Nintendo: Difference between revisions

|products      = [[wikipedia:Color TV Game|Color TV Game]], [[wikipedia:Game & Watch|Game & Watch]], [[wikipedia:Nintendo Entertainment System|NES]], [[wikipedia:Game Boy|Game Boy line]], [[wikipedia:Super Nintendo Entertainment System|SNES]], [[wikipedia:Virtual Boy|Virtual Boy]], [[wikipedia:Nintendo 64|Nintendo 64]], [[wikipedia:Nintendo GameCube|GameCube]], [[wikipedia:Nintendo DS|Nintendo DS]], [[wikipedia:Wii|Wii]], [[wikipedia:Nintendo 3DS|Nintendo 3DS]], [[wikipedia:Wii U|Wii U]], [[wikipedia:Nintendo Switch|Nintendo Switch]] and various video game titles.

'''Nintendo Company, Limited''' ({{ja|任天堂株式会社|Nintendō Kabushiki gaisha}}, ''Nintendo Company, Limited'') is a Japanese multinational corporation originally founded on September 23, 1889<ref name="history NOJ">{{cite web|last=|first=|authorlink=|coauthors=|date=|year=|month=|url=http://www.nintendo.co.jp/n05/index.html|title=Company History|format=|work=|pages=|publisher=Nintendo of Japan|language=Japanese|accessdate=2006-07-29|accessyear=|curly=}}</ref> in Kyoto, Japan by Fusajiro Yamauchi to produce handmade {{s|Wikipedia|Hanafuda}} cards.<ref name="history NOA">{{cite web|last=|first=|authorlink=|coauthors=|date=|year=|month=|url=http://www.nintendo.com/corp/history.jsp|title=Company History|format=|work=|pages=|publisher=Nintendo of America|language=|accessdate=2006-06-04|accessyear=|curly=}}</ref> In the mid-twentieth century, the company tried several small niche businesses, such as a {{s|Wikipedia|Love hotel}} and a taxi company.<ref name="history N-Sider">{{cite web|last=|first=|authorlink=|coauthors=|date=|year=|month=|url=http://www.n-sider.com/articleview.php?articleid=45|title=Nintendo History Lesson: The Lucky Birth|format=|work=|pages=|publisher=N-sider|language=|accessdate=2006-06-04|accessyear=|curly=}}</ref> Over the years, it became a video game company, growing into one of the most powerful in the industry. Aside from video games, Nintendo is a minor owner of the {{s|Wikipedia|Seattle Mariners}}, a Major League Baseball team in Seattle, Washington. As of March 31, 2014, Nintendo has sold over 670.43 million hardware units, and nearly 4.23 billion software units worldwide.

Nintendo was originally a card company from 1889 until 1956. From 1956 to 1975, Nintendo changed its product. During the period of time between 1963 and 1968, Nintendo set up a taxi company, a "love hotel" chain, a TV network, a food company, and several other things, including a toy remote controlled vacuum cleaner called Chiritory<ref name="chiritory">{{cite web

|title=Squirl:Chiritory

|accessdate=2007-06-14

|url=http://squirl.info/asset/show/345?c=ToysAndGame&cid=465&i=6-}}</ref> which was later seen as a two-player game in ''{{S|MarioWiki|WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$!}}''.

*[[Virtual Boy|Virtual Boy]] (1995 - 1996)

The original of the ''Smash'' series began life as a prototype created by [[Masahiro Sakurai]] and [[Satoru Iwata]] in their spare time titled ''Dragon King: The Fighting Game'', and originally featured no pre-existing Nintendo characters. However, Sakurai hit on the idea of including fighters from different Nintendo franchises in order to provide 'atmosphere' which he felt was necessary for a home console fighting game, and his idea was approved by HAL Laboratory.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://us.wii.com/iwata_asks/ssbb/vol7_page1.jsp |title=Wii.com - Iwata Asks: ''Super Smash Bros. Brawl'' |accessdate=2008-01-31 |format= |work=}}</ref> The game had a small budget and little promotion, and was originally a Japan-only release, but its huge success saw the game released worldwide.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.n-sider.com/articleview.php?articleid=120|title=''Super Smash Bros. Melee''|publisher=N-Sider}}</ref>

At the pre-E3 2005 press conference, the president of Nintendo, Satoru Iwata, announced the next installment of ''Super Smash Bros.'' was not only already in development for their next gaming console, but would hopefully be a launch title with Wi-Fi compatibility for online play.<ref name="E3 2005">{{cite web|last=Casamassina |first=Matt |authorlink=Matt Casamassina | date=2005-05-17 |url=http://wii.ign.com/articles/670/670552p1.html |title=E3 2005: ''Smash Bros.'' For Revolution| publisher=IGN|accessdate=2006-05-03}}</ref> Shortly after the announcement, [[Masahiro Sakurai]], a former employee of ''HAL Laboratory'' was called up and offered a position as the game's director.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://cube.ign.com/articles/667/667525p1.html |title=''Smash Bros. Revolution'' Director Revealed|author=IGN Staff |accessdate=2007-06-21 |date=2005-11-16|publisher=IGN}}</ref> The game was released in Japan on January 31, 2008, and in the Americas on March 9 and in the PAL region on June 27.