Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, Nintendo got its start manufacturing and marketing a playing card game called Hanafuda, which soon gained mass popularity. Realizing the limitations of the playing card business, however, Yamauchi moved into other arenas without lasting success. Then, in 1966, Nintendo settled into the Japanese toy industry where it would eventually produce a light gun technology for the emerging arcade scene - a new market that would ultimately secure the company's spot as a gaming pioneer.
In 1985, Nintendo launched the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). Over the course of the next two years, it almost single-handedly revitalized the video game industry, selling over 60 million units. People brought games like Super Mario Bros. and Donkey Kong into their homes for the first time on the NES.
Today, Nintendo Co., Ltd., of Kyoto, Japan, is the worldwide leader and innovator in the creation of interactive entertainment, manufacturing and marketing hardware and software for its popular home and portable video game systems.
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