Nintendo: From Game Boy and Pokémon to Switch 2 and Mario Kart

Most people have fond memories associated with Nintendo. For some, it's catching Pokémon on a Game Boy; for others, it's endless Mario Kart sessions on the Switch. With a history stretching over a century and a central role in global entertainment for the last fifty years, Nintendo is one of the world's most iconic gaming companies. This is the story of the Japanese company behind the consoles that shaped generations and the characters that became cultural icons.

• Background in playing cards: Nintendo was founded in 1889 and spent its first 70 years as a successful maker of traditional Japanese playing cards.

• Donkey Kong: The company's global breakthrough came in 1981 with Donkey Kong, which introduced Mario and marked Nintendo's rise as a major player in video games.

• The value of IPs: The 2016 release of Pokémon Go became a global phenomenon, once again showcasing the enduring power of Nintendo's intellectual property.

• Switch 2: The long-awaited follow-up to the original Switch launched in June 2025 with strong market anticipation.

Nintendo's story begins long before consoles and handheld devices brought the company into homes around the world. Founded in 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi in Kyoto, Nintendo started as a producer and distributor of “hanafuda”, traditional Japanese playing cards, meaning “flower cards.” Yamauchi's cards quickly gained popularity, and by the early 20th century, Nintendo had become Japan's leading card maker. The business remained centered on playing cards through the first half of the century and even after the Second World War.

Roughly a decade after the war ended, a breakthrough would start to set the company in a new direction. In 1959, Nintendo struck a licensing deal with Walt Disney to feature Disney characters on its cards. The move helped the product appeal to children, and with newly automated production and wider distribution, Nintendo's card business took off. For the first time in its history, the company began to explore opportunities beyond cards.

The 1960s became a decade of experimentation for Nintendo. Around the time it went public in 1962, the company ventured into a variety of unexpected businesses – selling instant rice, operating a taxi service, even running a hotel. This may have been a loose attempt to emulate the kind of sprawling diversification seen in Japan's keiretsu groups, with Mitsubishi as the most prominent example. But the strategy didn't stick, and Nintendo soon pivoted back to what it understood best: entertainment.

In the late 1960s, the company found success with a series of toy releases, which gave it the momentum to pursue the emerging video game industry. Over the following decade, Nintendo introduced several arcade games with mixed results, but its growing focus on electronic entertainment was becoming clear.

Nintendo's rise to global prominence began in 1981 with the release of the arcade hit Donkey Kong. The game was a major success and introduced a character who would become central to Nintendo's identity for decades to come: Mario.

The success of Donkey Kong positioned Nintendo as an international force in gaming. In 1983, the company launched the Family Computer (known as the Famicom in Japan), followed by its global release as the Nintendo Entertainment System, or NES. The NES brought Nintendo from the arcade into living rooms around the world and laid the foundation for its future as a home console leader.

What followed was a decades-long run of iconic consoles that have defined gaming for generations:

Game Boy (1989): The handheld console, which became a bestseller for allowing gaming on the go.

Super Nintendo Entertainment System (1990): The 16-bit successor to the NES, known for classics like Super Mario World and Donkey Kong Country.

Nintendo 64 (1996): The 3D-capable console that introduced analog controls and titles like Super Mario 64 and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

Nintendo GameCube (2001): The compact disc-based console known for its distinctive design and multiplayer games, such as Super Smash Bros. Melee and Mario Kart: Double Dash.

Wii (2006): The motion-controlled console that expanded gaming to new audiences with titles like Wii Sports.

Nintendo Switch (2017): The hybrid portable/home console that became one of the best-selling consoles ever, blending handheld and TV gaming.

Nintendo's revenue and console releases since 1997.

Nintendo's revenue and console releases since 1997.

Unlike many of its console rivals, which rely heavily on third-party developers, Nintendo creates many of its flagship games in-house and designs its hardware to enhance those experiences. Until the early 2000s, Nintendo also managed manufacturing internally, but since the GameCube era, Foxconn has handled the assembly of all major Nintendo systems.

A key to Nintendo's enduring success is its tight integration of proprietary hardware with exclusive game franchises. By controlling both the platform and the content, Nintendo delivers experiences built around its popular characters of Mario, Zelda, Donkey Kong, and Pokémon, among others, offering fans something they can't get anywhere else.

Using its characters and game worlds as ambassadors, Nintendo draws people in through various channels, then invites them to explore those worlds through its platforms. In recent years, that strategy has expanded beyond consoles, with Nintendo carefully extending its IP into mobile apps (a topic explored in more detail soon), merchandise, and even theme parks. A prominent example is the company's partnership with Universal Studios (owned by Comcast) to launch Super Nintendo World, an immersive theme park attraction that brings the Mushroom Kingdom and other settings to life.

Today, Nintendo stands as one of the most recognizable names in global entertainment. With a market cap of over $100 billion, it's come a long way from its origins as a playing card company in 19th-century Kyoto.

One of Nintendo's most enduring successes is the Pokémon franchise. It debuted in 1996 with the release of Pokémon Red and Green for its Game Boy console. The games were developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo, with the broader brand managed by The Pokémon Company, a joint venture between Nintendo, Game Freak, and Creatures Inc. Nintendo played a key role in launching and distributing the games and remains a major stakeholder in the company that oversees the franchise.

While Pokémon had remained consistently popular for decades, its cultural reach exploded to new heights in 2016, showcasing the value of the IP once again. That summer, Pokémon Go launched and quickly became a global phenomenon. Developed by Niantic, the augmented-reality mobile game brought Pokémon into the real world, encouraging millions of players to explore their neighborhoods and “catch ‘em all”. Although Nintendo didn't create the game directly, its stake in The Pokémon Company placed it at the heart of the moment.

Within days, Pokémon Go topped app store charts, and users worldwide were comparing their collections of captured Pokémon. Nintendo's stock surged 24% in a single day during the game’s first week, adding roughly $7.5 billion to its market cap. The game's success, despite being free-to-play and hosted on mobile platforms, proved that Nintendo's characters could thrive beyond its own consoles.

In the months and years that followed, Pokémon Go's effect has continued to ripple across the broader franchise. The surge of sales of classic Pokémon games, trading cards, and merchandise has led an IP revival that continues to show momentum even years later.

Following the massive success of the original Switch, both gamers and industry watchers were eager to see how Nintendo would build on the platform. The long-awaited successor was finally revealed and launched in June 2025, named simply Switch 2.

The new console retains the core hybrid design that made the original so popular, allowing seamless transitions between handheld and TV play. It features a larger 7.9-inch screen for handheld mode and significantly upgraded processing power, thanks to a custom Tegra chipset developed by NVIDIA for enhanced gaming performance and energy efficiency. As with previous Nintendo systems, the hardware is assembled by Foxconn.

Few companies have shaped their industry quite like Nintendo. From a 19th-century card maker to the force behind some of the world's most recognizable characters and consoles, it has consistently combined creativity with control over both hardware and storytelling. Nintendo's ambition is clear: to be as lasting in culture as it is in living rooms.