Nintendo

Japan · Founded 1889 · Developer / Publisher / Hardware Manufacturer

Nintendo transformed from a playing-card company into the most influential force in video gaming history, creating Mario, Zelda, Metroid, and the Game Boy.

Founded in Kyoto in 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi to produce handmade hanafuda playing cards, Nintendo spent its first eight decades as a modest toy and game company before pivoting into electronic entertainment. Hiroshi Yamauchi, who inherited the company from his grandfather in 1949, drove the aggressive expansion into video games with Donkey Kong (1981) and the Nintendo Entertainment System (1983). The NES single-handedly revived the collapsed North American video game market, establishing Nintendo as the dominant force in console gaming for over a decade. Yamauchi's business instincts — strict quality licensing, proprietary lockout chips, and exclusive third-party agreements — shaped the entire industry's commercial structure.