one inch frame

Company with a reputation for making good hardware, great games, and not being afraid to take the risk to innovate in the gaming industry.

Nintendo is actually a very old company. Though today we tend to think of the company as being electronics and video game specific, the company has been making games for more than 100 years, beginning with card games.

Nintendo’s video game hardware has been synonymous with the industry. Beginning with the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), and continuing through to the Gamecube and the Wii. The Wii would be considered Nintendo’s seventh-generation video came console. In the early days of the industry, Nintendo took the mantle from Atari and held it for over a decade. Today, Nintendo is considered to hold third place in the video game console market, following Microsoft and Sony in sales, though it is said that only Nintendo actually makes a profit on the hardware, despite it being the lowest cost of the three.

Nintendo dominates the handheld video game market, and has since the release of the Gameboy, a two-color handheld from 1989, and continuing with the dual-screen Nintendo DS today.

The company’s reputation as a risk taker is earned in the areas of innovation and gameplay. In the console market, Nintendo’s Gamecube took the low-cost and underpowered approach, making a machine that was not as powerful as the offerings from Microsoft and Sony, relying on the quality of the games and Nintendo’s franchises. As a result, the machine was available at a relatively low cost, debuting at $249.

The Wii continues the risk taking. As well as being underpowered compared to the next generation Xbox and PlayStations, the machine is incredibly innovative, using a simplified controller that can tell the console where in space it is.

On the handheld side, the Nintendo DS uses a touch-screen and dual displays to provide players with unique experiences.

This approach to innovative and non-traditional gaming helps position Nintendo in the business of growing the gaming market by appealing to non-gamers. Because the Wii’s games can be controlled with more traditional gestures like swinging a tennis racket, rather than hitting a hand-cramping chord of buttons, it can help players focus on playing a game rather than learning a game. Combining with the relative lack of power of the console, the emphasis is on gameplay rather than flashy graphics.

Nintendo’s franchises are the third prong of the company’s success. Mario made his debut in the venerable arcade game Donkey Kong, found new life as a plumber in the Mario Bros. series, and can currently be seen playing soccer and baseball in Nintendo sports titles. The Legend of Zelda series, featuring Link, have been the flagship games for each of Nintendo’s consoles. Other Nintendo franchises are the Pokemon characters, Star Fox, and the F Zero series. That titles from these series are only available on Nintendo hardware is a big draw to its core market.