WHY NINTENDO STARTED AS A PLAYING CARD COMPANY
Today, Nintendo is known for:
Mario.
Zelda.
Pokémon.
Switch.
But Nintendo didn't start with video games.
It didn't even start with electronic games.
It started with playing cards in Kyoto in 1889.
1889: NINTENDO IS BORN
On September 23, 1889, Fusajiro Yamauchi started a small business in Kyoto making and selling Japanese playing cards called Hanafuda.
Hanafuda means roughly "flower cards."
A traditional deck contains 48 cards, with four cards representing each month and artwork inspired by seasonal plants and nature.
At the time, this had absolutely nothing to do with video games.
THESE WEREN'T NORMAL PLAYING CARDS
Hanafuda cards are very different from the cards we're used to seeing today.
Instead of:
A, K, Q, J
you get illustrations of things such as:
Flowers
Trees
Animals
The Moon
Seasonal scenery
Players use combinations of cards to score points.
Nintendo still sells Hanafuda cards today.
YAMAUCHI WAS MAKING THEM BY HAND
The original business focused on producing high-quality cards.
As demand grew, Yamauchi hired assistants to increase production.
The tiny Kyoto business was slowly becoming a real company.
And Nintendo's first product was proving successful long before anyone had heard of Mario.
THEN NINTENDO EXPANDED BEYOND HANAFUDA
In 1902, Yamauchi began producing Western-style playing cards in Japan.
They were initially intended for export, but they also became popular domestically.
This was an important move.
Nintendo wasn't simply making one type of card.
It was already adapting to different markets.
1953: ANOTHER BIG MOVE
Nintendo became the first company in Japan to successfully mass-produce plastic playing cards.
This made the cards more durable and helped modernize the business.
THEN CAME DISNEY
In 1959, Nintendo started selling playing cards featuring Walt Disney characters.
This was a major shift.
Instead of marketing cards only as something for traditional card players, Nintendo was connecting them with popular characters and children's entertainment.
The move opened up a new market for the company.
BUT NINTENDO WAS STILL A CARD COMPANY
For decades, Nintendo's identity was essentially:
Nintendo = playing cards
The company didn't become a video-game company overnight.
It experimented with different businesses and eventually began producing games and toys.
In 1963, Nintendo changed its name to Nintendo Co., Ltd. and began manufacturing and selling games in addition to playing cards.
THEN THE COMPANY STARTED CHANGING
During the 1970s, Nintendo moved into electronic entertainment.
In 1978, it began selling coin-operated video games using microcomputers.
Then came:
Game & Watch
↓
Arcade games
↓
Famicom
↓
NES
↓
Game Boy
↓
Super Nintendo
↓
Nintendo 64
↓
Wii
↓
Nintendo Switch
A company that had started with handmade playing cards had transformed into one of the biggest names in gaming.
THE CRAZIEST PART?
Nintendo was founded in:
1889
The Famicom launched in Japan in:
1983
That's roughly 94 years between Nintendo's founding and its major home-console breakthrough.
Nintendo existed for almost a century before becoming the company most people recognize today.
NINTENDO NEVER REALLY FORGOT ITS ORIGIN
Even today, Nintendo continues to produce Hanafuda cards.
The company has also connected its modern franchises with its original product, including Mario-themed Hanafuda cards.
So the connection between:
1889 Nintendo
and
modern Nintendo
still exists.
FROM CARDS TO CONSOLES
The evolution is almost unbelievable:
1889
Playing cards
↓
1902
Western playing cards
↓
1953
Plastic cards
↓
1959
Disney cards
↓
1963
Games & toys
↓
1978
Arcade video games
↓
1983
Famicom
↓
Today
One of the world's biggest gaming companies
THE BUSINESS LESSON
Nintendo didn't become successful by staying exactly the same.
It kept asking:
"What else can entertainment become?"
Cards became games.
Games became toys.
Toys became electronics.
Electronics became video games.
And eventually, Nintendo built entire entertainment worlds around characters people already loved.
MAACAT PERSPECTIVE
One of the most interesting things about Nintendo isn't that it became a gaming company.
It's that it survived long enough to become one.
The company had been operating for decades before video games even became its main business.
Sometimes a company's biggest opportunity isn't the business it started with.
It's the next business it discovers along the way.
