan. In March 1990, the first Nintendo World Championship was held, with participants from 29 American cities competing for the title of "best Nintendo player in the world". In June 1990, the subsidiary Nintendo of Europe was opened in Großostheim , Germany; in 1993, subsequent subsidiaries were established in the Netherlands (where Bandai had previously distributed Nintendo's products), France,
8400-412: The United States, an additional 40,000 units were sold on its first day of distribution. Around this time, Nintendo entered an agreement with Sony to develop the Super Famicom CD-ROM Adapter , a peripheral for the upcoming Super Famicom capable of playing CD-ROMs . However, the collaboration did not last as Yamauchi preferred to continue developing the technology with Philips , which would result in
8520-418: The bike, and the B button activates a turbo boost that enhances the bike's speed, but overheats the engine if it is used for too long, forcing an immobile cooldown period. The engine's temperature can be reset by driving over arrows located along the course. The player can use the directional pad to shift between lanes, and to shift the racer's balance midair after a jump. Landing squarely on both wheels allows
8640-433: The board of directors, EAD and Integrated Research & Development general managers, Shigeru Miyamoto and Genyo Takeda respectively, entered the body. In addition, former HAL Laboratory president and future Nintendo president, Satoru Iwata , also entered the board. With Miyamoto being promoted to the board of directors, he was now in charge of overseeing all of Nintendo's software development. To fill Miyamoto's void as
8760-542: The business in 1929. By that time, Nintendo was the largest playing card business in Japan. In 1933, Sekiryo Kaneda established the company as a general partnership named Yamauchi Nintendo & Co., Ltd. investing in the construction of a new corporate headquarters located next to the original building, near the Toba-kaidō train station . Because Sekiryo's marriage to Yamauchi's daughter produced no male heirs, he planned to adopt his son-in-law Shikanojo Inaba, an artist in
8880-549: The business styled itself as Marufuku Nintendo Card Co. The war created considerable difficulties for companies in the leisure sector, which were subject to new levies such as the Karuta Zei ("playing cards tax"). Nintendo subsisted and, in 1907, entered into an agreement with Nihon Senbai—later known as the Japan Tobacco —to market its cards to various cigarette stores throughout the country. A Nintendo promotional calendar from
9000-496: The company was experiencing a period of economic prosperity, the Disney cards and derived products made it dependent on the children's market. The situation was exacerbated by the falling sales of its adult-oriented playing cards caused by Japanese society gravitating toward other hobbies such as pachinko , bowling , and nightly outings. When Disney card sales began to decline, Nintendo realized that it had no real alternative to alleviate
9120-426: The company's employ and the father of his grandson Hiroshi , born in 1927. However, Inaba abandoned his family and the company, so Hiroshi was made Sekiryo's eventual successor. World War II negatively impacted the company as Japanese authorities prohibited the diffusion of foreign card games, and as the priorities of Japanese society shifted, its interest in recreational activities waned. During this time, Nintendo
9240-559: The console. It is the first game in the Excite series. Designed and directed by Shigeru Miyamoto , the smooth side-scrolling game engine his team developed for Excitebike was later used to develop Super Mario Bros. (1985), which had the effect of Mario smoothly accelerating from a walk to a run, rather than move at a constant speed. Excitebike was a critical and commercial success. It spawned several sequels and has been re-released multiple times onto other Nintendo platforms, such
9360-524: The course of its development. It was then that he also disclosed the existence of the SRD programming company within the division, formally Nintendo R&D2's software unit, which was composed of about 200 employees with proficiency in software programming. In the advent of launching both the GameCube and Game Boy Advance , Nintendo sought to change the structure of its corporate management. In June 2000, in an attempt to include both software and hardware experts in
9480-702: The creation of the Interactive Digital Software Association and the Entertainment Software Rating Board , in whose development Nintendo collaborated during 1994. These measures also encouraged Nintendo to abandon the content guidelines it had enforced since the release of the NES. Commercial strategies implemented by Nintendo during this time include the Nintendo Gateway System , an in-flight entertainment service available for airlines, cruise ships and hotels, and
9600-511: The death of president Satoru Iwata in July 2015. The Nintendo Entertainment Analysis & Development division was headed by Nintendo-veteran Takashi Tezuka who acted as general manager. The division was divided in two development departments: one in Kyoto, with Katsuya Eguchi acting as its deputy general manager; and one in Tokyo, with Yoshiaki Koizumi acting as its deputy general manager. The Nintendo EAD Kyoto Software Development Department
9720-480: The department was renamed to Research & Development Department; it had about 20 employees. The department was later consolidated into a division and separated into three groups, Nintendo R&D1 , R&D2 and R&D3 . Circa 1984, Hiroshi Imanishi oversaw the creation of Research & Development No. 4 Department (commonly abbreviated to Nintendo R&D4), as a new development department dedicated to developing video games for dedicated consoles, complementing
9840-558: The discontinuation of some of their light gun products. The subsidiary Nintendo Leisure System Co., Ltd., which developed these products, was closed as a result of the economic impact dealt by the oil crisis. Yamauchi, motivated by the successes of Atari and Magnavox with their video game consoles , acquired the Japanese distribution rights for the Magnavox Odyssey in 1974, and reached an agreement with Mitsubishi Electric to develop similar products between 1975 and 1978, including
9960-453: The fast scrolling game engine Miyamoto's team had originally developed for Excitebike , which allowed Mario to smoothly accelerate from a walk to a run, rather than move at a constant speed like in earlier platformers. Excitebike spawned several sequels, including Excitebike 64 (2000), Excite Truck (2006), Excitebots: Trick Racing (2009), and the WiiWare game Excitebike: World Rally (2009). An Excitebike -themed track
10080-520: The figure increased to 75 million by the start of 2019. In 2011, Nintendo celebrated the 25th anniversary of The Legend of Zelda with the orchestra concert tour The Legend of Zelda : Symphony of the Goddesses and the video game The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword . In 2012 and 2013, two new Nintendo game consoles were introduced: the Wii U , with high-definition graphics and a GamePad controller with near-field communication technology, and
10200-658: The first microprocessor for video games systems, the Color TV-Game series, and an arcade game inspired by Othello . During this period, Takeda developed the video game EVR Race , and Shigeru Miyamoto joined Yokoi's team with the responsibility of designing the casing for the Color TV-Game consoles. In 1978, Nintendo's research and development department was split into two facilities, Nintendo Research & Development 1 and Nintendo Research & Development 2 , respectively managed by Yokoi and Uemura. Shigeru Miyamoto brought distinctive sources of inspiration, including
10320-418: The first World of Nintendo stores-within-a-store , which carried official Nintendo merchandise, were opened in the United States. According to company information, more than 25% of homes in the United States had an NES in 1989. In the late 1980s, Nintendo's dominance slipped with the appearance of NEC 's PC Engine and Sega 's Mega Drive , 16-bit game consoles with improved graphics and audio compared to
10440-498: The first company to succeed in mass-producing plastic playing cards in Japan. Some of the company's employees, accustomed to a more cautious and conservative leadership, viewed the new measures with concern, and the rising tension led to a call for a strike . However, the measure had no major impact, as Hiroshi resorted to the dismissal of several dissatisfied workers. In 1959, Nintendo moved its headquarters to Kamitakamatsu-cho, Fukuine, Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto. The company entered into
10560-453: The first time since the company went public in 1962. In 2002, the Pokémon Mini was released. Its dimensions were smaller than that of the Game Boy Advance and it weighed 70 grams, making it the smallest video game console in history. Nintendo collaborated with Sega and Namco to develop Triforce , an arcade board to facilitate the conversion of arcade titles to the GameCube. Following
10680-641: The game as a "staple of any NES collection", praising its graphics as cute and its control as simple that still require strategy to apply properly. The review noted the design mode, as "the first of its kind in a console game, and greatly extends the life of the title by featuring 19 different components you can piece together to build your own course". IGN praised the NES version in 2007, as "ridiculously addictive" and that it "proves video games don't need to have flashy graphics or complex AI to actually be fun. Sure, there are other racing games out there today, hundreds of them. This one may not necessarily be better than
10800-430: The game with such an inexperienced team, and so counted on programming assistance from Gunpei Yokoi and the R&D1 department. One of the first completely self-developed games was Super Mario Bros. , the sequel to Mario Bros. The game set standards for the platform genre, and went on to be both a critical and commercial success. In 1986, R&D4 developed The Legend of Zelda , for which Miyamoto again served as
10920-585: The greatest of all time . In 1995, Nintendo released the Virtual Boy , a console designed by Gunpei Yokoi with stereoscopic graphics . Critics were generally disappointed with the quality of the games and red-colored graphics, and complained of gameplay-induced headaches. The system sold poorly and was quietly discontinued. Amid the system's failure, Yokoi formally retired from Nintendo. In February 1996, Pocket Monsters Red and Green , known internationally as Pokémon Red and Blue , developed by Game Freak
11040-407: The offices, for which he acquired the surrounding land and assigned the production of cards to the original Nintendo building. Meanwhile, Yokoi, Uemura, and new employees such as Genyo Takeda , continued to develop innovative products for the company. The Laser Clay Shooting System was released in 1973 and managed to surpass bowling in popularity. Though Nintendo's toys continued to gain popularity,
11160-474: The original R&D4 department became composed of Miyamoto, Takashi Tezuka, Kenji Miki, and Minoru Maeda handling design; Koji Kondo , Akito Nakatsuka , and Hirokazu Tanaka handling sound design; and Toshihiko Nakago and SRD became the technology and programming core. The same Miyamoto-led team that developed Excitebike went on to develop a 1985 NES port of the scrolling beat 'em up arcade game Kung-Fu Master (1984) called Kung Fu . Miyamoto's team used
11280-528: The other three existing departments in the Nintendo Manufacturing Division . Imanishi appointed Hiroshi Ikeda, a former anime director at Toei Animation , as general manager of the newly created department, and Miyamoto as its chief producer, who would later become one of the most recognized video game developers in the world. Nintendo also drafted a couple of key graphic designers to the department including Takashi Tezuka and Kenji Miki. With
11400-490: The presidency and headed manufacturing operations. His first actions involved several important changes in the operation of the company: in 1951, he changed the company name to Nintendo Playing Card Co., Ltd. and in the following year, he centralized the manufacturing facilities dispersed in Kyoto, which led to the expansion of the offices in Kamitakamatsu-cho, Fukuine, Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto. In 1953, Nintendo became
11520-593: The producer of the Animal Crossing franchise and was responsible for the creation of the Splatoon series. The Nintendo EAD Tokyo Software Development Department was created in 2002 with the goal of bringing in fresh new talent from the capital of Japan who wouldn't be willing to travel hundreds of miles away to Kyoto. It is located in Tokyo , Japan, in the Nintendo Tokyo Office. In 2003, twenty members of
11640-672: The production schedules of third-party developers influenced a delay, and the console was released in June 1996 in Japan, September 1996 in the United States and March 1997 in Europe. By the end of its production in 2002, around 33 million Nintendo 64 consoles were sold worldwide, and it is considered one of the most recognized video game systems in history. 388 games were produced for the Nintendo 64 in total, some of which – particularly Super Mario 64 , The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time , and GoldenEye 007 – have been distinguished as some of
11760-502: The prospect of continuous renewal of decks, thus avoiding the suspicions that reusing cards would generate. According to Nintendo, the business' first western-style card deck was put on the market in 1902, although other documents postpone the date to 1907, shortly after the Russo-Japanese War . Although the cards were initially meant for export, they quickly gained popularity not only abroad but also in Japan. During this time,
11880-506: The racer to maintain momentum, but an uneven landing will result in a loss of speed or a crash. Design Mode allows players to create tracks using 19 types of hurdles, with options to save and load created tracks for the Famicom Data Recorder tape drive , which was unreleased outside Japan. There are two enhanced versions, both titled Vs. Excitebike . The first version was released on VS. UniSystem for arcades in 1984, after
12000-541: The recent stuff, but it's unique, addictive, and demonstrates what gaming is really about". IGN ranked Excitebike as the 14th best NES game. GamesRadar ranked it as the 12th best game on the NES Classic Edition, saying that it has aged well with "a great sense of speed while driving and an excellent sense of balance while jumping and landing". Game Informer ranked the game 44 on its top 100 games of all time. Kotaku editor Jason Schreier ranked it as
12120-530: The rest of Nintendo's Latin American market due to an alliance with Juegos de Video Latinoamérica. Nintendo reached an agreement with NC Games for Nintendo's products to resume distribution in Brazil by 2017, and by September 2020, the Switch was released in Brazil. On 11 July 2015, Iwata died of bile duct cancer , and after a couple of months in which Miyamoto and Takeda jointly operated the company, Tatsumi Kimishima
12240-418: The situation. After the 1964 Tokyo Olympics , Nintendo's stock price plummeted to its lowest recorded level of ¥60 . In 1965, Nintendo hired Gunpei Yokoi to maintain the assembly-line machines used to manufacture its playing cards. Yamauchi's experience with the previous initiatives led him to increase Nintendo's investment in a research and development department in 1969, directed by Hiroshi Imanishi,
12360-514: The technical knowledge they had gained from working on both side-scrollers to further advance the platforming " athletic game " genre they had created with Donkey Kong (1981) and were key steps towards Miyamoto's vision of an expansive side-scrolling platformer. While working on Excitebike and Kung Fu , he devised the concept of a platformer in which the player can "strategize while scrolling sideways" over long distances, and has colorful backgrounds rather than black. Super Mario Bros. utilized
12480-433: The technical knowledge they had gained from working on both side-scrollers to further advance the platforming " athletic game " genre they had created with Donkey Kong and were key steps towards Miyamoto's vision of an expansive side-scrolling platformer. One of the first games developed by the R&D4 department was Mario Bros. in 1983, designed and directed by Miyamoto. The department was, however, unable to program
12600-415: The worst game on the NES Classic Edition , calling it "a truly awful video game" but with no explanation. The side-scrolling gameplay of Excitebike was key to the development of Super Mario Bros. (1985). The same Miyamoto-led team that developed Excitebike went on to develop a 1985 NES port of side-scrolling beat 'em up arcade game Kung-Fu Master (1984) called Kung Fu . Miyamoto's team used
12720-575: Was a financial success for Nintendo both in Japan and overseas, and led Coleco to fight Atari for licensing rights for porting to home consoles and personal computers. In 1983, Nintendo opened a new production facility in Uji and was listed in the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange . Uemura, taking inspiration from the ColecoVision , began creating a new video game console that would incorporate
12840-616: Was also released for the Game Boy Advance in the form of e-Reader cards, and later as a Game Pak for the Classic NES Series . Excitebike was added to the European Wii Virtual Console on February 16, 2007, the same day its spiritual successor, Excite Truck , was released there. The game was later added to the North American Virtual Console on March 19. It was re-released in North America for
12960-541: Was comprised into two departments: the Software Development Department , which focused on video game development and was led by Miyamoto, and the Technology Development Department, which focused on programming and developing tools and was led by Takao Sawano. The technology department was born out of several R&D2 engineers that were assisting SRD with software libraries . After that, the same department later collaborated with Argonaut Software to develop
13080-412: Was designed by Gwénaël Nicolas with stylistic departure from its predecessors, and the GameCube . During the first week of the Game Boy Advance's North American release in June 2001, over 500,000 units were sold, making it the fastest-selling video game console in the United States at the time. By the end of its production cycle in 2010, more than 81.5 million units had been sold worldwide. As for
13200-546: Was followed in 2007 by the release of the critically and commercially acclaimed Super Mario Galaxy . After the release of Super Mario Galaxy , Koizumi was promoted to manager and producer and officially opened Tokyo Software Development Group No. 2. The Tokyo group had veteran game developer Katsuya Eguchi as its general manager, who also oversaw development operations for the Kyoto Software Development Department. Nintendo Nintendo Co., Ltd.
13320-643: Was named as Iwata's successor on 16 September 2015. As part of the management's restructuring, Miyamoto and Takeda were respectively named creative and technological advisors. The financial losses caused by the Wii U, along with Sony's intention to release its video games to other platforms such as smart TVs , motivated Nintendo to rethink its strategy concerning the production and distribution of its properties. In 2015, Nintendo formalized agreements with DeNA and Universal Parks & Resorts to extend its presence to smart devices and amusement parks respectively. In March 2016, Nintendo's first mobile app for
13440-409: Was named the richest company in Japan. In June 2021, the company announced plans to convert its former Uji Ogura plant, where it had manufactured playing and hanafuda cards, into a museum tentatively named "Nintendo Gallery", targeted to open by March 2024. In the following year, historic remains of a Yayoi period village were discovered in the construction site. Excitebike Excitebike
13560-514: Was partly supported by a financial injection from Hiroshi's wife Michiko Inaba, who came from a wealthy family. In 1947, Sekiryo founded the distribution company Marufuku Co., Ltd. responsible for Nintendo's sales and marketing operations, which would eventually go on to become the present-day Nintendo Co., Ltd., in Higashikawara-cho, Imagumano, Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto . In 1950, due to Sekiryo's deteriorating health, Hiroshi Yamauchi assumed
13680-619: Was released in 2000 for the Nintendo 64 . It is also one of several unlockable NES games in Animal Crossing for the GameCube , released in 2001. The Nintendo 64 version restores the Save and Load functionality in Design mode, though it is limited to saving one custom track on the Game Pak, while the Animal Crossing version can be transferred to the Game Boy Advance by using a link cable . Excitebike
13800-466: Was released in Japan for the Game Boy, and established the popular Pokémon franchise. The game went on to sell 31.37 million units, with the video game series exceeding a total of 300 million units in sales as of 2017. In 1997, Nintendo released the Rumble Pak , a plug-in device that connects to the Nintendo 64 controller and produces a vibration during certain moments of a game. In 1998,
13920-578: Was released in November 2006, with a total of 33 launch games. With the Wii, Nintendo sought to reach a broader demographic than its seventh-generation competitors, with the intention of also encompassing the "non-consumer" sector. To this end, Nintendo invested in a $ 200 million advertising campaign. The Wii's innovations include the Wii Remote controller, equipped with an accelerometer system and infrared sensors that allow it to detect its position in
14040-551: Was released in November 2016. The console is a version of the NES based on emulation, HDMI , and the Wii remote. Its successor, the Super NES Classic Edition , was released in September 2017. By October 2018, around ten million units of both consoles combined had been sold worldwide. The Wii U's successor in the eighth generation of video game consoles , the Nintendo Switch , was released in March 2017. The Switch features
14160-823: Was replaced by Hisashi Nogami . On June 18, 2014, the EAD Kyoto branch was moved from the Nintendo Central Office to the Nintendo Development Center in Kyoto. The building housed more than 1100 developers from all of Nintendo's internal research and development divisions, which included the Nintendo EAD, SPD , IRD and SDD divisions. On September 16, 2015, EAD merged with Nintendo Software Planning & Development to establish Entertainment Planning & Development (EPD). The move followed an internal restructuring of Nintendo executives and departments after
14280-538: Was the largest and one of the oldest research and development departments within Nintendo, housing more than 700 video game developers. It was located in Kyoto , Japan, formerly in the Nintendo Central Office , but on June 28, 2014, it was relocated to the new Nintendo Development Center , which housed all of Nintendo's internal research and development divisions. The development department integrated Nintendo's most notable producers: Hideki Konno , producer of
14400-478: Was very familiar with the Famicom chipset, and was originally hired to work with Masayuki Uemura 's Nintendo R&D2 to internally develop software development kits . When Nintendo R&D2 and SRD jointly began porting over R&D1 arcade games to the Famicom, Shigeru Miyamoto took the opportunity to lure Nakago away from R&D2, to help Miyamoto create his first Nintendo R&D4 video game, Excitebike . And so
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