Nintendo



+_Overview_+
The Nintendo Playing Card Company was a small business that would go on to revolutionize gaming around the world. Besides, Nintendo Company also a video game developer, publisher, and home console / handheld manufacturer.

+_History_+
Their first products were hand made Hanafuda cards that quickly became popular among the Japanese. In 1949, Fusajiro's grandson, Hiroshi, took control of the company. After visiting the United States, Yamauchi realized how limited the card business was, and decided to expand. Nintendo started to manufacture various products ranging from instant rice, strollers, and even a taxi service.

Every venture, however, failed to make a profit, and Nintendo was consequently left hanging on a thread after the Tokyo Olympics caused a lack of interest in the card industry.

With the assistance of Gunpei Yokoi, Nintendo made their mark on the toy industry with products such as the Ultra Hand which subsequently led Nintendo into electronics. Yamauchi approved the purchase of abandoned bowling allies and restructured them into electronic shooting galleries, titling it the Laser Clay Shooting System. Genyo Takeda, meanwhile, created what many consider Nintendo's first video game: EVR Race. By 1980, Yamauchi chose to expand even farther and sent his son-in-law, Minoru Arakawa, to America to become president of Nintendo there. After RadarScope became unsuccessful, Yamauchi hired employee Shigeru Miyamoto to create a new game to replace the unused RadarScope cabinets. This resulted in the successful Donkey Kong, which introduced Mario and started the lucrative Mario franchise.

With millions made on Donkey Kong, Nintendo decided to create a home video game console, which was called the Famicom (Nintendo Entertainment System, or NES in English speaking countries). The system was moderately successful in its first few years, and after the release of Super Mario Bros. the system's sales rocketed upwards. Some say that because of the Nintendo Entertainment System and Super Mario Bros., the video game industry was brought out of its slump in America.

Nintendo followed this with the successful Game Boy and in 1990 opened up a headquarter in Germany which would oversee all Nintendo products through Europe. Over the next several years Nintendo released successors to Nintendo Entertainment System and Game Boy, the most successful of which being the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Nintendo 64, Nintendo GameCube, Wii, Wii U, and Nintendo Switch  (successors to Nintendo Entertainment System) and the Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, Game Boy Advance SP, Nintendo DS, and Nintendo 3DS (successors to the Game Boy).

In 2013, Nintendo announced initiatives to expand outside of video games, being QoL (Quality of Life) and the NFP later called Amiibo. While QoL has produced no current results, Amiibo have been a notable success for Nintendo, selling out initially. Nintendo also announced a mobile gaming initiative in 2015, partnering with mobile game developer, DeNA to release a select number of mobile games starting in March 2016.

+_Facts_+

 * The name "Nintendo" is commonly assumed to mean "leave luck to heaven"