In the autumn of 1985 almost no American store wanted a video game console. Atari, Mattel and Coleco had boomed and then collapsed, and retailers had been told that personal computers were the future. Into that market walked a small subsidiary of a Kyoto playing-card maker with a box called the Nintendo Entertainment System.
Nintendo’s own corporate history starts in 1889, when Fusajiro Yamauchi began making and selling hanafuda cards in Kyoto. Its first home video game machines came much later, in 1977. In 1980 it created a US arm, Nintendo of America, in New York, fully owned by the parent. It moved to Seattle in 1982 and merged the New York operation into it. Donkey Kong had arrived in 1981.
The New York gamble
Hiroshi Yamauchi, then president, believed in the console and ordered his American team to launch it in the hardest place he could think of, New York City. Wired recounted that retailers still refused it. So Minoru Arakawa, who ran Nintendo of America and was Yamauchi’s son-in-law, made an offer he kept from his boss. Nintendo would supply the stock and build the displays. Stores would pay only for what sold, and could send back the rest. A few agreed.
The marketing avoided the word videogame. Nintendo pushed two accessories instead: the Zapper light gun, which played Duck Hunt, and a robot called R.O.B. that took commands from the television. Some early software was simply Japanese circuit boards in an American case, so that one game opened on a Japanese title screen.
The result was not a smash. Only about 50,000 consoles sold that holiday season, which was half of the stock Nintendo had built. But that was enough to keep Arakawa going and to persuade retailers the product could work. Early in 1986 the NES spread to Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco in turn. By the end of the year it was available nationwide, with Super Mario Bros. leading.
Who runs it now
Leadership in America has changed several times since. Doug Bowser took over as head of Nintendo’s North American business in mid-2019, after Reggie Fils-Aimé left. He oversaw the launch of Switch 2 in the spring and the release of the hit Mario film. heise online reported that he announced he would step down on 31 December, with Devon Pritchard, a long-time manager in marketing and publisher relations, succeeding him. Satoru Shibata becomes CEO of the North American business while keeping his posts at the Japanese headquarters.
Speaking to Variety, Pritchard said: “We have historically said that Nintendo is for ages 5 to 95, and that continues to be true.” Asked whether Grand Theft Auto 6 might reach Switch 2, she had nothing to announce and pointed to the game’s publisher and developer. Nintendo’s own Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake is due on November 5.
Sources
- Company History (Nintendo Co., Ltd. corporate site)
- Oct. 18, 1985: Nintendo Entertainment System Launches (WIRED)
- Nintendo: Bowser steps down as head of North America (heise online)
- GTA 6 on Switch 2? 'That's a Conversation for Take-Two and Rockstar,' Nintendo Says (IGN)
