From playing cards to Super Mario Bros to Switch 2, a look at Nintendo history

Nintendo will release the Switch 2 this year, the long-awaited successor to its flagship console, which has sold almost 150 million units worldwide. Here's a glance at the Japanese gaming giant's history

  • Published:
  • 17/01/2025 03:30 PM

Japan's video game giant Nintendo campaign with Ruriko Harada (L) and Jun Suzuki (R) displaying the new handheld consoles GameBoy Advance at a press preview in Tokyo in 2001  Image: Yoshikazu Tsuno / AFP©

Here are some key dates in the history of Nintendo, a video game giant that started life making playing cards:

1889: Founder Fusajiro Yamauchi starts manufacturing Japanese playing cards called "hanafuda" in Kyoto. Western-style cards follow years later.

1962: Listed on the Osaka and Kyoto stock exchanges.                                                                  

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1977: Nintendo launches first home video game machines, known as TV Game 15 and TV Game 6.

1978-1981: Starts selling arcade game machines, opens a US division, and lands a gorilla-sized hit with Donkey Kong.

1983: Launches home console Nintendo Entertainment System (NES).

1985: Starts selling Super Mario Bros. games for NES.

1989: Handheld Game Boy system goes on the market.

1993: First "Super Mario Bros." movie, a live-action adaptation, is panned by critics and audiences.

1996: Nintendo 64 game console hits shelves, with GameCube released several years later. Both fail to live up to success of NES.

2004: Starts selling handheld video game system Nintendo DS.

2006: Company scores huge hit with Wii motion-sensor system which lets players jump, run and swing in the comfort of their living rooms. Over 100 million sold worldwide.

2012: Follow-up Wii U system launches but never matches the success of the first version.

2015: Visionary CEO Satoru Iwata dies at 55, raising questions about company's direction.

Also read: Cards to consoles: Nintendo opens first museum

2016: Nintendo-brand mobile game app Pokemon Go is released by US-based Niantic, sparking a worldwide frenzy.

2017: Hybrid Switch console, a tablet-like system that can also be played on a television, hits shelves. Nintendo goes on to sell 150 million units worldwide.

2020: Switch game "Animal Crossing: New Horizons" becomes a pandemic-era megahit.

2021: Super Mario theme park opens in Japan's Osaka, followed by a similar attraction in Los Angeles.

2023: Animated feature "Super Mario Bros. the Movie" becomes second biggest box office hit of the year.

2024: First Nintendo museum opens in a renovated factory in Kyoto.

2025: Nintendo says it will release the Switch 2 during the year.