Nintendo Timeline

1951

Hiroshi Yamauchi (grandson of Sekiryo) presumes the role of president and changes the company name to Nintendo Playing Card Co., Ltd.

1969

Nintendo begins to expand and starts to produce electronics. For example, the first electronic produced by them was the "Love Tester."

1973

This marks the beginning of Nintendo as a video game company. They started to move away from card games and toys and began to create video games due to the rise in arcade games

1929-1933

Sekiryo Kaneda (son in law to Fusajiro) takes on the role of president and establishes the company as Yamauchi Nintendo & Co., Ltd.

1959

Nintendo enters a partnership with Walt Disney to produce card games with Disney Character's. This allowed them to open up to the children's market.

1970

This would be the year to solidfy Nintendo as a giant in Japan as it produces Japan's first electronic toy, "The Beam Gun."

Present

Timeline Infographic

Nintendo

1889

Nintendo was founded as a playing card company by Fusajiro Yamauchi.

Nintendo continues to create video games and consoles to this day.

Hanafuda

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Playing cards were outlawed throughout Japan when the government felt numerous aspects of Western culture were illegal due to the surge in Christian missionaries from Europe. To get around this, the Japanese designed an alternative to playing cards named Hanafuda, which replaced numbers with the twelve months of the year. Despite the government eventually banning these, the Japanese played the game discreetly. In the late 1800s, Japan eventually lifted the ban on playing cards. Fusajiro Yamauchi, an avid Hanafuda player, was ecstatic to finally play his game legally and opened up a company that would distribute high-quality cards. The company's name was Nintendo.