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Nintendo

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This article is about the Japanese company. For the console sometimes colloquially referred to as a Nintendo, see Nintendo Entertainment System. For the development team, see Nintendo Entertainment Planning and Development.
Nintendo
Current Nintendo logo (2016-present): On May 11, 2016, several months after when Tatsumi Kimishima took the company helm, Nintendo's logo was changed to white-on-red.
Founded September 23, 1889
First Super Mario game Donkey Kong (1981)
Latest Super Mario game Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition (2024)
Current president Shuntaro Furukawa

Nintendo is a video game company with its origins in Japan. Nintendo is the creator of many popular franchises, including the Super Mario franchise, and the company's mascot is Mario himself.

History

 
 
The company's signature red logo from 1985 to 2008, used internationally outside Japan and East Asia (top), and gray logo from 2006 to 2016 (bottom). The gray logo is still used in corporate pages.

Originally founded as a hanafuda playing card manufacturer in Kyoto, Japan, on September 23, 1889, Nintendo began exploring game-making after third president Hiroshi Yamauchi began diversifying the company's ventures. Nintendo entered the arcade industry in 1973 and the home console industry in 1977, simultaneously hiring Shigeru Miyamoto as a product designer. In 1978, Nintendo began making arcade video games, licensing titles to other companies for distribution outside Japan. In 1980, Nintendo established a North American division headed by Minoru Arakawa, and the first game that would be distributed by the American division would be Radar Scope. The game did not sell well in the United States, and a number of unsold cabinets remained in warehouses.

Arakawa asked Yamauchi if a new game could be developed and inserted into the unsold Radar Scope cabinets.[1] Yamauchi went through Nintendo's entire talent pool to see who could head the designing of a potential Radar Scope replacement, and the result was Miyamoto designing Donkey Kong. When Donkey Kong was released in 1981, it became a bestseller and marked the introduction of Mario. In 1983, Nintendo introduced the Family Computer, distributing it abroad as the Nintendo Entertainment System two years later. Its success in Japan and North America resulted in Nintendo becoming a dominant player in the video game industry and the revival of the industry in North America, which had been negatively affected by a crash in 1983. The most successful game for the NES, Super Mario Bros., further cemented Nintendo's dominance in the industry. The Super Mario franchise has since become Nintendo's flagship franchise and one of the most well-known brands to originate from video games.

Supported regions

 
Regions with official Nintendo websites

As a multinational company, Nintendo has established various regional divisions dedicated to marketing and sales of its products outside Japan, including Super Mario games, merchandise, and licensing, located in different gaming markets around the world, and all of them are wholly owned. Two major subsidiaries, Nintendo of America and Nintendo of Europe, have the authority to publish games autonomously. As of August 2024, these divisions include:

  • Nintendo Co., Ltd. (NCL)
  • Nintendo of America, Inc. (NOA)
    •   Federative Republic of Brazil
    •   Argentine Republic
    •   Canada
    •   Republic of Chile
    •   Republic of Colombia
    •   United Mexican States
    •   Republic of Peru
    •   United States of America
  • Nintendo of Europe SE (NOE)
    •   Republic of South Africa
    •   Swiss Confederation
    •   European Union (except Scandinavia, the Balkans, and some former Eastern Bloc states)
    •   United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
  • Nintendo Australia Pty. Limited (NAL)
    •   New Zealand
    •   Commonwealth of Australia
  • Nintendo of Korea Co., Ltd. (NOK)
    •   Republic of Korea
  • Nintendo (Hong Kong) Ltd. (NHK)
    •   Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China
    •   Republic of China

In addition to the above subsidiaries, over the years Nintendo has officially assigned various third-party distribution companies to represent Nintendo and its products (including Super Mario products) in certain markets. These partners may have the authority to handle marketing and sales, but they may vary and are overviewed by one of the three major divisions (NCL, NOA, NOE). As of September 2023, the following partners include:

  • Active Bokei K.K.[2]
    •   Republic of Indonesia
    •   Republic of Singapore
    •   Kingdom of Thailand
    •   Republic of the Philippines
    •   Malaysia
    •   United Arab Emirates
    •   Sultanate of Oman
    •   Kingdom of Bahrain
    •   State of Kuwait
    •   State of Qatar
  • Advanced Initiative Company Trading[3]
    •   Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
  • Bergsala AB[4]
    •   Republic of Finland
    •   Kingdom of Denmark
    •   Kingdom of Norway
    •   Kingdom of Sweden
  • CD Media S.E.[5][6]
    •   Republic of Türkiye
    •   Republic of Bulgaria
    •   Republic of Cyprus
    •   Hellenic Republic
    •   Romania
    •   Republic of Albania
    •   Republic of Croatia
    •   Republic of North Macedonia
    •   Republic of Serbia
    •   Republic of Slovenia
  • ConQuest Entertainment A.S.
    •   Czech Republic
    •   Hungary
    •   Republic of Poland
    •   Slovak Republic
  • Tencent[7]
    •   People's Republic of China
  • TorGaming, Ltd.[8]
    •   State of Israel

Appearances in the Super Mario universe

 
 
The Nintendo logo appearing on Diddy Kong's cap and on the walls at Nintendo GameCube in Mario Kart: Double Dash!!

Home consoles

 
A variety of Nintendo consoles and handhelds

Attachments and remodels

These consoles may have different names in different markets. The NES is known as the Family Computer (or Famicom) in Japan; the Super NES, subsequently as the Super Famicom. In 2003, a plug-in gamepad device called the iQue Player was released exclusively in China, and in simple terms, it is considered a variant of the Nintendo 64.

1 - Although the Nintendo Switch can also function as a handheld console, it is primarily marketed as a home console by Nintendo.

Handheld consoles

Remodels

Between 2004 and 2018, Nintendo authorized the release of some of its portable consoles in the mainland Chinese market under the "iQue" brand. For example, the Nintendo DS and the Nintendo 3DS XL are referred to as the iQue DS and the iQue 3DS XL, respectively, in China.

Gallery

  • The blue Nintendo logo variant, used in Japanese versions of Nintendo games

  • The gold Nintendo logo from the start-up of Mario Kart 64

  • Sprite of a Nintendo logo variant, from Diddy Kong Racing DS

  • The white Nintendo logo in a black background as seen in the first three Mario Party titles

  • The Nintendo logo recreated in the Super Mario Bros. game style in Super Mario Maker

  • Background featuring characters of the Super Mario franchise created by Nintendo

  • Artwork of Nintendo's Kyoto headquarters from its recruitment book, showing a Warp Pipe at the bottom left corner

See also

Names in other languages

Language Name Meaning Notes
Japanese 任天堂
ニンテンドー
ニンテンドウ
Nintendō 		任天堂 is the formal name of the company; in hiragana it is written as にんてんどう, two kanas or moras per kanji. Each of the kanji that make up its formal name mean the following:
  • 任 (nin) means "responsibility", "work", or "obligation".
  • 天 (ten) means "sky".
  • 堂 (dō) meaning "stately", "bless", or "sanctuary".
    • 天堂 (tendō) means "heaven".

ニンテンドー is a rough katakana form is used for the Japanese names of some consoles.
ニンテンドウ is another rough katakana form, written with the kana "u" (ウ) instead of the chōonpu character (ー). This name is only seen in Super Smash Bros.'s Japanese name.

This name comes from the Japanese saying 「運を天に任せる」(un o ten ni makaseru), meaning "To leave one's luck to heaven."

Arabic نينتندو[9]
Nintendo 		-
Chinese 任天堂
Rèntiāntáng 		-
Finnish Nintendon - Captain N: The Game Master
Nintendo
Greek Νιντέντο
Ninténto 		-
Hebrew נינטנדו
Nintendo 		-
Korean 닌텐도
Nintendo 		-
Russian Нинтендо
Nintendo 		-

References

  1. ^ "IGN Presents: The History of Super Mario Bros."
  2. ^ Active Bokei K.K.. Active Bokei K.K. (English). Retrieved July 3, 2024. (Archived June 3, 2024, 05:14:24 UTC via Wayback Machine.)
  3. ^ Advanced Initiative. Advanced Initiative Co. Trdg. (English). Retrieved July 4, 2024.
  4. ^ Joe Skrebels (December 9, 2019). The Lie That Helped Build Nintendo. IGN (English). Retrieved June 1, 2024. (Archived December 21, 2019, 23:17:14 UTC via Wayback Machine.)
  5. ^ Enes K. (July 24, 2018). Resmi Açıklama Geldi: Nintendo Switch Türkiye'de Satışa Çıkıyor. Webtekno (Turkish). Retrieved June 5, 2024. (Archived October 17, 2018, 00:20:49 UTC via Wayback Machine.)
  6. ^ Partnerships. CD Media S.E. (English). Retrieved July 3, 2024. (Archived March 29, 2023, 11:50:20 UTC via Wayback Machine.)
  7. ^ Takashi Moshizuki, Shan Li (April 18, 2019). Nintendo, With Tencent's Help, to Sell Switch Console in China. The Wall Street Journal (English). Retrieved July 3, 2024. (Archived December 6, 2019, 20:13:54 UTC via Wayback Machine.)
  8. ^ March 12, 2019. לראשונה בישראל – תור גיימינג משיקה את נינטנדו בארץ ביבוא רשמ. IGN Israel (Hebrew). Retrieved June 5, 2024. (Archived May 15, 2019, 03:34:09 UTC via Wayback Machine.)
  9. ^ نينتندو السعودية (الممثل الرسمي). X (Arabic). Retrieved July 6, 2024.

External links

Nintendo coverage on other NIWA wikis:
Companies
Game companies Divisions and subsidiaries of Nintendo 1-UP Studio • iQue • Mario Club Co., Ltd. • NDcube • Next Level Games • Nintendo • †Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development • Nintendo Entertainment Planning and Development • †Nintendo Research & Development 1 • †Nintendo Research & Development 2 • †Nintendo Software Planning & Development • Nintendo Software Technology Corporation • †Nintendo System Development • Retro Studios • Treehouse
Third parties †AlphaDream • Arika • ArtePiazza • †Artoon • Arzest • Bandai Namco Entertainment • †Banpresto • †Bullet-Proof Software • Camelot Software Planning • Capcom • CAProduction • Forever Entertainment • Game Arts • Game Freak • Good-Feel • GREZZO Co., Ltd. • GungHo Online Entertainment • HAL Laboratory • †Hudson Soft • Ikegami Tsushinki • Intelligent Systems • Interplay • Jupiter • Konami • Monster Games • †NovaLogic • Paon DP • Racjin • Radical Entertainment • Rare Ltd. • Royal Philips Electronics • Sega • Silverball Studios • Softnica • Sora Ltd. • Spike Chunsoft • Square Enix • †St.GIGA • †SUZAK Inc. • Tantalus Media • TOSE Software Co. • Treasure • Ubisoft • Velan Studios • †Coleco • †Atarisoft • Sharp Corporation • †The Software Toolworks • Atari Corporation • National Human Electronics • Fantasy Factory • Tokyo Electron • †Software Creations • Nichimen Graphics • EA Canada • †Skip Ltd. • Beenox • indieszero • Vicarious Visions • Mojang Studios • 4J Studios • Playtime • Scientific Toys • Million Colors • Nelsonic Industries • S.I.U. • Mani • Natsume • Vanpool • Armor Project • Dynatech Play2O • T's MUSIC Co., Ltd. • Access Games • TNX • Switch Entertainment Inc. • Digital Works Entertainment • WILL Co., Ltd. • Sound Racer Ltd. • Hexadrive • Other Ocean Interactive • SkyBox Labs • SmileBoom Co., Ltd. • Magnum enter Co., Ltd. • HAMSTER Corporation • Falcon • Iwasaki Engineering • †Gottlieb • Sunwise • †Fabtek • Atlus • Brunswick • Maygay • Brian A. Rice, Inc. • Presage Software • Digitainment • Brainstorm Entertainment • Codesmith, Inc. • MISA • †Ocean Software • Caroline Software Incorporated • C3 Incorporated • POP Multimedia • Skyworks Technologies, Inc. • VPI.net • Lightmaker • Blit Interactive • NHN Entertainment • †Yutaka • Cosmodog • PlayWorks Digital Limited • Yuke's
Other companies Book publishers Guinness World Records • Prima Games • Scholastic • Shogakukan • Valiant Comics • Dark Horse Comics
Animation studios †DIC Entertainment • Illumination • †Medialab • Nelvana • †Pacific Rim Productions, Inc. • †Sei Young Animation Co., Ltd.
Home video distributors †Abbey Home Entertainment • Bim Bum Bam Video • Beyond Home Entertainment • Buena Vista Home Video • Disky Communications • Egmont Film • GoodView Home Video • HVN • IDP Home Video • †Kids Klassics • Lionsgate Home Entertainment • Maximum Entertainment • Manga Distribution • MRA Entertainment • NCircle Entertainment • On Air Video • Paramount Home Video • Pickwick Video • Pidax Film • Producciones Panther • Roadshow Entertainment • Sterling Entertainment Group • Shout! Factory • SMI url • Target • The Video Collection • UIG Entertainment GmbH • Universal Pictures • Wendros
Collectible / toy makers †Banpresto • Bioworld • BlackMilk Clothing • ERTL • Fangamer • First4Figures • Furuta • Gelato Pique • Hallmark • Jakks Pacific • K'NEX • LEGO • Mattel • PopCo Entertainment • S.H. Figuarts • San-ei Co., Ltd. • Toy Biz
Food companies Burger King • Freiberger • Keebler • Kellogg's • McDonald's • Nagatanien • †Sunshine Biscuits • Taco Bell • Wendy's
Cosmetics companies Lush • shu uemura
Miscellaneous †MediaBrowser
† Defunct

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