From card games to consoles
In the gaming industry, Nintendo is a well-known name. However, not many people know that Nintendo initially started off by creating card games. This was back in 1889 when the company was being run by the Yamauchi dynasty. Hiroshi Yamauchi, who took over as the head of Nintendo in 1950 at the age of 21, faced resistance from his employees who were against his appointment. Despite this, Hiroshi displayed a firm and authoritative demeanor and didn’t hesitate to fire those who disrupted the card workshops. Once this issue was resolved, he realized that Nintendo needed to think bigger and expand its horizons.
To achieve this, Hiroshi Yamauchi looked towards the international market and forged partnerships with various companies, including Disney. He even ventured into producing a line of erotic playing cards. However, as the era of playing cards started to decline, Hiroshi noticed Gunpei Yokoi, who would later become the inventor of the Game Boy, within the company’s premises. Recognizing Yokoi’s potential, Yamauchi shifted Nintendo’s focus from cards to toys during the late 1960s. With time, these toys evolved into electronic games, leading Nintendo naturally towards the console industry with the Magnavox Odyssey.
Hiroshi Yamauchi and the end of an era
Nintendo continued to thrive under the guidance of Hiroshi Yamauchi. He actively sought out creative individuals, as exemplified by his decision to entrust a whole team to Shigeru Miyamoto. Miyamoto, despite lacking technical knowledge and coding skills, had brilliant ideas and went on to create iconic franchises such as Mario, Donkey Kong, and Zelda. Similarly, Gunpei Yokoi invented Games and Watch and later the GameBoy.
However, in the 1990s, Hiroshi realized that Nintendo was being outpaced by competitors in the market. Additionally, the company faced several failures, including the Virtual Boy. As the 2000s approached, Yamauchi decided to step down from his position and find a suitable replacement, which turned out to be Satoru Iwata. Interestingly, Yamauchi declined his pension, estimated to be worth millions of dollars, considering it more beneficial for Nintendo to use that money to handle the crisis. He went on to fund a baseball team and donated a significant portion of his fortune to a cancer treatment center in Kyoto. Yamauchi also established a poetry museum before passing away from pneumonia in 2013.
