Nintendo

Nintendo Co., Ltd.

Logo used since May 2016[a]

Headquarters in Kyoto, Japan

Native name 任天堂株式会社

Romanized name Nintendō kabushiki gaisha

Formerly • Nintendo Koppai (1889)

• Yamauchi Nintendo (1889–1933)

• Yamauchi Nintendo & Co. (1933–

1947)

• Marufuku Co., Ltd. (1947–1951)

• Nintendo Playing Card Co., Ltd.

(1951–1963)

Company type Public

Traded as • TYO: 7974

• TOPIX Core30 component

• Nikkei 225 component

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ISIN JP3756600007

Industry • Video games

• Electronics

Founded 23 September 1889; 136 years

ago in Shimogyō-ku, Kyoto, Japan

Founder Fusajiro Yamauchi

Headquarters 11–1 Kamitoba Hokodatecho,

Minami-ku, Kyoto

Japan

Area served Worldwide

Key people • Shuntaro Furukawa (president)

• Shigeru Miyamoto (executive

fellow)

Products List of products

Production • Hardware
output 17.97 million

• Software
213.96 million

(2023)

Brands •

Services • Nintendo eShop

• My Nintendo

• Nintendo Switch Online

Revenue ¥1.601 trillion (US$13.923 billion) (2023)

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 Operating ¥504.3 billion (US$3.678 billion) (2023)
income

Net income ¥432.7 billion (US$3.156 billion) (2023)

Total assets ¥2.662 trillion (US$21.866 billion) (2023)

Total equity ¥2.069 trillion (US$16.995 billion) (2023)

Number of 8,205[b] (2025)

employees

Divisions • Business Development

• Entertainment Planning &

Development

• Technology Development Division

Subsidiaries List

Website [Link]

Footnotes / references
[1][2][3][4][5]

Nintendo Co., Ltd.[c] is a Japanese multinational video game company headquartered

in Kyoto. It develops, publishes, and manufactures both video games and video game
consoles.

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,
and distributed its first system, the Color TV-Game in 1977. 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
alongside Super Mario Bros. in 1985.

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, Metroid, Kirby, and Star Fox. The company's mascot, Mario, is

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among the most famous fictional characters, and Nintendo's other characters—
including Luigi, Donkey Kong, Samus, Link, Kirby, and Pikachu—have attained
international recognition. Several films and a theme park area based on the company's
franchises have been created.

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.

History

Main article: History of Nintendo

Early history

1889–1932: Origin as a playing card business

Original Nintendo headquarters (1889–1930) and workshop in Shimogyō-ku,

Kyoto, c. 1889. The right section was eventually rebuilt (pictured below), and the left
section was reportedly demolished in 2004.

Nintendo karuta poster from the Meiji era

Nintendo was founded as Nintendo Koppai[d] on 23 September 1889[6] 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').[1][2][3][7][8][9] The name "Nintendo" is commonly assumed to mean "leave luck to
heaven",[9][10] 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.[7] Hanafuda cards had become popular after

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Japan banned most forms of gambling in 1882, though tolerated hanafuda. Sales of
hanafuda cards were popular with the yakuza-run gaming parlors in Kyoto. Other card
manufacturers had opted to leave the market, not wanting to be associated with its
criminality, but Yamauchi persisted despite such fears to become the primary producer
of hanafuda within a few years.[11] With the increase of the cards' popularity, Yamauchi
hired assistants to mass-produce them to satisfy the demand.[12] Even with a favorable
start, the business faced financial struggles due to operating in 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.[13] 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 the prospect of continuous
renewal of decks, thus avoiding the suspicions that reusing cards would generate.[14]

According to Nintendo, the business' first western-style card deck was put on the
market in 1902,[2][3] although other documents indicate the date was 1907, shortly after
the Russo-Japanese War.[15] Although the cards were initially intended to be exported,
they quickly gained popularity within and without Japan.[2][3] During this time, the
business styled itself as Marufuku Nintendo Card Co.[16] 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").[17] 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.[18] A Nintendo promotional calendar
from the Taishō era dated to 1915 indicates that the business was named Yamauchi
Nintendo[e] but still used the Marufuku Nintendo Co. brand for its playing cards.[19]

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 the business in 1929. By that time, Nintendo was the largest playing card
business in Japan.[20]

1933–1968: Incorporation and expansion

Former Nintendo headquarters (1933–1959), rebuilt from the right section of the original
building

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English company information plate in the former Nintendo headquarters

In 1933, Sekiryo Kaneda established the company as a general partnership named

Yamauchi Nintendo & Co., Ltd.[f][3] investing in the construction of a new corporate
headquarters located next to the original building,[21] near the Toba-kaidō train
station.[22] 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 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.[23]

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 was partly
supported by a financial injection from Hiroshi's wife Michiko Inaba, who came from a
wealthy family.[24] In 1947, Sekiryo founded the distribution company Marufuku Co.,
Ltd.[g] 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.[2][3][7]

1949 New Year Nintendo staff commemoration

In 1950, due to Sekiryo's deteriorating health,[25] Hiroshi Yamauchi assumed the

presidency and headed manufacturing operations.[2][3] 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.[h][2][3][26] and in the following year, he centralized

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the manufacturing facilities dispersed in Kyoto, which led to the expansion of the offices
in Kamitakamatsu-cho, Fukuine, Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto.[2][3][27] In 1953, Nintendo
became the first company to succeed in mass-producing plastic playing cards in
Japan.[2][3] Some of the company's employees, accustomed to 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.[28]

In 1959, Nintendo moved its headquarters to Kamitakamatsu-cho, Fukuine,

Higashiyama-ku in Kyoto. The company entered into a partnership with Walt Disney
Productions 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.[2][3][26] 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.[2][21] By 1961, the company had established a Tokyo branch
in Chiyoda, Tokyo,[2] and sold more than 1.5 million card packs, holding a high market
share, for which it relied on televised advertising campaigns.[29] In 1962, Nintendo
became a public company by listing stock on the second section of the Osaka Securities
Exchange and the Kyoto Stock Exchange.[2][3] In the following year, the company adopted
its current name, Nintendo & Co., Ltd.[i] and started manufacturing games in addition to
playing cards.[2][3]

In 1964, Nintendo earned ¥150 million.[30] Although the company experienced 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.[29] When Disney card sales began to decline,
Nintendo realized that it had no real alternative to alleviate the situation.[30] After the
1964 Tokyo Olympics, Nintendo's stock price plummeted to its lowest recorded level
of ¥60.[31][32]

In 1965, Nintendo hired Gunpei Yokoi to maintain the assembly-line machines used to
manufacture its playing cards.[33]

1969–1972: Classic and electronic toys

Yamauchi increased Nintendo's investment in a research and development department

in 1969, directed by Hiroshi Imanishi, a long-time employee of the company. Yokoi was
moved to the newly created department and was responsible for coordinating various
projects.[3][34] 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.[35] During that period, Nintendo built a new production plant in Uji, just
outside of Kyoto,[3] and distributed classic tabletop games like chess, shogi, go,

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and mahjong, and other foreign games under the Nippon Game brand.[36] The company's
restructuring preserved a couple of areas dedicated to playing card manufacturing.[37]

In 1970, the company's stock listing was promoted to the first section of the Osaka
Stock Exchange,[2][3] and the reconstruction and enlargement of its corporate
headquarters was completed.[3] 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.[3] In total, more than a million
units were sold.[38] 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.[39] 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.[12]

1973–present: History in electronics

1973–1978: Early video games and Color TV-Game

Further information: History of Color TV-Game

The Color TV-Game

The growing demand for Nintendo's products led Yamauchi to further expand 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.[21] The Laser Clay Shooting System was released in 1973 and managed to
surpass bowling in popularity. Though Nintendo's toys continued to gain popularity,
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.[40]

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.[3] 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 the discontinuation of some of their light gun products.[41] 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.[42]

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 Shigeru Miyamoto joined Nintendo in 1977.

Yamauchi, motivated by the successes of Atari and Magnavox with their video game
consoles,[21] acquired the Japanese distribution rights for the Magnavox Odyssey in
1974,[35] and reached an agreement with Mitsubishi Electric to develop similar products
between 1975 and 1978, including the first microprocessor for video games systems,
the Color TV-Game series, and an arcade game inspired by Othello.[3] During this period,
Takeda developed the video game EVR Race,[43] and Shigeru Miyamoto joined Yokoi's
team with the responsibility of designing the casing for the Color TV-Game
consoles.[44] 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.[45][46]

Shigeru Miyamoto brought distinctive sources of inspiration to the company, ranging

from the natural environment and regional culture of Sonobe, to popular culture
influences like Westerns and detective fiction, and to folk Shinto practices and family
media.[47][48][49][50] They are seen in most of Nintendo's major franchises which developed
following Miyamoto's creative leadership.[51]

1979–1987: Game & Watch, arcade games, and Nintendo Entertainment System

Further information: History of Game & Watch and History of Nintendo Entertainment
System

Game & Watch

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Nintendo Entertainment System

By the late 1970s, Nintendo was struggling financially.[52] Two key events in Nintendo's
history occurred in 1979: its American subsidiary was opened in New York City, and 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.[3][40] 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.[53] The success of Game & Watch led
Yamauchi to shift the company towards more electronic games in the years that
followed.[52]

Donkey Kong miniature arcade cabinet

Nintendo entered 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, and was published by Sega and
developed by Genyo Takeda and Shigeru Miyamoto.[51][54][55] Radar
Scope rivaled Galaxian in Japanese arcades but failed to find an audience overseas and
created a financial crisis for the company.[56] 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.[57] 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.[58][59][60] Donkey Kong 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.[56]

In 1983, Nintendo opened a new production facility in Uji and was listed in the first
section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange.[3] Uemura, taking inspiration from
the ColecoVision,[61] began creating a new video game console that would incorporate
a ROM cartridge format for video games as well as both a central processing unit and
a picture processing unit.[3][62][63] The Family Computer, or Famicom, was released in

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Japan in July 1983 along with three games adapted from their original arcade
versions: Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr. and Popeye.[64] Its success was such that in
1984, it surpassed the market share held by Sega's SG-1000.[65] That success also led to
Nintendo leaving the Japanese arcade market in late 1985.[66][67] 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
the Famicom.[68]

In the early 1980s, several video game consoles proliferated in the United States, as well
as low-quality games produced by third-party developers,[69] which oversaturated the
market and led to the video game crash of 1983.[70] Consequently, a recession hit the
American video game industry, whose revenues went from over $3 billion to $100 million
between 1983 and 1985.[71] Nintendo's initiative to launch 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.[63] 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.[72] The result is the Nintendo Entertainment System, or NES, which was
released in North America in 1985.[3] 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.[73] Production of the NES lasted
until 1995,[74] and production of the Famicom lasted until 2003.[75] In total, around
62 million Famicom and NES consoles were sold worldwide.[76] During this period,
Nintendo created its Official Seal of Quality, added to their products so that customers
recognized authentic Nintendo products compared to bootleg cartridges that required
unusual means to play as to buypass the NES lockout chip.[77] By this time, Nintendo's
network of electronic suppliers had extended to around thirty companies,
including Ricoh (Nintendo's main source for semiconductors) and the Sharp
Corporation.[21]

1988–1994: Game Boy and Super Nintendo Entertainment System

Further information: History of Game Boy and History of Super Nintendo Entertainment
System

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The Game Boy and Super NES

In 1988, 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.[78] 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 the United States, an additional 40,000 units were sold
on its first day of distribution.[79] 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.[80] However, the collaboration
did not last as Yamauchi preferred to continue developing the technology with Philips,
which would result in the CD-i,[81] and Sony's independent efforts resulted in the creation
of the PlayStation console.[82]

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.[83] In July 1989, Nintendo
held the first Nintendo Space World trade show with the name Shoshinkai to announce
and demonstrate upcoming Nintendo products.[84] That year, 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.[83]

In the late 1980s, Nintendo's dominance slipped with the appearance of NEC's PC
Engine/TurboGrafx-16 and Sega's Mega Drive/Genesis, 16-bit game consoles with
improved graphics and audio compared to the NES.[85] 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.[86] The following year, as with the NES, Nintendo
distributed a modified version of the Super Famicom to the United States market, titled

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the Super Nintendo Entertainment System.[87] Launch games for the Super Famicom and
Super NES include Super Mario World, F-Zero, Pilotwings, SimCity, and Gradius III.[88] By
mid-1992, over 46 million Super Famicom and Super NES consoles had been sold.[3] The
console's life cycle lasted until 1999 in the United States,[89] and until 2003 in Japan.[75]

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".[83][90] 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, the United Kingdom, Spain,
Belgium, and Australia.[3] In 1992, Nintendo acquired a majority stake in the Seattle
Mariners baseball team, and sold most of its shares in 2016.[91][92] On 31 July 1992,
Nintendo of America announced it would cease manufacturing arcade games and
systems.[93][94] 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.[3]

The proliferation of graphically violent video games, such as Mortal Kombat, caused
controversy and led to 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.[95][96] 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,[97] and 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.[3]

1995–2000: Virtual Boy, Nintendo 64, and Game Boy Color

Further information: History of Virtual Boy, History of Nintendo 64, and History of Game
Boy Color

Nintendo 64, released in 1996

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Game Boy Color, released in 1998

In 1995, Nintendo released the Virtual Boy, a console designed by Yokoi

with stereoscopic graphics. Critics were generally disappointed with the quality of the
games and red-colored graphics, and complained of gameplay-induced
headaches.[98] The system sold poorly and was quietly discontinued.[99] Amid the
system's failure, Yokoi formally retired from Nintendo.[100]

Virtual Boy, released in 1995

In February 1996, Pocket Monsters Red and Green (known internationally as Pokémon
Red and Blue) was developed by Game Freak and released in Japan for the Game Boy,
establishing the popular Pokémon franchise.[101]: 191 The game went on to sell
31.37 million units,[102] with the video game series exceeding a total of 300 million units
in sales as of 2017.[103]

The Nintendo 64 was released in June 1996 in Japan, September 1996 in the United
States and March 1997 in Europe. Though planned for release in 1995, the production
schedules of third-party developers influenced a delay,[104][105] The console was in
development since mid-1993, when Nintendo and Silicon Graphics announced a
strategic alliance to develop the console.[106][107] NEC, Toshiba, and Sharp also
contributed technology to the console.[108] The Nintendo 64 was marketed as one of the
first consoles to be designed with 64-bit architecture.[109] 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.[3] By the end of its production in
2002, around 33 million Nintendo 64 consoles were sold worldwide,[76] and it is
considered one of the most recognized video game systems in history.[110] 388 games
were produced for the Nintendo 64 in total,[111] some of which – particularly Super Mario
64, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and GoldenEye 007 – have been distinguished
as some of the greatest of all time.[112]

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In 1998, 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.[113] Since then,
over 118.6 million Game Boy and Game Boy Color consoles have been sold
worldwide.[114]

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.[3]

2001–2003: Game Boy Advance and GameCube

Further information: History of Game Boy Advance and History of GameCube

Game Boy Advance, released in 2001

GameCube, released in 2001

In 2001, two new Nintendo consoles were introduced: the Game Boy Advance, which
was designed by Gwénaël Nicolas with stylistic departure from its
predecessors,[115][116] and the GameCube,[117] which features a 128-bit Gekko
processor from IBM and a DVD drive from Panasonic.[118] 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.[119] By the end of its production cycle in 2010, more than 81.5 million units had
been sold worldwide.[114] As for the GameCube, even with such distinguishing features
as the miniDVD format of its games and Internet connectivity for a few games,[120][121] its
sales were lower than those of its predecessors, and during the six years of its
production, 21.7 million units were sold worldwide.[122] The GameCube struggled against
its rivals in the market,[123][124] and its initial poor sales led to Nintendo posting a first half
fiscal year loss in 2003 for the first time since the company went public in 1962.[125]

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 Satoru Iwata was Nintendo president from 2002–2015.

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.[3] Nintendo collaborated with Sega and Namco to develop Triforce, an arcade
board to facilitate the conversion of arcade titles to the GameCube.[126] Following the
European release of the GameCube in May 2002,[127] 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.[128] 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.[129][130]

In 2003, Nintendo released 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.[114] Nintendo also released the Game Boy Player, a peripheral that allows
Game Boy and Game Boy Advance games to be played on the GameCube.

2004–2010: Nintendo DS and Wii

Further information: History of Nintendo DS and History of Wii

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The Nintendo DS and Wii

In 2004, Nintendo released the Nintendo DS, which featured such innovations as dual
screens – one of which is a touchscreen – and wireless connectivity for multiplayer
play.[3][131] Throughout its lifetime, more than 154 million units were sold, making it the
most successful handheld console and the second bestselling console in history.[114] In
2005, Nintendo released the Game Boy Micro, the last system in the Game Boy
line.[3][113] Sales did not meet Nintendo's expectations,[132] with 2.5 million units being
sold by 2007.[133] In mid-2005, the Nintendo World Store was inaugurated in New York
City.[134]

Reggie Fils-Aimé was the president of Nintendo of America from

2006–2019.

Nintendo's next home console was conceived in 2001, although development

commenced in 2003, taking inspiration from the Nintendo DS.[135] 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.[136] The Wii was released in November 2006,[137] with a total of 33 launch
games.[138] With the Wii, Nintendo sought to reach a broader demographic than
its seventh-generation competitors,[139] with the intention of also encompassing the
"non-consumer" sector.[140] Nintendo invested in a $200 million advertising campaign to
that end.[141] 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 a
three-dimensional environment with the aid of a sensor bar;[142][143] the Nunchuk
peripheral that includes an analog controller and an accelerometer;[144] and the Wii

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MotionPlus expansion that increases the sensitivity of the main controller with the aid
of gyroscopes.[145] By 2016, more than 101 million Wii consoles had been sold
worldwide,[146] making it the most successful console of its generation, a distinction that
Nintendo had not achieved since the 1990s with the Super NES.[147]

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.[3] By that year, Nintendo held a 68.3% share of the worldwide handheld gaming
market.[148]

2011–2016: Nintendo 3DS, Wii U, and mobile ventures

Further information: History of Nintendo 3DS, History of Wii U, and History of Nintendo
mobile games

The Nintendo 3DS and Wii U

After an announcement in March 2010,[149] Nintendo released the Nintendo 3DS in 2011.
The console produces stereoscopic effects without 3D glasses.[150] By 2018, more than
69 million units had been sold worldwide;[151] the figure increased to 75 million by the
start of 2019.[146]

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,[152][153] and 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.[154] With 13.5 million units sold worldwide,[146] the Wii U is the least
successful video game console in Nintendo's history.[155] In 2014, a new product line was
released consisting of figures of Nintendo characters called Amiibos.[3]

On 25 September 2013, Nintendo announced its acquisition of a 28% stake in PUX

Corporation, a subsidiary of Panasonic, to develop facial, voice, and text recognition for
its video games.[156] Due to a 30% decrease in company income between April and

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December 2013, Iwata announced a temporary 50% cut to his salary, with other
executives seeing reductions by 20%–30%.[157] In January 2015, Nintendo ceased
operations in the Brazilian market due in part to high import duties. This did not affect
the rest of Nintendo's Latin American market due to an alliance with Juegos de Video
Latinoamérica.[158] Nintendo reached an agreement with NC Games for Nintendo's
products to resume distribution in Brazil by 2017,[159] and by September 2020, the Switch
was released in Brazil.[160]

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 was named as
Iwata's successor on 16 September 2015.[161] As part of the management's restructuring,
Miyamoto and Takeda were named creative and technological advisors,
respectively.[162] 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.[163] In
2015, Nintendo formalized agreements with DeNA and Universal Parks & Resorts to
extend its presence to smart devices and amusement parks respectively.[164][165][166]

Pokémon Go in the sign-up menu

In March 2016, Nintendo's first mobile app for the iOS and Android systems, Miitomo,
was released.[167] 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.[168] In March 2016, the loyalty program My
Nintendo replaced Club Nintendo.[169] The NES Classic Edition was released in
November 2016. The console is a version of the NES based on emulation, HDMI, and the
Wii remote.[170] Its successor, the Super NES Classic Edition, was released in September
2017.[171] By October 2018, around ten million units of both consoles combined had
been sold worldwide.[172]

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