Summary
- Nintendo’s 100th anniversary wasn’t treated as a big deal, reflecting the company’s overall attitude.
- Former Nintendo leader guided the company through transitions.
Most would consider a 100th anniversary to be a tremendous occasion, but that apparently wasn’t the case for Nintendo. A former Nintendo team member talked about the huge milestone for the company, and explained how it wasn’t a time of celebration.
While Nintendo has been making game consoles for longer than either of its biggest competitors, Sony and Microsoft, many fans don’t realize just how old the company is. Nintendo was originally founded way back in 1889, so its 100th anniversary is already long in the past, and it seems the overall attitude of the company has shifted dramatically in that time.
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In an interview with 4Gamer (via TheGamer), former Nintendo artist Takaya Imamura talked a bit about the company’s history and how the 100th anniversary wasn’t treated like something to be excited about, and no celebration was held. Imamura says that the company’s former leader, Hiroshi Yamauchi, was stern and level-headed, who encouraged members of the company to remain calm, even when unhappy or happy. It’s a far cry from the public face of Nintendo that fans know today, with friendly and enthusiastic devs and company leaders over the years like Shigeru Miyamoto, Reggie Fils-Aime, and the late Satoru Iwata, to name a few.
Nintendo Was an Oddity at the Time
Imamura explained that Nintendo was unusual as far as companies went back in 1989 in Japan. Japan was still experiencing its economic bubble era, where profit and wealth were both high, leading most companies to do everything they could to keep newly-employed individuals happy. However, Nintendo did none of this, with Imamura describing it as a company that never got carried away. These days, even comparatively minor Nintendo game anniversaries are acknowledged and celebrated, at least outwardly to its consumers.
While the former Nintendo leader was apparently very harsh, he also led the company through its transition from making playing cards to toys, and then to video games over the course of 53 years. Nintendo has since seen highs and lows, experiencing extreme success with the Nintendo DS and Wii systems, followed by the dismal failure of the Wii U, and then the incredible rebound with the Nintendo Switch. With the Nintendo Switch 2 now on the horizon, many are wondering if Nintendo will see further success with the console. There’s a long way to go before Nintendo celebrates 200 years, but it seems easy to imagine that the company will still be making games and will likely be a lot more celebratory than it was a hundred years prior.
Nintendo
- Date Founded
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September 23, 1889
- Headquarters
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Kyoto, Kyoto, Japan
- Parent Company
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Nintendo